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A gelding by Deep Field — crowned Hong Kong's champion sire four times — changed hands for HK$9.2 million to headline the Hong Kong International Sale at Sha Tin on Friday night, where 16 horses grossed HK$76.2 million, a jump of almost 70 percent on 2025.
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"We've experienced a really healthy sale here tonight," said Danny Rolston, the Hong Kong Jockey Club's Executive Manager, International Sale. "There's a really good increase in the average price and I think we've got a few factors right this year. But the message which comes out of today is the owner's appetite for horse ownership in Hong Kong is really responding well to the bonus structure, increases in prize money and the initiatives the Club is putting into place."
The auction had been penciled in for early March but was pushed back to season's end after biosecurity complications in Australia threw the quarantine timeline for the Southern Hemisphere-sourced horses into doubt.
Buyers made up for lost time. Last year's edition grossed HK$45.1 million across 15 lots; on Friday the average leapt from just over HK$3 million to HK$4.76 million, the median rose from HK$2.6 million to HK$4.6 million, and 11 of the 16 horses offered cleared HK$4 million.
Alan Hu did the early damage and never let up, paying HK$4.6 million for the opening lot, a son of Per Incanto, before stretching to HK$9.2 million for the night's most expensive horse, a bay out of the mare Hussterical. A second Deep Field gelding drew a final bid of HK$6.6 million from Cheung Kwong Kwan, while two colts-turned-geldings by recently deceased New Zealand stalwart Savabeel — whose Hong Kong roll call runs past 60 wins through seven-time winners Rattan, Flame Hero and Ever Laugh — made HK$5.2 million and HK$5.4 million.
Every bidder in the ring was chasing the next Romantic Warrior. The sale's greatest advertisement cost owner Peter Lau Pak-fai HK$4.8 million in 2021 and became the first graduate to win the BMW Hong Kong Derby before piling up more prize money than any horse in history — beyond HK$278 million and counting. Proof the sale can deliver at a humbler level was in the room too: Leung Shek On, who paid HK$3 million for a colt by late super-sire Wootton Bassett.
Danny Rolston. HKJC
Rolston said a spike in ballot applications — and staging the auction after the ballot for the first time — had primed the market, but he was adamant the Club's ruthless selection process underpinned the result.
"This is only part of the journey; it's taken us two years with these horses to get here and we've only sold around 50 percent of the horses we bought in that year," he said. "We're holding the bar really, really high. We only want to bring the absolute best horses, the soundest horses, and the horses with the most ability and the best temperaments to the market. I think we did that today with a really reinvigorated appetite for ownership — the Hong Kong can-do spirit; I think we've seen that come out to play tonight."
Elsewhere on the results sheet, Austin Miu paid HK$5.4 million for a son of Dundeel, Yan Ming signed at HK$5 million for a Mehmas chestnut, and Stephan Chan outlasted rivals at HK$4.6 million for a gelding by Toronado, the stallion behind Helios Express, Little Paradise and Victor The Winner. Two South African-breds, by Gimmethegreenlight and What A Winter, realized HK$3.8 million and HK$3.4 million, while a Starspangledbanner gelding — by the sire of Group 1 winner California Spangle — cost The Amazing Family Syndicate HK$4.8 million.
