By Kate Hunter
The Hokkaido Selection Sale was held on Tuesday with 77.2% of the 193 lots offered sold. While on paper the sale was a down on last year, the Hidaka Breeders' Association has changed their yearly schedule to create two higher quality sales during the year. The Selection Sale has been the premier sale of the Hidaka region for 18 years, but starting this year there will be a Summer Premium Sale held on Aug. 20, so some lots who would have normally been in the Selection Sale have been held over for later in the summer. Instead of its usual 230 horses catalogued there were only 198 in this year's Selection Sale.
Plenty of buyers attended Tuesday's sale and prices were strong. The sale grossed ¥2,348,352,000 ($20,697,620/£15,961,748/€17,875,978) with an average of ¥15,760,751 ($138,910/£107,119/€119,973), which held true for both colts and fillies. The 2014 G1 Japan Cup winner and first-season sire Epiphaneia (Jpn) ruled the day with 10 of 12 lots sold, grossing ¥201,420,000 ($1,775,251/£1,368,971/€1,533,560) with an average of ¥20,142,000 ($177,525/£136,877/€153,356). Third-crop sire, Henny Hughes had all 10 lots offered sold, grossing ¥199,260,000 ($1,756,213/£1,354,096/€1,517,078) with an average of ¥19,926,000 ($175,621/£135,406/€151,707). Rulership (Jpn), coming off of his first Group 1 winner last fall and several Group 1 runner-up efforts this past spring, had all nine of his lots sell as well, grossing ¥194,076,000 ($1,710,523/£1,318,839/€1,477,475) with an average of ¥18,240,000 ($160,761/£123,974/€138,858).
This year's break out freshman sire Just a Way (Jpn) had a good sale as well, selling all nine of his lots grossing ¥164,160,000 ($1,455,278/£1,115,772/€1,249,750) and averaging ¥18,240,000 ($160,761/£123,977/€138,861). The 2013 G1 Japanese Derby winner Kizuna (Jpn)'s first crop has proven popular as well, with eight of his lots sold grossing ¥151,740,000 ($1,337,387/£1,031,376/€1,155,348) with an average of ¥18,967,500 ($167,173/£128,960/€144,418).
The topper, however, was by last year's leading freshman sire Lord Kanaloa (Jpn), whose lot 30, a colt out of Group 3 winner Apollo Tiara (Jpn), sold for ¥44,280,000 ($390,269/£301,059/€337,059) early on in the sale. He also had the co-highest priced filly in the sale (lot 154) out of Flower Rock (Jpn) who sold for ¥33,480,000 ($295,081/£227,530/€254,849). Also bringing that price was a Rulership filly (lot 193). Lord Kanaloa had five of his seven lots sell grossing ¥122,040,000 ($1,075,716/£829,383/€928,968) with an average of ¥24,408,000 ($215,124/£165,893/€185,793), the highest average of the sale.
With the strength of the buyer's market at the moment in Japan, the Aug. 20 Summer Premium Sale could see equally strong results. That sale leads into the Hokkaido Summer Sale of yearlings on Aug. 21 to 24.
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