JRHA Kicks Off Milestone Sale

HOKKAIDO, Japan–The Japanese breeding and racing industries have made great strides over the last 20 years, and that growth coincides with the rise of the Japan Racing Horse Association's Select Sale, which stages its 20th renewal at Hokkaido's Northern Horse Park on Monday and Tuesday.

The Select Sale was the first organized select auction for Thoroughbreds in Japan. Before 1998, well-bred foals would be sold privately and lesser quality yearlings were sold at sales organized by the HBA, the local breeders association. Naohiro Goda, international representative of the JRHA, said the Select Sale provided an avenue into the racing game for keen owners that lacked connections with the country's top breeders.

“The owners have come to recognize that the horses here are available to anyone; they can come here and find horses like Deep Impact and King Kamehameha,” he said. “Before the start of this sale, if you became a racehorse owner that didn't have a good connection or relationship with the major players, you had no chance to buy those well-bred horses, but now everybody has a chance. This auction has created a lot of new owners in this country.”

The aforementioned Group 1 winners turned successful sires Deep Impact (Jpn) and King Kamehameha (Jpn) are two names on the Select Sale honour roll of Group 1 winners, which also includes the likes of Horse of the Year Admire Moon (Jpn) (End Sweep) and G1 Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}); champion sprinter/miler and international sire Hat Trick (Jpn) (Sunday Silence); Just a Way (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}), the world's highest-rated racehorse of 2014; champion and prominent sire Manhattan Cafe (Jpn) (Sunday Silence); and, more recently, 2016 champion sprinter/miler and soon-to-be Australian shuttler Mikki Isle (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), 2016 champion 3-year-old colt Satono Diamond (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and 2016 G1 Hong Kong Vase winner Satono Crown (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}).

Satono Crown is just one example of how the Japanese Thoroughbred has continued to advertise itself on the world stage in recent months. Vivlos (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) starred on Dubai World Cup night when taking the G1 Dubai Turf and Neorealism (Jpn) (Neo Universe {Jpn}) shipped to Hong Kong to win the G1 QEII Cup. At Royal Ascot this month, the Coolmore-bred 'TDN Rising Star' September (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) took the Listed Chesham S. in encouraging fashion, while Different League (Fr) advertised the merits of the Sunday Silence line by winning the G3 Albany S. for Dabirsim (Fr) (Hat Trick {Jpn}), the current leading first-crop sire in Europe. French Classic winner Beauty Parlour (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) topped last year's Goffs November mare sale when bought by White Birch Farm for €1.6 million.

“We are very happy to see offspring of Deep Impact, like September, running well in Europe,” said Goda. “Before September, Coolmore and Darley tried to bring some of the Deep Impacts to Europe, but they didn't work as well as in Japan. They say Deep Impacts need fast ground, but last year, in France, a horse called Akihiro [a homebred for the Wertheimer family], won some nice 2-year-old races in France, so Deep Impact has started getting better in Europe.”

Off the back of the success of September, Coolmore has three more mares in Japan currently in foal to Deep Impact, according to the operation's David O'Loughlin. They are Best In The World (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a full-sister to Found (Ire); Fluff (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a full-sister to champion 2-year-old filly Maybe (Ire); and Kissed by Angels (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a full-sister to Minding (Ire).

Goda also sang the praises of Deep Impact's Shadai barnmate Heart's Cry, who has sired three stakes winners overseas: Just a Way in Dubai, Admire Rakti in Australia and Nuovo Record (Jpn) in the U.S. Heart's Cry is represented in the U.S. this year by Yoshida (Jpn), WinStar, China Horse Club and partners' Select Sale graduate, 'TDN Rising Star' and stakes winner.

“Heart's Cry is so powerful himself, much bigger than Deep Impact, and he could handle any kind of track, so this is what we expected of Heart's Cry, that he may be better than Deep Impact outside of Japan,” Goda said.

Shadai and Northern Farms, owned respectively by brothers Teruya and Katsumi Yoshida, are the dominant forces in Japanese breeding, and as per usual they consign the majority of the foals and yearlings for sale–259, or 55% of the catalogue. Expected highlights of Monday's yearling session include lot 9, a filly by hot young sire Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) out of American champion 2-year-old filly Stardom Bound (Tapit); lot 13, a Deep Impact colt out of Silverskaya (Silver Hawk), the dam of Australian Group 1 winner Seville (Ger) (Galileo {Ire}); lot 53, the second foal of Irish and American Group 1 winner Samitar (GB) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}), a colt by Deep Impact; lot 63, a Deep Impact colt out of Electrelane (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}); lot 78, a full-brother to G1 Dubai Turf winner Real Steel (Jpn) (Deep Impact); lot 98, a colt by Deep Impact out of Champagne d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) whose full-brother made ¥235,000,000 here last year; lot 107, a Deep Impact colt outof G1 Fillies' Mile winner Listen (Ire) (Sadler's Wells); lot 117, a Deep Impact colt out of a full-sister to Derby winner and Derby sire Pour Moi (Ire); lot 118, a Heart's Cry half-brother to Palace Malice (Curlin); lot 132, a son of Deep Impact out of Argentinean Classic winner Safari Miss (Arg) (Not For Sale {Arg}); lot 140, a Deep Impact colt out of the triple graded winner Cozi Rosie (Pleasantly Perfect); lot 175, a Deep Impact colt out of Grade II winner My Jen (Fusaichi Pegasus), a half-sister to G1 Commonwealth Cup winner Caravaggio (Scat Daddy); and lot 183, a Deep Impact colt out of European champion sprinter Fleeting Spirit (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).

Foals expected to feature include lot 319, a Deep Impact colt out of GI Spinaway S. winner Condo Commando (Tiz Wonderful); lot 320, a Gold Ship (Jpn) colt out of My Jen; lot 333, a full-sister to champion Gentildonna (Jpn) (Deep Impact); lot 362, a full-brother to last year's co-sale topper, by Deep Impact out of Elusive Wave (Ire) (Elusive City); lot 373, a Kizuna (Jpn) colt out of German Group 1 winner Feodora (Ger) (Lord Of England {Ger}); lot 379 a Deep Impact colt out of dual Grade I winner Contested (Ghostzapper); lot 394, a Deep Impact colt out of Argentinean champion Balada Sale (Arg) (Not For Sale {Arg}); lot 415, a Heart's Cry colt out of Argentinean Group 1 winner Juhayna (Arg) (Johannesburg); and lot 445, a Deep Impact colt out of Grade I winner Sky Diva (Sky Mesa).

Sheikh Fahad, whose purchases at this sale three years ago included the subsequent Group 3 winner Warring States (Jpn) (Victoire Pisa {Jpn}), has returned after two years' absence and was inspecting yearlings on Sunday. He will also be active as the seller of lot 41, a Deep Impact yearling colt out of dual British stakes winner Ripples Maid (GB) (Dansili {GB}) as well as lot 366, a filly from the first crop of European Horse of the Year Golden Horn (GB). That one is out of the dual stakes winner Pearl Of Africa (Ire) (Jeremy), herself a daughter of South African Group 1 winner Kournikova (SAf) (Sportsworld).

“We're very happy to have Sheikh Fahad here again, because he didn't come last year or two years ago, but he came three years ago and bought some which are now running ok in Europe,” said Goda. “Those results, I believe, encouraged him to come back this year.”

Also selling at the Select Sale is the Niarchos family, who is selling two through Shadai: lot 89, a yearling son of Heart's Cry out of Forest Rain (Fr) (Caerleon), a half-sister to GI Breeders' Cup Mile winner Domedriver (Ire) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), who is the dam of French Group 2 winner Freedonia (GB) (Selkirk); and lot 208, a yearling colt by Lord Kanaloa out of Phaenomena (Ire) who is a full-sister to Classic winner Nightime (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), the dam of this year's GI Man O' War S. winner Zhukova (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}).

The Select Sale is coming off three consecutive years of growth by aggregate (it was ¥14,942,100,000 {US$131,189,936/£101,782,886/€115,072,504/A$172,411,849} last year for 390 sold) while the average for both yearlings and foals have also risen the last two years (a record ¥39,372,832 {US$345,679/£268,209/€303,209/A$454,353} for foals and a record ¥37,468,203 {US$328,957/£255,234/€288,541/A$432,374} for yearlings). As such, Goda said he would be pleased if returns over the next two days matched those figures.

“The bloodstock market in this country has been very strong since last year,” he said. “The yearling market last year was very good, and the market at the 2-year-old in training sales earlier this year was very good. The general economy is slightly coming back in this country, but the horse breeding industry is doing better than the general economy. Wagering into the JRA is very good this year, so I hope plenty of money is ready to invest on Monday and Tuesday.”

Goda said there has been an increase in owners under the age of 40 in Japan. He attributed growth in this area potentially to the popularity of a pair of games that inspire interest in pedigrees in young people. Derby Stallion, a computer game that sees the player match mares and stallions and choose an owner and trainer primarily to try to win the Japanese Derby and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, has been popular in Japan for about 20 years.

The other is the “paper owners' game”: before 2-year-old racing begins in Japan each June, the sports newspaper and racing magazines will print a list of 2-year-olds provided by the JRA. Readers pick 10 horses each and play with their friends, and the players whose horses have accumulated the most prizemoney by the time of the following year's Japanese Derby is the winner.

Another inroad into racing for young owners in Japan are racing clubs, syndication groups described by Goda as “very popular.” There are about 20 racing clubs in Japan, and unlike in Australia there are no limitations as to their spend on horses, so they range from clubs with higher-end horses, like Shadai's Shadai Race Horse and Northern Farm's Sunday Racing, to the Carrot Club, which sells shares as small as one-four-hundredth of a horse. Carrot Club has enjoyed plenty of success this year with horses like Neorealism and Epicharis, who was second in the G2 UAE Derby and traveled to the U.S. for the Belmont S. before he was unfortunately scratched.

The racing clubs hold a JRA owners license and individual shareholders are not required to obtain a license, and therefore they represent an easier option for both locals and internationals to get involved in ownership. However, Goda said that shareholders aren't recognized as owners at the racetracks so don't enjoy the hospitality perks of ownership, also they can partake in the photo session if their horse wins.

Japanese-bred horses have been making an increasing impact on the world's most important races in recent years, something that has not gone unnoticed by at least one Australian studmaster, Arrowfield Stud's John Messara. The Japanese breed will make further inroads into Australia this year, with Real Impact (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), Mikki Isle (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and Maurice (Jpn) (Screen Hero {Jpn}) all set to shuttle to Arrowfield.

“Katsumi Yoshida is the driving force to have a better relationship with the Australian breeding industry,” Goda said. “Katsumi himself sent Delta Blues to the Melbourne Cup and he has been trying every year to win the Caulfield Cup, the Melbourne Cup–he wants to prove the quality of the Japanese-bred to the Australian breeders and owners.”

Japanese horses are certainly proving their worth on a global level, and buyers from all over the world will have a chance to get their hands on many blue-blooded offerings over the next two days at the Northern Horse Park.