By Kate Hunter
After a record-setting July sales season in Japan, the trend continued into August with the Hokkaido Summer Sale on Aug. 21 to 25 accumulating a record ¥5,461,992,000 (€41,757,379/£38,801,991) gross, a 36% increase from last year. The clearance rate jumped to 78.58% from 63.5% last year. Each day saw high clearance rates, with the lowest being on the fifth and final day (70.56%), while the highest was on day four (83.41%). The rain mid-week did nothing to slow down the buyers during Japan's largest yearling auction.
The overall average for the sale was ¥5,749,465 (€43,932/£40,832), up 15% from last year. Colts averaged ¥6,468,797 (€49,463/£45,976), up 17.8%, and fillies averaged ¥3,866,029 (€29,556/£27,477), up 11%.
Based on gross, South Vigorous, a very successful dirt stallion, was by far the most popular sire at the sales with ¥270,216,000 (€2,065,823/£1,920,830) spent on his 28 lots sold from 32 offered. He had the most lots sold of any sire in the sale, with popular sprint sire Kinshasa No Kiseki (Aus) having 27 of his 31 lots sold. South Vigorous was tied with Japan Cup winner Rose Kingdom (Jpn) for the second most expensive lot in the sale.
Screen Hero (Jpn), the sire of six-time Group 1 winner Maurice (Jpn), topped the sale with lot 454, a colt out of Love Dylan (Jpn) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}) which was bought by Sachiaki Kobayashi for ¥43,200,000 (€330,267/£307,044). Kobayashi has campaigned several Group 1 winners in Japan including Copano Rickey (Jpn) and Copano Richard (Jpn). Each day saw at least one lot sell for over ¥21,000,000 (€160,574/£149,257), which in previous years could have been the top lot sold. Aside from the sale topper, 45 lots sold for ¥10,800,000 (€82,581/£76,799) or more; 12 lots sold for ¥20,520,000 (€156,963/£145,919) or more; and two sold for ¥33,480,000 (€256,097/£237,952).
The top six stallions with averages over ¥10,000,000 (€76,501/£71,073) were Screen Hero (Jpn) (¥15,079,500), selling eight of 10 lots; second-crop sire Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) (¥14,148,000) selling seven of eight lots; French Deputy (¥11,880,000) selling four of six lots, first-crop sire Just a Way (Jpn) (¥11,029,500) selling eight of 10 lots; the late Manhattan Cafe (Jpn)'s final crop, ¥10,800,000 for one lot; and first- crop sire Cape Blanco (Ire) (¥10,164,705) selling 17 of 20 lots offered.
Aside from the many hungry Japanese buyers, Irish trainer Emmet Mullins made the long journey to Japan to buy some Japanese-bred yearlings to take home to Europe. Singapore buyers were also active during the week taking home several lots.
All of the major sales in Japan this year have seen significant gains across the board. While foreign buyers have played an active role in each sale, the domestic market this year has been stronger than ever. The next yearling sale in Japan is the Hokkaido Autumn Sale held in October. The three-day sale will be held at the Hokkaido Sales Pavilion in Shizunai, Hokkaido on Oct. 2 to 4.
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