When Deep Field headed to Newgate Farm in the spring of 2015, studmaster Henry Field wasn’t sure what to expect. The bay son of Northern Meteor was an absolute unit even then, but he wasn’t a Group 1 winner, the yardstick for new sires.
“It’s easy to say it in hindsight, but I still had a real feeling about him,” Field said, speaking this week to TDN AusNZ. “We paid out well for him, and in fact we probably overpaid when we bought him as a Group 2 winner.
“We had to work him hard to try and recoup the capital back, which we did, and to be fair to the horse he’s probably covered a huge proportion of bad mares at that introductory service fee of $20,000, so he’s done it the hard way.”
Deep Field | Standing at Newgate Farm
Field can enjoy this hindsight now because Deep Field, Newgate’s longest-serving sire, has hit his straps. The horse is currently sixth by winners (128) on the Australian General Sires’ table and, in the last week, he kicked a mighty goal in Hong Kong.
Deep Field bypassed Medaglia D’Oro (USA) as the most successful Hong Kong sire ever by seasonal earnings, his progeny netting some HK$54,031,270 to date, which is just shy of AU$10 million.
It puts him ahead of not just Medaglia D’Oro on the list of all-time successful sires in Hong Kong, but also Shamardal (USA) and Exceed And Excel, who respectively had very high earnings in the seasons 2014/15 and 2019/21.
“It’s a huge effort, what he's done in Hong Kong,” Field said. “I think the thing with his stock is that they’re very sound and very trainable, and they can race for a number of seasons because they tend to get better as they get older.”
“I think the thing with his (Deep Field's) stock is that they’re very sound and very trainable, and they can race for a number of seasons because they tend to get better as they get older.” - Henry Field
Field said the Deep Field progeny also tend to have a lot of natural speed and race intelligence.
“It’s an incredible accomplishment to do what he’s done in Hong Kong this season, but it also speaks massive volumes for how good he is in Australia,” the studmaster said. “He’s the 10th-leading active sire in this country, and by Southern Hemisphere earnings, he’s the fifth highest.”
Every box ticked
When it comes to Deep Field’s success since 2015, a span of just seven years, you could recite the facts and figures until the cows come home.
From just four crops of racing age, he’s had 269 winners for 641 wins, including 14 stakes winners of which 10 were Group winners.
His greatest success is among his 3-year-old progeny, which bodes well for the Asian market, and his stakes winners include the Group 1 heroes Portland Sky, new to Widden Stud this season upcoming, plus Al Muthana in South Africa and Sky Field, his highest Hong Kong earner.
Gallery: Some of Deep Field's Group 1-winning progeny
Other prolific winners are Cosmic Force, who stands alongside him at Newgate Farm, plus the Western Australian Group 2 winner Dig Deep and Isotope, among others.
In the sale ring, Deep Field has also crept up through the grades.
On the Gold Coast in January, he had his first seven-figure yearling when Lot 835, a colt from the Commands mare Capital Commander, sold to Hawkes Racing for an even million dollars.
Before that, the yearling colt Mars Mission had fetched $800,000 when bought by Alan Bell at the same Sale in 2020.
Deep Field’s highest-selling filly to date also came from the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale this year, a youngster consigned by Tyreel Stud for Ascot Park which sold to Australian Bloodstock, Kris Lees Racing and Yes Bloodstock for $575,000.
The Deep Field x Capital Commander (colt) which sold for an even million dollars at this year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
“He’s really starting to tick absolutely every box from a commercial point of view,” Field said. “He’s got two commercial sons at stud now and he’s the best and most dominant sire in Hong Kong. He’s among the leading active sires in Australia and he produces a lovely sales horse.
“Deep Field has that broad commercial appeal, whether it be to the Asian market or the colts syndicates, or whether it’s trainers trying to get those black-type horses to go to the races for them… he’s built a really good niche for himself and, for what he’s achieved, I think he’s terrific value.”
Mr Hong Kong
In Field’s own words, people have been scraping the bottom of the bucket to get their hands on Deep Field progeny. The stallion will stand his eighth season at Newgate this spring for $88,000 (inc GST).
“I think he’s priced at the sweet spot,” the studmaster said. “He’s one of the most consistent, proven stallions in Australia and he’s standing at a fee that is now quite normal for first-season sires.”
“He’s (Deep Field) one of the most consistent, proven stallions in Australia and he’s standing at a fee that is now quite normal for first-season sires.” - Henry Field
On facts alone, Deep Field would have panels on a lot of new sires in his price bracket, but Newgate has kept the horse at his fee because it works.
“To me, I see him as a horse that can stand at that range for a long time, and he’s been fully booked every season he’s been to stud,” Field said. “It’s very hard to breed to a genuinely good, proven sire that’s as consistent as him in this country.”
Deep Field has also proven himself one of the best in the business at kickstarting new mares.
“If he was an Angus bull, you’d breed all your heifers to him,” Field said. “He throws such good size and strength into foals from maiden mares and, most importantly, he gives maiden mares a great opportunity for a runner from their first foal.”
Henry Field | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
For the horse that is known as ‘Mr Hong Kong’ around the farm, it’s been a stratospheric year for Deep Field.
It no longer matters that he didn’t win a Group 1 on the racetrack, but the question is, has he made Henry Field think twice about that Group 1-winning credential?
“We’re happy to stand non-Group 1 winners at Newgate as long as we feel they had genuine Group 1 ability, and it’s definitely the mould that Deep Field fitted,” the studmaster said.
Tried and trusted works
When it comes to Hong Kong this season, Deep Field’s best earner has been the 5-year-old gelding Sky Field, a white-socked chestnut bred in Australia from the O’Reilly (NZ) mare Laravissante (NZ).
At New Zealand Bloodstock's Karaka Sale in 2018, Sky Field was sold as a yearling by Trelawney Stud to the Kwan family in Hong Kong, and it was little wonder they wanted him. His dam is a half-sister to The Duke (Danehill {USA}), who won the G1 Hong Kong Mile and was Group 1-placed on three occasions.
Sky Field as a yearling | Image courtesy of New Zealand Bloodstock
For the Kwan family, Sky Field has raced exclusively in Hong Kong.
He won the G1 Hong Kong Sprint in December, and was second in the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup in January. He won the G3 Premier Cup too, each among six wins and nine places from 22 lifetime starts.
His total earnings sit at HK$30,901,700, or AU$5.7 million. Nearly 65 per cent of that has been won this season alone.
For bloodstock agent Peter Twomey, who runs the Wagga-based Wattle Bloodstock (FBAA) and whose client base is a large proportion Asian, it’s been little surprise that Deep Field has cracked an earnings record in Hong Kong.
“Overall, his progeny seem to be adapting quite well to Hong Kong and its conditions,” Twomey said. “Their system up there is a handicap system, and horses have got to keep improving from three to four to five years of age.
“We’ve seen that happen in the past with the progeny of Fastnet Rock, Encosta De Lago and Exceed And Excel, sprinters that can get a mile and adapt and get better with age. They seem to always have done quite well in Hong Kong, and we’re seeing that now with Deep Field.”
“Overall, his (Deep Field's) progeny seem to be adapting quite well to Hong Kong and its conditions. Their system up there is a handicap system, and horses have got to keep improving from three to four to five years of age.” - Peter Twomey
Twomey said that the Hong Kong market is such that a sire with runs on the board quite early will get plenty of attention at the yearling and 2-year-old sales.
“I think the last couple of years, the progeny of Deep Field have certainly been on the radar of Hong Kong buyers, and I’ve definitely seen that at the 2-year-old sales,” he said. “I’ve seen it at the yearling sales too this year, and I actually bought the top lot out of Book 2 on the Gold Coast this year for $270,000 for a Hong Kong client.
“They know how well Deep Field goes up there and they’re willing to pay more than anyone else was for that particular horse.”
For Twomey, it’s not as simple as his Hong Kong clients calling him up to make a run on Deep Field stock. He says it’s more about the stock being part of the wider conversation around proven sires.
Peter Twomey | Image courtesy of Bronwen Healy
“You’ve got to remember that it’s quite expensive to get a horse up to Hong Kong, and there are restrictions around the number of horses you can have in your name,” Twomey said.
“So it’s about reducing the risk, and buyers will go for more proven sires, sires that have shown themselves both here in Australia and in Hong Kong. They won’t really take a punt on unproven stock, purely because they can’t have the numbers running through.”
Rare as hen’s teeth
One of the things that Henry Field said was critical to the measure of Deep Field as a sire was that some of the best of the horse’s stock have been sold to the Asian market, and yet he’s still kicking on with results in Australia.
Twomey agrees with this.
“I have seen it with other stallions in the past where their best progeny go to Hong Kong and they might not adapt, and it can put a slow on the rise of that stallion,” the bloodstock agent said. “I’d agree with Henry in that Deep Field is so versatile and seems to be working in so many jurisdictions.”
The fact of Deep Field covering big books is in his favour, but in the early days, those books weren’t anything like they are now in terms of quality. What a stallion will get at a $22,000 (inc GST) service fee is very different to what he’ll get at $88,000 (inc GST).
“He’s been so popular with breeders, so it means that the Deep Field stock can be spread around a number of jurisdictions,” Twomey added. “But there’s no doubt that he’s a high-quality horse that gets a high number of Saturday-quality, metropolitan horses. And that’s what buyers are looking for, be it in Hong Kong or anywhere else.”
“... there’s no doubt that he’s (Deep Field) a high-quality horse that gets a high number of Saturday-quality, metropolitan horses. And that’s what buyers are looking for, be it in Hong Kong or anywhere else.” - Peter Twomey
With only a handful of weeks remaining in the current season, it’s likely that Deep Field will land his first sires’ premiership in Hong Kong.
He was fourth last season behind Medaglia D’Oro’s short-lived earnings record, with Exceed And Excel and Per Incanto (USA) also in front of him.
For Henry Field, Deep Field has repaid all the faith and then some.
“He’s a very important stallion to us,” he said. “He’s been with us the longest of any stallion we’ve had on our roster, and they’re like hen’s teeth, trying to get stallions like him. I’m pretty certain he’ll be with us for a long time to come.”
