A half-brother to the exceptional filly Velox (Just A Way) by the popular young stallion Kizuna (Deep Impact), topped the foal session of the JRHA Select Sale on Tuesday.
Yoshihisa Ozasa had to go to ¥410m ($4,953,566) to secure the colt (lot 428) by the 2019 Champion first crop sire in Japan.
Out of the Group II Diana-Trial winner Selkis (Ger) (Monsun), the colt’s half-sister Velox is a dual Listed stakes-winner who placed in all three legs of the Japanese classics in 2019.
“This is the one which I am firmly resolved to acquire”, Yoshihisa Ozasa,” said.
“Yoshito Yahagi strongly recommends him and others who inspected him told me unanimously that this is very nice horse. I thought he would cost 300 million yen or more or less, but I didn’t intend to retreat at all. I won the bidding war and hope the colt will win big races”
A $10,000 yearling who overachieved on the track with a pair of Group 1 wins in the ATC Sires' Produce Stakes and Spring Champion Stakes, Yankee Rose continues to keep the till ticking over at stud.
The daughter of All American supplied the sessions second top price when Masahiro Noda's Danox Co Ltd had the final say at ¥370m ($4,485,936) for Northern Farm’s Lord Kanaloa colt. (lot 398)
The winner of over $2 million in a 10-start career, Yankee Rose was purchased by Darby Racing for a mere $10,000 as a yearling.
She was sold privately to Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm at the conclusion of her race career. Her first foal, a filly by Deep Impact, was purchased by Kaneko Makoto Holdings for ¥210m ($2,750,000) at the 2019 JRHA Select Sale.
Another of Darby Racings ‘cheapies’, the Group 1 ATC Golden Slipper and Group 1 MVRC A. J. Moir Stakes winner, She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain) was on the leader board at yesterday’s yearling session when her Heart’s Cry colt became another Danox acquisition for ¥165m ($2,046,000).
The phenomenal Frankel continues to make his presence felt worldwide. His colt out of the Grade 1 Las Virgenes Stakes winner Callback (Street Sense) (lot 329) made the early running when bought by the Thoroughbred Club Lion Co. Ltd for ¥240m ($2,899,648).
Shusuke Yoshida, the son of Northern Farm’s owner Katsumi Yoshida purchased Callback (USA), in foal to Medaglia d’Oro, for $2million at the 2019 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
The Frankel colts price was surpassed when Miki Masahiro went to ¥280m ($3,382,923) for a colt by Heart’s Cry out of the Storm Cat mare Loves Only Me (USA) (lot 361).
The colt is a half-brother to three stakes-winners, most notably this year’s Hong Kong Queen Elizabeth II Cup winner and Japanese Oaks heroine Loves Only You (Deep Impact) and the former Arrowfield shuttler Real Steel (Deep Impact).
Loves Only Me is an unraced half-sister to the Prix Marcel Boussac and Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Rumplestiltskin (Danehill) the dam of Yorkshire Oaks winner Tapestry.
The dam of Loves Only Me, Monevassia (Mr Prospector), is a sister to Kingmambo out of the immortal Miesque.
Five lots later the Northern Farm’s Epiphaneia colt out of the Literato mare Alterite (FR) (lot 366) was knocked down to Y's Consignment Sales for ¥220m ($2,658.011).
The half-brother to two winners is the fourth foal of Alterite (FR) a Grade 1 winner in the US and dual Listed winner in France.
Some others of interest:
A colt by American Pharoah (USA) out of the Galileo mare Switch in Time (lot 377) sells for ¥150m ($1,812,280)
Mosheen’s daughter Calico (Deep Impact) had a filly by Maurice (JPN) (lot 331) made ¥90m ($1,087,368).
The champion Lonhro had a colt foal out of the stakes-placed Munnings mare a Gala Day (lot 427) that sold for ¥42m ($507,438).
Gienah (Redoute’s Choice), a sister to stakes-placed Zarzali, out of a half-sister to European Horse of The Year Zarkava, has a filly from the first crop of Japan Cup winner Cheval Grand (lot 522).that sold for ¥36m ($434,947)
Overall, at the foal session, 213 of the 230 lots offered were sold for ¥10,923,000,000 (131970258), a 31.1 per cent increase from twelve months ago.
The average price was ¥51,281,690 ($619,578), up 24 per cent, and median price, ¥33,000,000 ($402,105), up 13.8 per cent from last year. The clearance rate was a healthy 93 per cent.
Over the two days 439 lots from 472 lots offered were sold for 22,561,000,000yen, which is 20.3% higher than 2020. The average price through two days, 51,391,780yen, is 18.3% up from 2020, and overall clearance rate improved from 90.9% in 2020 to 93.0% in 2021.
“This is much stronger market than I expected”, Teruya Yoshida, Active Chairman of Japan Racing Horse Association said.
“As the catalogue this year does not include King Kamehameha and very few Deep Impacts, I thought the market would shrink, but I was wrong.”
“I am very impressed to see so many new players active through two days at 2021 Select Sale.
Most impressive was Mr Susumu Fujita, who attended at JRHA Select Sale for the first time and spent 2,367,000,000yen in total through two days, which is more than 10% of the gross sale.”
“The number of buyers registered at this year’s sale is more than 700, which is 10% more than last year, and the market has enough number of players at every price range. I think it created this strong market”.
“And I think we have a variation of stallions standing in Japan now. There are sires who send good sprinters, milers and stayers. And there are sires of turf runners and dirt runners. And quality of broodmares we have in Japan is much higher than before, and many stallions have chance to produce class racehorses, and have chance to send expensive horses at bloodstock market.”
“Breeders including myself will re-invest the funds to acquire another quality mares to improve the quality of Japanese-bred horses. And I hope horse racing in Japan will become more attractive sports.”
