Supply and Demand

'Supply and demand' is not just the name of a good galloper from the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable, it's also a basic principle of doing business and at the yearling sales of 2018 we're going to see an interesting phenomenon with the first progeny to be offered of two full brothers.

Newgate Farm's Deep Field is the most represented sire at both the Magic Millions (56) and Inglis Classic (39) with nearly half of his overall foal crop (190) to be offered in the space of a few weeks.

An explosive sprinter that broke the track record at Canterbury for 1100 metres, Group II winning Deep Field was billed as the fastest son of Northern Meteor and one look at him tells you why that is so.

A hulking speedster, he has noticeably more muscle bulk than the average thoroughbred and it will be interesting to see what that equates to in terms of his yearlings and their appeal.

I have my own team of competition horses (all off the trackers) to look after so yearling inspections in the Hunter Valley don't fit my schedule and I can't offer a personal opinion on the above, but I'll be interested to see all the yearling images as they are uploaded.

Broodmare owners couldn't get enough of Deep Field at the very affordable $22,000 fee and now we're going to see what the market makes of him.

They don't have to sell through the roof to be profitable, they just need to sell, but with so many to choose from, buyers can afford to be picky, so you'd like to be offering a correct individual and by all reports there are plenty of them!

Earlier this year we saw a selection of Deep Field weanlings offered for sale with a dozen selling for $100,000 or more with his best sale a colt from Impetuous that made $250,000.

Really interesting for bloodstock followers will be the comparisons made between the progeny of Deep Field and his Group I Caulfield Guineas full winning brother Shooting to Win.

Shooting to Win retired to Darley at a fee of $38,500 and has a first crop of 118 foals, 31 have been entered for Magic Millions and 16 for Inglis Classic.

There have been many highly successful brothers to stand at stud over the years including current star three-quarter siblings Snitzel and Hinchinbrook, so there is no reason to doubt that both horses can ultimately be successful.

Interestingly, probably the last full brothers to be super successful in this country are Commands and Danewin, who actually come from the same female family as Deep Field and Shooting to Win.

Can lightning strike twice?

This time next year we'll all be better placed to answer that question.