Full brother to Logi Universe, Japanese Derby winner in 2009, was featured on the second and final session of July Select Sale conducted by Japan Racing Horse Association<JRHA>.

The Hip Number 355, colt by Neo Universe, had been recognized as the "Star of Sale" since the catalogue was released, and the pre-sale talk proved to be true around noon on Tuesday at Northern Horse Park. It was the ding-dong battle between Takaya Shimakawa, who stood the left end of sales pavilion, and Riichi Kondo who sat down in front of the auction stand. The two big spenders at the sale, which lasted for nearly ten minutes, ended as Shimakawa made the successful bid of 112,000,000yen.

"I like this one, and Katsumi Yoshida, the consignor of the lot and horseman whom I respect, strongly recommended me to buy this individual", said Shimakawa with big smile after the purchase.

"I thought the price might go up more." The match-up between Shimakaka and Kondo was seen again as Hip370, colt by Deep Impact, went into the sales ring, and the final bid, 92,000,000yen, was made from Shimakawa again. "This is the lot which I like the most in the catalogue" said Shimakawa of the colt out of Data, which is from successful Chilean family. "I am very happy, because I would really like to buy him. I believe Deep Impact is great sire, as much as he was as racehorse." T

he table was turned as Hip#377, colt by Zenno Rob Roy went into the sales ring. Shimakawa was outbidded by Yoshiomi Onizuka, sitting beside Noriyuki Hori, JRA trainer, and then, Onizuka stopped bidding after Nobutaka Tada of Globe Equine made the 105,000,000yen bid. "I bought him for my client, though I cannot disclose the name", said Nobutaka Tada after the sale.

"Our team worked hard for this sale, and this lot is the one which we evaluate as the best in the sale. And Kazuo Fujisawa, who trained Zenno Rob Roy and who is going to train the colt, likes this individual very much." 141 yearlings were sold for 3,339,000,000yen in total on the yearling session, and the average price was 23,680,851yen, which is only 0.2% decline as compared with the average of two-days yearling session of 2009. And the clearance rate on the yearling session is 67.8%, which is better than the figure of last year, 64.7%. During two days, 314 lots were sold for 649,610,000yen in total. The average price, 20,688,216yen, which is 10.6% decline of the previous year, while the buy-back rate, 25.6%, is much better than the figure of 2009, 69.1%. "It is good result" said Teruya Yoshida, vice chairman of JRHA. "In prior to this year sale, many people was worried about the foals' market. Therefore, I should say this is better result we expected. I am happy to see many new players, who supported middle market well, made their first purchase at this market, and I am convinced again Japanese people like to buy foals, which are very pretty and cute. I hope the buyers will come back here next year to buy foals and yearlings".