Three years after Deep Field’s stud career was brought to a premature end, shareholders in the top stallion are still waiting for an insurance payout.
It is believed that the insurance underwriter is refusing to honour the claim made against Deep Field following the Newgate Farm-based sire’s rapid decline in fertility in 2022, which led to his retirement.
Despite equine reproductive experts and veterinary advice being sought in the hope of reversing Deep Field’s poor fertility, Newgate Farm principal Henry Field was forced to pension the stallion at the end of his 2022 season.
Deep Field’s fertility rate was above 80 per cent for his first four seasons at stud and an acceptable 78 and 74 per cent in 2019 and 2020.
However, it plummeted to 44 per cent in 2021 and just 12.7 per cent in his eighth and final season, according to figures obtained from the Australian Stud Book.
Deep Field covered 257 mares in 2015, his maiden season at stud at a fee of $22,000 (inc GST), while he covered 204 mares in his second season and 157 in his third.
As his first runners began to hit the racetrack, a crop which produced emphatic Pago Pago Stakes and Roman Consul winner Cosmic Force as well as Hong Kong Group 1 winner Sky Field, breeders continued to flock to Deep Field with an ever-increasing quality of mare.
The stallion covered 246 mares in 2018, 256 in 2019 and 200 in 2020.
He had a book of 165 mares in 2021, but it was then that his fertility issues began to emerge, with just 64 live foals born at an increased service fee of $88,000 (inc GST). He covered 69 mares in his last season, producing just seven live foals, five fillies and two colts. This crop turned two on August 1.
Bren O’Brien
It is understood that the insurer’s refusal to pay out the claim on Deep Field centres around the belief that the stallion’s fertility issues may have been caused by his heavy workload early in his stud career.
The Straight is not suggesting that the reason indicated in the dispute is true, only that it has been contested by the insurance underwriter, leading to the current non-payment.
Deep Field was insured through Silks, which has now merged with international equine provider Howden, as well as several other brokers.
Howden’s Stuart Doughty, who crossed from Silks as part of the Howden buyout in 2024, declined to comment when contacted by The Straight, citing privacy laws and regulations tied to his insurer licence.
Field, who stood the son of Northern Meteor for eight seasons at his Hunter Valley property, would also not comment about the ongoing dispute.
A brother to Group 1-winning stallion Shooting To Win, Deep Field has been a top 20 Australian sire for the past five seasons and is the four-time reigning champion stallion in Hong Kong.
He provided another reminder last Saturday of the loss he has been to the Australian breeding industry when Rosberg, a three-year-old colt produced from his second last crop, won the Listed McKenzie Stakes at Moonee Valley at his first start.
Overall, Deep Field is the sire of 41 stakes winners, headed by Group 1 Oakleigh Plate-winning Widden Stud-based sire Portland Sky, Hong Kong’s Voyage Bubble and fellow elite level Sha Tin winner Sky Field and Al Muthana, a dual Grade 1 winner in South Africa.
Bren O’Brien
Cosmic Force stands at Newgate and has sired five stakes winners from his first two crops, while Aysar stands in Western Australia.
Another son, San Domenico Stakes winner Sweet Ride, stands alongside Portland Sky at Widden.
