Japanese sale ends in decline

The Japan Racing Horse Association's two-day foal sale ended Wednesday with precipitous slides that suggest global recession is still keeping a damper on Thoroughbred sales.

The two-day foal auction's final session sold nine fewer yearlings than last year, but gross receipts for the 89 horses plummeted 36 percent to about $19,363,157. The final session's average price dropped 29 percent to about $217,563. The median slid 33 percent to land at approximately $157,894.

Cumulatively, the two foal sessions sold 207 horses this year, down from 222 last season, for about $51,717,893.Compared year-to-year in the local auction currency of yen, that total was down 33 percent from last year. The cumulative average price of about $249,844 was down 28 percent. Median, about $200,000, fell by 27 percent.

The buy-back rate for the two foal sessions was 35 percent, compared with 29 percent last year.

The sale-topping foal was Northern Farm's $1,736,842 Daiwa Major colt, a half-brother to Japanese Horse of the Year Deep Impact who sold Tuesday to Takaya Shimakawa.