Longevity is Key as Adayar and Hukum Join Japan’s Stallion Ranks

The Japanese stallion studs are in the midst of hosting their annual parades in Hokkaido and there will doubtless be plenty of interested onlookers at Darley Japan, where the stallion yard has been boosted by a quartet of new recruits for the 2024 season.

Two of the four are brand new to stud and have arrived from Britain with pretty lofty reputations, and rightly so. Both Adayar (Ire) and Hukum (Ire) are winners of the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S., while Adayar, more pertinently, is a Derby winner. Hukum also triumphed over a mile and a half at Epsom, but in the G1 Coronation Cup as a five-year-old. While that may – unfathomably – count against him in Europe, such longevity is a badge of honour in Japan, so the fact that Hukum's King George win came when he was six is yet another feather in his cap. In addition to their race records, Adayar and Hukum are sons of two of the most celebrated racehorses and successful stallions of the modern era in Frankel (GB) and Sea The Stars (Ire) respectively.

“It's going to be a big week for them and for us,” says Harry Sweeney, the Irish-born president of Darley Japan in anticipation of welcoming visitors to this week's parades. “Breeders don't make mating plans too soon here in Japan. They take their time about it. We have an open house that extends for six days. And over that period we have 600 people booked in to look at our new stallions.”

He adds, “Hukum and Adayar have been here for a little while, they came in last year. So they're well settled in and both of them are being well received.”

There was some gnashing of teeth from those followers of the sport in Europe who still value high-level middle-distance form at the departure of not just Adayar and Hukum but also another son of Frankel, the Irish Derby winner and Arc runner-up Westover (GB). He has joined the Yushun Stallion Station. 

In regard to the respective owner-breeders of these three horses – Darley, Shadwell and Juddmonte – there are of course legitimate reasons for standing them overseas when their British-based operations have each welcomed a new son of Frankel this season in Triple Time (Ire), Mostahdaf (Ire) and Chaldean (GB), and Shadwell already has Hukum's year-younger full-brother Baaeed (GB) at Beech House Stud. Still, such a power-packed trio leaving these shores all at once should be a source of consternation, even though it is not a new development. In the 1990s in particular, Japan recruited a run of Derby winners when the export of Dr Devious (Ire) was followed by Commander In Chief (GB), Lammtarra, High-Rise (Ire) and Oath (Ire). A little over a decade later another Juddmonte homebred, Workforce (GB), started his stud career in Japan. Adayar is the first to leave since 2011.

“Of course, Frankel is a world force,” says Sweeney, emphasising the appeal of Adayar, who became Charlie Appleby's second Derby winner for Godolphin, and a deserved first Classic winner for jockey Adam Kirby.  

“Interestingly, Frankel's very early success actually came in Japan from his first crop. Mozu Ascot won the Yasuda Kinen and Soul Stirring won the [Japanese] Oaks. So from Frankel's very first crop, he had two Group 1 winners in Japan, and subsequently he's had Grenadier Guards. So Frankel has had three Group 1 winners here in Japan and he needs no introduction at all.”

He continues, “Adayar and Hukum are both outcrosses to Sunday Silence and we have so much dominance of Sunday Silence in Japan that to have stallions that can be outcrossed is very welcomed by breeders. 

“Interestingly, in relation to Adayar, some breeders were explaining to me recently that, of course, the Holy Grail for Japan is to win the Arc, and it's something that Japan has gone close to doing once or twice. Someone pointed out to me that since about the last 12 Arcs have all been won by horses from the Northern Dancer line, they were going to breed Sunday Silence-line mares to a son of Galileo, like Frankel, with the hook that they might run well in Europe in addition to Japan.”

The reverse of that idea has also been seen to good effect in European Classics of late, with Coolmore's Derby and Oaks winners Auguste Rodin (Ire) and Snowfall (Jpn), as well as 2,000 Guineas winner Saxon Warrior (Jpn) all being by Deep Impact (Jpn) out of Galileo (Ire) mares. 

There has however been a growing trend, which is both mystifying and depressing, for breeders to eschew winners of the races which regularly produce some of the world's top-rated racehorses.  It will not come as a surprise to hear that in Japan, which is currently an impressively dominant force in world racing, this is not the case.

The idea of a horse coming out and winning a Group 1 race at two and then going to stud, that really couldn't happen in Japan because breeders want to see soundness, they want to see longevity

“Derby winners have kudos here, and the major races in Japan are largely middle-distance and staying races,” says Sweeney, who is now in his 35th year in the country. “Our 2,000 Guineas, the Satsuki Sho, is over 10 furlongs. So this is unlike other places in the world. A horse that is an out-and-out sprinter really has nowhere to go in Japan because there are only two Group 1 races at sprint distances in Japan in the JRA. So we want horses that are mile-and-a-half, 10-furlong horses, and that's an incentive to people to use them here in Japan. Even the great Deep Impact, the shortest distance he won over was 10 furlongs. And he won a 10-furlong race at two, that was his introduction. And he never went shorter, but was a brilliant race horse and a very good sire.”

While the wheel is turning in this part of the world, as it has already done in Australia, towards the whisking off to stud of precocious, sprint-orientated stallions, Sweeney says that there is not a desire to follow that example in Japan.

“There is no real move to change,” he says. “The idea of a horse coming out and winning a Group 1 race at two and then going to stud, that really couldn't happen in Japan because breeders want to see soundness, they want to see longevity. And I mean that's one thing that's interesting for both of these horses. Adayar won races at two, three, four and five, but actually Hukum was one step better: a winner at two, three, four, five and six. Japanese breeders appreciate that, because we need soundness.”

He adds, “Japan has a great programme for running older horses. A horse like Ushba Tesoro, for example, who won the Dubai World Cup last year, he stays in training at seven. So we like longevity, and that's one thing that the Japanese breeders will appreciate regarding these horses. They were sound and won over many seasons. There is no rush here to win a big race like the Golden Slipper, or the equivalent, and send them off to stud, absolutely not.”

While Adayar has the 'Frankel factor', Hukum has a number of attributes in addition to his race record that are likely to be of interest to breeders in his adopted country.

“We appreciate the success of Baaeed and I have noticed that a number of mares that have been imported to Japan are in foal to Baaeed, so Baaeed's star is high here,” says Sweeney. “Hukum, of the two full-brothers, was perhaps a little bit less celebrated as a racehorse, I think that would be fair to say. But there's an interesting precedent here in Japan, which has been quite topical recently, and that was between Deep Impact and his full-brother who is one year older, Black Tide. And Black Tide was less celebrated as a racehorse, but now through Kitasan Black, Equinox, Sol Oriens and Wilson Tesoro, he is making a huge impact.”

Hukum remains the property of Shadwell and we are very humbled that Sheikha Hissa has entrusted Hukum to us

Hukum's broodmare sire Kingmambo is also a name with star appeal in Japan. His son King Kamehameha (Jpn) in particular has left a lasting legacy through his own sons, such as Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) and Duramente (Jpn), and also as a broodmare sire, with his daughters crossing well with Sunday Silence-line stallions. 

“It's led to Wagnerian, who's a Derby winner, and it's also the same cross as Ushba Tesoro,” Sweeney notes. “So that's something yet again that breeders will be very conscious of, and of course, both Baaeed and Hukum come from the family of Deep Impact, so it's easy to relate to all that.”

He adds, “Hukum remains the property of Shadwell and we are very humbled that Sheikha Hissa has entrusted Hukum to us. We're looking forward, hopefully, to Sheikha Hissa coming to visit him in Japan sometime.”

The illustrious additions to the Darley Japan roster don't end there, for the operation has in the last week welcomed the arrival of two stallions from America.  The 14-year-old G1 Belmont S. and G1 Metropolitan H. winner Palace Malice, a son of Curlin, has a growing reputation in his new home country, while for Yoshida (Jpn), named in honour of his breeder Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm, it is essentially a homecoming. The son of Heart's Cry (Jpn) was bought as a yearling at the JRHA Select Sale for the equivalent of roughly $750,000 by John McCormack on behalf of WinStar Farm, who raced him with the China Horse Club and Head of Plains Partners. Yoshida stood his first four seasons for WinStar in Kentucky after a racing career which included victories in the GI Woodward S. on dirt and the GI Old Forester Turf Classic.

“Because he's a winner in America on turf and on dirt, we felt that he would have appeal in Japan,” says Sweeney of the 10-year-old. “He's a very attractive, correct horse and he's by Heart's Cry, who's doing very well.”

Extra encouragement is drawn from the fact that the late Heart's Cry provided the leading first-season sire in Japan last year in Suave Richard (Jpn). He is also the sire of Coolmore's St Leger winner Continuous (Jpn).

The signing of Palace Malice is looking something of a coup. Not only did his half-brother Justin Palace (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) win the G1 Tenno Sho (Spring) last year, but the former Three Chimneys resident is the sire of Japan's champion two-year-old colt of 2023, Jantar Mantar (Jpn), as well as Noble Roger, who won the GIII Nikkan Sports Sho Shinzan Kinen in January to remain unbeaten. 

“So we have two graded stakes winners by Palace Malice, both three-year-olds, both unbeaten, and both will run in the Classics,” says Sweeney. “That is exciting too. We have a very exciting line-up of stallions this year.”

Outside the walls of Darley, the situation across the Japanese breeding industry appears to be similarly rosy. Stallion fees are on the rise, and the word's top-rated horse of last year, Equinox (Jpn), retired to stand at a fee of ¥20 million (€124,000), which is a record for a first-season sire in the country. As soon as he was announced on the roster at Shadai Stallion Station, his book was full. 

“That's a big price in any market, and [his sire] Kitasan Black has gone up to that price as well,” says Sweeney. “There is no contraction here. Bloodstock sales were good last year. There is still an enormous appetite for horses. Betting turnover was up again last year, and the number of people applying for owners' licences is on the increase as well. So things are good in Japan, I have to say. It's a very good industry here and the racing aspect is well managed by the JRA, and that makes a huge difference.

“To have the leading horse in the world in Equinox and also to have the leading race in the world last year, which was the Japan Cup, Japan should be proud. Japan is proud.”

 

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Contrail Steals the Show as Maeda’s Gift Horse Tops JRHA

HOKKAIDO, Japan–Don't say we didn't warn you. Contrail (Jpn) has been the name on most people's lips around the sales ground at the JRHA Select Sale and when the first foals by the Triple Crown-winning son of Deep Impact (Jpn) took to the ring on Tuesday it wasn't long before the hype became reality.

What's really important, of course, is what happens in two or three years' time when these youngsters make it to the track, but the first test, on the commercial market, has been passed with flying colours. Graduating at the head of his class was lot 360, the Northern Farm-bred colt out of Argentinean Grade I winner Conviction (Arg) (City Banker {Arg}), who made Monday's yearling trade look almost abstemious when bringing a sale-topping price of ¥520 million ($3.7m).

“This is my gift to the new trainer,” said buyer Koji Maeda of North Hills, who bred the sleek, near-black Contrail and posed with the trainer-to-be, Yuichi Fukunaga, who is better known for now as the jockey who steered Maeda's star Contrail to five Grade I victories, consisting of the Japanese Triple Crown, the Japan Cup, and the Hopeful S. as a two-year-old.

A brother to two winners to date, the Contrail colt became the third-most expensive foal ever to be sold at the JRHA Select Sale and he was not the only foal by the Shadai stallion to carry a hefty price tag.

With an average of ¥128.6m ($915,000) for 20 foals sold, Contrail's offspring at the Northern Horse Park included eight who changed hands for more than $1 million. Shinji Maeda, the brother of Koji in whose name Contrail raced, bought lot 329, who was consigned by Grand Stud and is out of Bye Bye Baby (Ire), a Group 3-winning daughter of Galileo (Ire) and sister to the Derby winner Serpentine (Ire). His second dam Remember When (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) is closely related to Dylan Thomas (Ire) and Homecoming Queen (Ire).

With several hours of trade left on Monday a new record aggregate for the foal session had been set, and by the time the 219 foals to have changed hands had all been rung through the till, the tally came in at ¥14.78 billion (£81.5m/€95.6m/$105.2m), which was up 11.5% on last year's trade. The day's clearance rate was 94.8%.

It follows then, with records achieved in each individual session, that the overall turnover was also at a new high of ¥28.1 billion (£155.2m/€182.1m/$200.4m)), from ¥25.8 billion last year. The average of ¥64.7 million (£356,820/€418,738/$460,793) was up from ¥57.6 million in 2022, and the clearance rate for the two days was 96%.

Throughout both sessions, only four horses were sold to non-Japanese owners. A new buyer from Hong Kong, Karson Ka Ching Cheng, signed for two foals, and Sheikh Fahad of Qatar Racing, bought a yearling filly by Suave Richard (Jpn). The extraordinary level of trade for both yearlings and foals is yet another emphatic indication of the extraordinary interest and investment in racing and breeding in Japan.

Another Commercial St Leger Winner…

There were of course plenty of other stallions of note besides Contrail represented at the sale, and those with the most significant results were almost all racehorses who plied their trade at the highest level at a mile and a half-plus. 

The Japanese St Leger and Japan Cup winner Epiphaneia (Jpn) now has not just his half-brother Saturnalia (Jpn) but also his son, the 2021 JRA Horse of the Year Efforia (Jpn), alongside him at the Shadai Stallion Station. Epiphaneia proved from the outset that he could get a good one when his first-crop daughter Daring Tact (Jpn) won the Fillies' Triple Crown, and he remains popular in Hokkaido. 

Among his best-selling foals was lot 417, a half-brother to the Grade I-winning miler Schnell Meister (Ger) (Kingman {GB}) out of the G1 Preis der Diana winner Serienholde (Ger), a daughter of Soldier Hollow (GB).

Oh to live in a country where you can send an Oaks winner to a St Leger winner and have a hugely commercial foal. That's not uncommon in Japan, and Serienholde's colt sold for ¥300 million ($2.1m) to Tabata Toshihiko. He wasn't the most expensive foal by Epiphaneia, however. That honour went to lot 332, Northern Farm's son of Pixie Hollow (Jpn) (King Halo {Jpn}) who is already the dam of champion sprinter Pixie Knight (Jpn) (Maurice {Jpn}). He was sold for ¥330 million ($2.3m) to Susumu Fujita.

…And Another 

Kitasan Black (Jpn) played a leading role in Monday's yearling session, and he opened the batting for the foals in similar style when his elegant young son out of the Monsun (Ger) mare Fadillah (Ger) sold for ¥280 million ($2.65m). 

The 10-year-old mare, a dual winner in England, was bought from the Tattersalls December Sale by Katsumi Yoshida for 700,000gns and her family continues to thrive. Her second dam Sacarina (GB) (Old Vic {GB}) established a notable dynasty in Germany where she is the dam of the Classic winners Samum (Ger), Schiaparelli (GB) and Salve Regina (Ger), who are all by Fadillah's sire Monsun. Another of their full-siblings is Sanwa (Ger), the dam of German Derby winner Sea The Moon (Ger), who last weekend sired the winner of that same race, Fantastic Moon (Ger). The family has also been represented this season by the Derby Italiano winner Goldenas (Ire) (Golden Horn {GB}), a great grandson of Sacarina.

The final foal of the day to breach the million-dollar mark came when lot 499, the last by Kitasan Black to grace the ring, was knocked down after a boisterous exchange of shouting bid-spotters at ¥290 million ($2m). The colt in question is out of the treble winner War Chronicle (Jpn) (War Emblem), whose half-siblings Chrono Genesis (Jpn) and Normcore (Jpn) are both Grade I winners.

She Still Reigns

The aforementioned Saturnalia, the half-brother to Epiphaneia whose win in the G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas) earned him the title of champion three-year-old of his generation, had his first yearlings on sale on Monday.

From his second crop came a filly foal out of the Golden Slipper winner and Australian champion juvenile filly, She Will Reign (Aus). The daughter of Manhattan Rain (Aus) has had just one foal to race to date, and that is the G2 Kyoto Shimbun Hai runner-up Danon Tornado (Jpn). Her youngest daughter will eventually race in the same colours, having been bought for ¥200 million ($1.4m) by Masahiro Noda of Danox Co Ltd.

Gentildonna's Sister for HK Owner

If you're planning to get involved at the pricey JRHA Select Sale, it helps if your name is Ka Ching. Karson Ka Ching Cheng, to use the new buyer's full name, is no stranger to top-class winners on the track as his father Keung Fai Cheng raced the Hong Kong Derby winner Designs On Rome (Ire), whose success on the island was legion.

Cheng Jr made his first visit to the sale worthwhile with the purchase of a filly foal with one of the best pedigrees in the book. He bought the half-sister to dual Horse of the Year Gentildonna (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) for ¥210 million ($1.5m). The daughter of Drefong is the final foal of Donna Blini (GB) (Bertolini), winner of the G1 Cheveley Park S. in her racing days in England and also the dam of G3 Sekiya Kinen winner Donau Blue (Jpn). The latter is a full-sister to the six-time Group 1 winner Gentildonna and both sisters are now stakes producers. Gentildonna's daughter Geraldina (Jpn) (Maurice {Jpn}) won the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup in November. The family also includes Japanese Derby winner Roger Barows (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who is out of Donna Blini's half-sister Little Book (GB) (Librettist).

Cheng, who plans to race the Drefong filly in Japan eventually, said, “I was underbidder on Donna Blini's yearling yesterday. I liked her on type and I love the foal, too.”

The mare's yearling filly from the final crop of Duramente sold for the same price (¥210m) to TN Racing. 

Cheng returned later to buy a Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) half-brother to G2 Kinko Sho winner Gibeon (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) from Shadai Farm for ¥200 million ($1.4m). The colt's dam Contested (Ghostzapper) won the GI Acorn S. and is out of a half-sister to the GI King's Bishop S. winner Pomeroy.

That's a Wrap

Teruya Yoshida, acting chairman of the JRHA and head of Shadai Farm, was out photographing foals during the inspection session at 8am, and almost 12 hours later he gave a televised address to the media as two days of frenetic action came to a close.

“The market was surprisingly strong and we welcome the many new buyers,” he said. “The yen is quite weak at the moment, which was why some more foreign visitors attended, and we hoped that they would be more involved, but I think that the increased prices were beyond what they were expecting.”

Thirty-five foals sold for more than a million dollars on Tuesday, including six by Kitasan Black and eight by his younger stud-mate Contrail. Across the sale as a whole, 63 horses surpassed that mark.

Yoshida continued, “Kitasan Black has of course had the champion Equinox and Satsuki Sho winner Sol Oriens this season, so that has enhanced his popularity.

“Contrail is not a big stallion but his foals are well balanced with good conformation, and in addition to that many people think favourably of him as a Triple Crown winner, so that has increased their desire to buy his stock.”

In an earlier interview with TDN, Yoshida had spoken of Deep Impact's great influence in succeeding his own dominant sire Sunday Silence at Shadai Stallion Station.

“Maybe Contrail will come next,” he said. Maybe he's right.

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Star Graduates Point to Hot Trade at JRHA 

HOKKAIDO, Japan–Things are hotting up in the Northern Horse Park, literally and figuratively. As the mercury nudged 30 degrees on Saturday, the English and Irish in town for the JRHA Select Sale swooned and wilted while the many attendants showing the horses, mostly clad in jackets, went manfully and womanfully about their hot and tiring work without so much as a whimper.

Both they and the young horses in their care are well prepared for the two inspection days ahead, despite having only arrived on the sales ground that morning. For months now, the Japanese trainers and agents have been doing the rounds of the farms on Hokkaido and will have their lists, long and short, ready for refinement. Visitors only now arriving in Japan need not fear, however, as this is almost certainly the best organised sale they are ever likely to attend. 

Reams of staff are on hand at each consignment, with the next horse waiting patiently alongside the viewer's allotted runway for the one in front of him to finish. Crib sheets are available, detailing weights and heights, and, perhaps most usefully, their reserve prices. One can only imagine the hullabaloo that would break out were this system to be suggested for use at European sales, but really it would save an awful lot of faffing and faking.

Katsumi Yoshida, whose Northern Farm bred the world's top-rated horse Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}), is very much the man at the helm of Japan's biggest bloodstock auction. It is, after all, held in his vast park, which is both a tourist destination and competition ground for all manner of equines, from ponies to showjumpers. Extraordinarily, in the midst of it all, one of the most celebrated broodmares in Japan lives here in her dotage. Wind In Her Hair (Ire) (Alzao), a granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II's dual Classic winner Highclere (GB), is now 32 and has outlived her most famous son, Deep Impact (Ire), while another, Black Tide (Jpn), and many of their descendants, continue to feature prominently in the pedigrees of the young stock to be offered for sale on Monday and Tuesday. 

The days of Deep Impact's stock dominating this auction are now long gone, with the dual Derby winner Auguste Rodin (Ire) one of the members of his small final crop. There has been another sad farewell in the Japanese stallion ranks for Duramente (Jpn), a former winner of the first two legs of the Japanese Triple Crown who died two years ago at the age of nine, just as his offspring were starting to show real promise. 

This season, his daughter Liberty Island (Jpn) has carried the flag forward by securing the first two stages of the Triple Tiara, with just the Shuka Sho left to come on October 15. Her sire's final batch of yearlings on offer at the Select Sale numbers 14 and includes a half-sister to a filly who has already been adorned with the Triple Tiara and so much more. Offered as lot 94, the Duramente filly is the penultimate offspring of the Scottish-born Donna Blini (GB) (Bertolini), winner of the G1 Cheveley Park S. when trained by Brian Meehan and then bought by Katsumi Yohisda as a broodmare prospect for Northern Farm. And what a signing she turned out to be. Most celebrated of her offspring is her daughter Gentildonna (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), twice Horse of the Year in Japan and now a Group 1 producer herself, while her full-sister Donau Blue (Jpn) is a Grade 3 winner and stakes producer. What a family, and there are two chances to buy Donna Blini's offspring this week as her final foal, a Drefong filly, will enter the ring alongside her mother on Tuesday as lot 321.

This is another unusual feature of the Select Sale. Given the time of year, most of the 240 foals for sale are not yet weaned from their dams, and they appear as pairs on the morning of the sale during a viewing session of several hours before trade begins. They later return to their home farm, usually under new ownership, for weaning to take place eventually. 

Ready for action at the Northern Farm draft | Emma Berry

Before that, there are around 220 yearlings to go under the gavel on Monday. There are a few by European-based stallions, notably a full-brother to the Breeders' Cup and Prix Jean Romanet heroine Audarya (Fr), who does a very passing impression of his Coolmore sire Wootton Bassett (GB) and is catalogued in the Shadai draft as lot 102. Similarly eye-catching is his draft-mate, lot 158, a colt from the second crop of the American champion turf horse Bricks And Mortar, who appears to be stamping his stock pretty well. 

Those stallions with first-crop yearlings on offer include Classic winner Saturnalia (Jpn), whose average price at last year's foal session was almost 15 times his stud fee and who is represented by 13 yearlings and 17 foals this time around. The latter group includes a filly out of the Golden Slipper winner She Will Reign (Aus) (Manhattan Rain {Aus}) as lot 345.

Two-year-old champion and Hong Kong Mile winner Admire Mars (Jpn) also has his first yearlings at Northern Horse Park, as does Juddmonte's Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Siskin, who is now at Shadai Stallion Station. The GI Arkansas Derby winner Nadal, who has developed into an imposing animal, is also in that category, along with the Scat Daddy horse and Japanese Grade 1 winner Mr Melody, who stands at Yushun Stallion Station. 

Hotly anticipated, especially by their sire's owner Teruya Yoshida, are the first foals of Triple Crown winner Contrail (Jpn). One or more of his 21 youngsters may well steal the limelight during the second session, in which four foals from the first crop of Classic winner Poetic Flare (Ire) also feature.

It is the first year since the pandemic struck that visitors have been able to travel easily to Japan, and this comes at a time when Japanese horses have been riding high across world racing. The Dubai World Cup winner Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) graduated from this sale as a foal back in 2017 for ¥25,000,000 (£137,000/€160,000). His fellow winner at Meydan, the G2 UAE Derby hero Derma Sotogake (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits), hailed from the yearling session of 2021, bought for ¥18,000,000 (£98,000/€115,000). 

Their success, along with the likes of Saudi Cup winner Panthalassa (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) and another Dubai World Cup night winner, the aforementioned Equinox, all point to this being yet another blockbuster auction for the JRHA.

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‘The Luckiest Moment In My Life’: Yoshida on Sunday Silence

HOKKAIDO, Japan–In the bloodstock world, the battle for succession does not come down to unseemly squabbles in the boardroom. What matters first is what happens on the track, and even when all goes right there, success in the breeding shed is far from guaranteed.

Smallish in stature but a Goliath in influence and reputation, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Northern Dancer gave the European breeding industry many stars including, crucially, Sadler's Wells, whose line holds strong predominantly through Galileo (Ire) and his heir apparent, Frankel (GB). Northern Dancer also blessed Japan with an important influence in Northern Taste, bought as a yearling at Saratoga in 1972 by Zenya Yoshida before winning the G1 Prix de la Foret and then establishing a formidable stud career as the most successful stallion Japan had ever seen. Until Sunday Silence came along.

The latter, who inherited the feisty temperament of his sire Halo and was handed far-from-perfect conformation, had a storyline that was as chequered as it is fabled. Sunday Silence famously found little favour with American breeders when he retired from racing, despite having won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness S. and Breeders' Cup Classic, all the while engaging in a gripping two-season battle with Easy Goer. His part-owner Arthur Hancock III decided, wisely at the time, to quit while he was ahead with the near-black horse who had played a significant part in saving his Stone Farm from bankruptcy. With Sunday Silence already part-owned by Zenya Yoshida, who had bought into him at the end of his three-year-old season, the rest of the stallion was offered for sale to stand in Japan without ever covering a mare in Kentucky. It was very much America's loss.

Yoshida, whose sons Teruya, Katsumi and Haruya now dominate Japanese racing and breeding, died when members of Sunday Silence's first crop were still yearlings. Little could he have envisaged the influence the horse would have 30 years later, not just within the Shadai Stallion Station, where 14 of the 32 resident stallions are his male-line descendants, but across Japan and beyond. This year, on the Epsom Downs and the Curragh, his grandson Auguste Rodin (Ire) has given a mighty last shake of the rattle to Sunday Silence's most powerful son, Deep Impact (Jpn), who died woefully early at just 17, in 2019. Who now will pick up the baton for this line of succession?

Kizuna (Jpn), the second of Deep Impact's seven winners of the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), started well by becoming the champion first-season sire of 2019, and he is currently sitting in third place in the Japanese sires' table behind Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) and the late Duramente (Jpn), both of whom are sons of King Kamehameha (Jpn), who himself died just a fortnight after Deep Impact. It is quite clear, however, which horse Teruya Yoshida, head of Shadai Farm, wishes to see take up the mantle. 

“Contrail (Jpn) is coming this year and my first impression is that he could be a very good stallion–maybe Coolmore will start to send their mares again,” he says of the horse who emulated Deep Impact when winning the Japanese Triple Crown in 2020 and was a champion in each of his three seasons on the track, culminating in victory in the Japan Cup. Contrail's first foals will be on display this Tuesday during the JRHA Select Sale in Hokkaido's Northern Horse Park. 

His 21 youngsters catalogued include a son of the Argentinean Grade I winner Conviction (Arg) (City Banker {Arg}). The February-born colt, who is lot 360 in the Northern Farm draft, has been issued a reserve price of ¥50,000,000 (approximately £274,000 or €320,000) in a system which is unique to Japan, and which would knock hours off sales in other jurisdictions, whereby the auctioneer opens the bidding at the published reserve. 

Much is made of the turf/dirt debate, but the divide can be slim when it comes to horses acting on the respective surfaces. The 'dirt horse' Sunday Silence begat Deep Impact, who raced solely on turf, but rarely on anything easier than firm, and whose dam was the Irish-bred Wind In Her Hair (Alzao), herself only three generations down from Northern Dancer. American influences have long been strong in Japan, and the current flavour of the month, maybe more, is the dirt sprinter Mind Your Biscuits (Posse), who waltzed off with leading freshman honours last year. He is the sire of the wide-margin winner of the G2 UAE Derby, Derma Sotogake (Jpn), who went on to finish sixth in the Kentucky Derby.

“Mind Your Biscuits covered more than 200 mares this year,” says Yoshida. “The really good mares are still going to turf stallions but most of the breeders in Japan with more ordinary mares have a tendency to go to stallions who run on dirt. Most of the races in Japan are performed on dirt, so that's what the buyers want, and they have a dream to go to Dubai or to the Kentucky Derby.”

He adds, “We keep trying to buy good stallion prospects, not only from America, and sometimes they turn out to be good, but not every time. It's the same with yearlings.”

A slower burner among the younger stallion brigade in Japan has been Kitasan Black (Jpn). The winner of seven Grade 1 races, from 10 furlongs to two miles, he is a son of Deep Impact's brother Black Tide (Jpn), who plies his trade at the Breeders Stallion Station. Kitasan Black moved in to the Shadai Stallion Station on his retirement in 2018 and, though not under-subscribed, he wouldn't have been among the busiest on the roster. However, from his first batch of 84 foals emerged the horse now being ascribed superstar status, Equinox (Jpn), while his second crop contained this year's Japanese 2,000 Guineas winner and Derby second Sol Oriens (Jpn). His numbers, unsurprisingly, are on the up.

“People are very keen on Kitasan Black,” says Yoshida. “He produces very tough horses, but he wasn't so popular at the start. Now, from this year, people have started to breed their best mares to him, and he's a very fertile horse.”

While we already knew that Equinox, currently the top-rated horse in the world, would not be appearing in Europe this season, it is now almost certain that he won't leave his home nation again, even for the Breeders' Cup, with the Japan Cup on November 26 his key target before retirement.

Equinox is not alone in avoiding Britain this season. There were no Japanese runners at Royal Ascot, and nor will there be at York and Goodwood. And it's not just the lower level of prize-money in the UK that is an issue.

European classification of the racing is very correct. If we buy Group 2 or Group 3 mares in Europe, that is their true level.

Yoshida says, “English racing is not easy for us. If Japanese horses go to Europe during the summer when it's dry then maybe we have a better chance of success, but we have many races in Japan too, so it is not easy to send a horse to Europe to race.”

The expanding racing programme and huge sums of money on offer in the Gulf nations through the winter are already having an effect on the horse population in Europe, and it may well mean that we will see fewer Japanese horses contesting races on the more irregular and often undulating tracks of Britain, Ireland and France. 

“We are racing [on the Flat] all year round, so it is easier for us to send horses to race in the Middle East in February and March,” Yoshida explains. “For European horses it is not so easy as there are not the big races through the winter. Japanese horses like fast ground and level ground. In England, the courses are more natural and it's not so easy for Japanese horses. In Dubai or Saudi it is more similar to racing in Japan. If we go to Europe we can encounter soft ground or a different way of running.”

One thing that is unlikely to change is the frequency with which Japanese buyers appear at the European sales.

“We are looking for good horses from anywhere in the world and buying the good-quality mares from Europe is very important,” says Yoshida. “European classification of the racing is very correct. If we buy Group 2 or Group 3 mares in Europe, that is their true level. In some other countries we can't believe in it, but if we buy them in Europe we know that they are good-class horses.”

And it is not only in America that the Yoshida family goes shopping for stallions. Jim and Jackie Bolger's 2,000 Guineas winner Poetic Flare (Ire) joined the Shadai roster last year and is another with first foals at the forthcoming JRHA Sale. While Harbinger (GB) remains at Shadai, his fellow King George winner Novellist (Ger) has moved to Lex Stud.

Yoshida says, “We had very good success with Tony Bin (Ire), an Italian winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Everybody said at the start that he was so-so but he became a very good stallion. We don't know until we try. That happens with horses. Nobody knows what will happen. Like Wootton Bassett (GB), at the start people didn't care so much but now that has changed.”

He continues, “Sunday Silence became so good and now he is grandsire of the English Derby winner. It was great for Coolmore to send their best mare to breed to Deep Impact, and then for [Auguste Rodin] to turn out to be so good, and now a stallion prospect.

“I was a bit apprehensive when I saw him walking from the parade ring to the starting gate because he was dancing, and you want mile-and-a-half horses to be relaxed, but he always does it and still he runs well.”

If my father hadn't bought the farm in Kentucky, this wouldn't have happened. Economy-wise, it was a big mistake because we lost a lot of money in having that farm, but in the end we got the best investment ever.

Sunday Silence himself did a little more than just dance when he was in training but, still, he ran well. So too did many of his offspring.

“Most of our good runners in Japan now have Sunday Silence blood somewhere,” Yoshida says, and casts his mind back to his own days in the Bluegrass.

“My father bought a farm in Kentucky, and it was very near to Arthur Hancock's farm. I was there for four or five years and during that time I became a good friend of Arthur. When Sunday Silence appeared I congratulated Arthur and he suggested to me that we should own some of the horse. 

“After that he found that not many people were interested in him as a stallion in America and he asked me to buy the horse. I bought the horse without any hesitation. At the time, $11 million was very expensive, but the Japanese economy was very good and we were able to say yes. It was the luckiest moment in my life.”

He adds, “If my father hadn't bought the farm in Kentucky, this wouldn't have happened. Economy-wise, it was a big mistake because we lost a lot of money in having that farm, but in the end we got the best investment ever. Sunday Silence changed Japanese racing.”

And let's not forget, he arrived just before the end of Northern Taste's reign in the sires' championship in Japan, that ran from 1982 to 1992.

“If you look at the history of Kentucky Derby winners, not that many become really good stallions, so I understand why American breeders were cautious,” Yoshida notes. “But at that time we were very innocent in American racing so when they asked us if we wanted to buy the horse, we did it without hesitation. Lucky! Knowing too much is not always good.”

In the quest to continue a line that has become so dominant, Yoshida knows that despite having a number of sons of Deep Impact in the pipeline, not all will light the spark that could ignite a successful second career. 

“Look at Northern Dancer: as stallions, not all of his good sons became successful,” he says. “When I went to Saratoga to buy Northern Taste I didn't know he would become a Group 1 winner in Europe and that he would become the leading sire in Japan 11 years straight. He was a very inbred horse and I was a little bit worried about that. But he lived a long time, he died when he was almost 30 years old, and he was always a very healthy horse.”

Yoshida adds, “It was just lucky, and that happened in the beginning. Then Sunday Silence came. Then Deep Impact. Maybe Contrail will come next.”

 

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