Tag: Kitasan Black

Posthumous First Japanese Sires’ Championship for Duramente

There's a new king of the Japanese sire ranks and his name is Duramente (Jpn). However, his coronation is bittersweet for the Shadai Stallion Station as the son of King Kamehameha (Jpn) died in September 2021 at the age of just nine.

The winner in 2015 of the G1 Satsuki Sho and G1 Tokyo Yushun – the Japanese 2,000 Guineas and Derby equivalents – Duramente was quick to make an impression following his retirement to stud in 2017. The champion first-season sire of 2020, he has progressed through the senior ranks at an eye-catching rate, finishing 11th in the general sires' table in the year of his untimely death, and then fifth in 2022. 

Duramente's outstanding daughter Liberty Island (Jpn) played a major role in her sire's  first championship. Out of the top-class Australian mare Yankee Rose (Aus) (All American {Aus}), whose exploits on the track included Group 1 wins in the Inglis Sires' and Spring Champion S. as well as finishing runner-up to Capitalist (Aus) in the G1 Golden Slipper, Liberty Island followed up her Grade 1 success as a juvenile by landing the Fillies' Triple Crown of 2023. She then found only the mighty Equinox (Jpn) too good for her in the G1 Japan Cup.

Duramente's leading first-crop son Titleholder (Jpn) was still running for him in 2023 at the age of five, and to his three Grade 1 wins of 2021 and 2022, which included the Kikuka Sho (St Leger), he added the G2 Nikkei Sho, as well as finishing third on Christmas Eve in the G1 Arima Kinen.

With a Classic winner from each of his crops to date, Duramente was also represented in 2023 by Stars On Earth (Jpn), his Oka Sho and Yushun Himba (1,000 Guineas and Oaks) winner of the previous year who was third in the Japan Cup and second in the Arima Kinen behind Do Deuce (Jpn).

Dura Erde (Jpn), the G1 Hopeful S winner of 2022, managed two Grade 1 placings in December, while Champagne Color (Jpn) won the G1 NHK Mile last May. The latter is a rarity in that his dam Memorial Life (GB) is by the subfertile and later gelded Reckless Abandon (GB).

Duramente, who was a son of the dual Grade 1 winner Admire Groove (Jpn), herself a half-sister to the Shadai stallion Rulership (Jpn), owned a pedigree replete with the dominant names of the Japanese breeding scene over the last decades, with his first three dams being daughters of Sunday Silence, Tony Bin (Ire) and Northern Taste respectively. It is easy to see why he succeeded in the short time granted to him at stud, and even easier to see that he will be missed. 

King Kamehameha, who was also champion broodmare sire for 2023, was responsible for the quinella in the table, with another of his sons, Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) finishing a close second – a spot he has occupied for the last four years, the previous three being behind the 11-time champion Deep Impact (Jpn). 

Among the top six sires in Japan for 2023, three were Japanese Derby winners, one a runner-up in that same Classic, and one a Japanese St Leger and Japan Cup winner. Lord Kanaloa is something of an outlier among this elite crew as five of his six Grade 1 wins came over 1,200m, with the other being the Yasuda Kinen over 1,600m. He is best known as a stallion, however, for siring the Fillies' Triple Crown and dual Japan Cup winner Almond Eye (Jpn). In 2023 he was represented by the G1 Saudi Cup winner Panthalassa (Jpn), who has himself just joined the stallion ranks at Arrow Stud, and by his fellow Grade 1 winners First Force (Jpn) and Brede Weg (Jpn).

Kizuna (Jpn), a son of Deep Impact and the leading first-season sire of 2019, has managed a top-five finish in each of the last three seasons and was third overall for 2023. His globe-trotting daughter Songline (Jpn) led the way, completing back-to-back wins in the G1 Yasuda Kinen in June after winning the G1 Victoria Mile. She also won the G3 1351 Turf Sprint at the Saudi Cup meeting of 2022, and that same race was won by another of Kizuna's offspring, Bathrat Leon (Jpn), in 2023.

Heart's Cry (Jpn), whose racing claim to fame was being the only horse to beat Deep Impact on Japanese soil when winning the G1 Arima Kinen of 2005, died in March 2023, three years after being pensioned at Shadai. He added a new Group 1 winner to his list last season, but not in Japan. His major flag-bearer was Continuous (Jpn), trained in Ireland by Aidan O'Brien and winner of the St Leger in England. Heart's Cry's previous year's Classic winner, the Japanese Derby hero Do Deuce (Jpn), holds similar dragon-slaying credentials of his own, having beaten Equinox in that race, and he was back for more in 2023, which ended with another top-level win for him in the Arima Kinen.

Heart's Cry ended up in fourth place in the table, having finished in the top three in the six years prior to that. Four years after his death, Deep Impact finally relinquished the title, and was fifth in 2023, a year in which he too was represented in overseas Classics by the Derby and Irish Derby winner Auguste Rodin (Jpn), who is a member of his final crop of just 14 foals.

Justin Palace (Jpn), from Deep Impact's penultimate crop, was his leading scorer in Japan and won the G1 Tenno Sho in the spring. That success has doubtless contributed to the move of his 14-year-old half-brother, the GI Belmont winner Palace Malice (Curlin), to Darley Japan after he spent eight seasons at Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky. Incidentally, along with the brand new recruits Adayar (Ire) and Hukum (Ire) from Europe, Darley Japan has also taken in another former American-based stallion for 2024 in Heart's Cry's son Yoshida (Jpn), a name which is certainly not unfamiliar in Japanese breeding circles and beyond.

Sixth in the general sires' list for 2023 was Kitasan Black (Jpn), whose fame reached new heights courtesy of his son Equinox (Jpn), the highest-rated horse in the world last year. Kitasan Black, who is by Deep Impact's full-brother Black Tide (Jpn), is the kind of horse who simply wouldn't get a look in at a Flat stud in Europe these days, but that's a pity. His seven Grade 1 wins came between 2,000m and 3,200m and just about everything in between. His back-to-back wins in the two-mile Tenno Sho (Spring) were not off-putting to Japanese breeders, however, and he was the busiest stallion in the country in 2023, covering 242 mares. His load may well be eased somewhat during this coming season, with his son Equinox now having retired to stand alongside him at Shadai. Father and son are the two most expensive stallions in Japan at ¥20 million (€124,000) and the 'book full' sign went up for Equinox as soon as his fee, which is a record for a first-season sire, was announced. 

Up and Coming

Suave Richard (Jpn), who was runner-up to Rey De Oro (Jpn) in the 2017 Japanese Derby before winning the G1 Osaka Hai at four and the Japan Cup (under Oisin Murphy) as a five-year-old, was the champion first-season sire in Japan for 2023.

The stand-out among his 21 winners is Regaleira (Jpn), who beat Sottsass's brother Shin Emperor (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) to win the G1 Hopeful S. on December 28. She owns a special pedigree, her dam Roca (Jpn) (Harbinger {GB}) being out of a three-parts-sister to Deep Impact. Regaleira's recent victory was also the first at Grade 1 level for Harbinger as a broodmare sire. The King George winner of 2010 finished 11th in the general sires' table. 

While Suave Richard, by Heart's Cry, was also responsible for G2 winner Corazon Beat (Jpn) and was the easy winner on progeny earnings, he was not the most prolific when it came to number of winners. That honour went to Moanin, the Grade 1-winning dirt miler by Henny Hughes who was represented by 44 winners, a staggering number by Japanese two-year-old standards, and all recorded on dirt. In fact, the second, third and fourth in the table were all American-bred stallions. Giant's Causeway's son Bricks And Mortar finished runner-up with 14 winners, including the G3 Saudi Arabia Royal Cup scorer Gonbade Qabus (Jpn), and New Year's Day, whose career started in Kentucky but whose first Japanese-bred runners came last season, was represented by 23 winners. 

The aforementioned Japanese Derby winner Rey De Oro was fifth with 13 winners, the same number recorded by the dual Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow (Ire), who was seventh, just behind Kentucky Derby and Preakness hero California Chrome, who is another to have been moved from America to Japan.

 

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International Bloodlines on Offer at Northern Farm Mixed Sale

Sales action returns to Hokkaido's Northern Horse Park on Tuesday, October 24 with the second edition of the Northern Farm Mixed Sale. The auction features a selection of 44 weanlings which is followed by 76 broodmares and fillies out of training.

The country's most recent Triple Crown winner Contrail (Jpn) was the star of the foal section of the JRHA Select Sale in July, and the Shadai stallion is represented by two of his first-crop weanlings in the Mixed Sale. Lot 6 is a Contrail filly out of the American Grade I winner Mirth (Colonel John), while lot 11 is a half-brother to the GI Kentucky Oaks winner Cathryn Sophia (Street Boss). Contrail's sire Kitasan Black (Jpn) also has a youngster in the sale, lot 8, a filly out of the Argentinean champion race mare Elvas (Arg) (Catcher In The Rye).

A Kingman (GB) colt out of the well-related Deep Impact (Jpn) mare Ikat (Jpn) features as lot 9, while the sale opens with a son of Japanese champion sire-elect Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) out of the G2 Kilboy Estates S. winner Red Tea (GB) (Sakhee).

An international array of bloodlines can be found in the filly and broodmare section. Three daughters of Deep Impact are included, with two of them being the offspring of Argentinean Grade I winners. Of those, Culminate (Jpn), out of the champion three-year-old Cursora (Arg) (Candy Stripes), is offered as lot 111 in foal to Jim Bolger's 2,000 Guineas winner Poetic Flare (Ire).

The Heart's Cry (Jpn) mare Premiere Score (Jpn) is catalogued as lot 103 and is a winning daughter of the G2 Oaks d'Italia and G1 Premio Lydia Tesio victrix Final Score (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}) from the family of Irish Oaks winner Sea Of Class (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}). She has been covered by the Japanese Derby winner Rey De Oro (Jpn).

Another daughter of Heart's Cry catalogued as lot 151 is the three-year-old filly Lebens Beruf (Jpn), whose claims to being a future enticing broodmare prospect are backed up by her strong page. She is a three-parts-sister to the Japanese champion juvenile filly Danon Fantasy (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and out of the dual Grade 1 winner Life For Sale (Arg) (Not For Sale {Arg}).

 

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Seven Days: A St Leger Fit For a King

With a royal audience, Continuous (Jpn) became the seventh winner of the St Leger for Aidan O'Brien, relegating the King and Queen's runner Desert Hero (GB) to third, just as Pour Moi (Ire) had done in the Derby with Carlton House back in 2011 in front of the late Queen.

There were plenty of strands to an enthralling St Leger that would have made for good storylines: two of those, victory for Desert Hero with his owners present on Town Moor, or a final British Classic for Frankie Dettori, may well have propelled the dear old Classic to the front pages on Sunday. As it was, and for less obviously mainstream reasons, the win of Continuous was extremely satisfying. 

His success completed a full set of British Classics for Sunday Silence as paternal grandsire, with three of his sons having provided this quintet. The most significant contributor was of course Deep Impact (Jpn), Sunday Silence's most influential offspring, but Saturday provided the chance for Heart's Cry to have a posthumous moment in the limelight, some six months after his death at the age of 22, which came two years after he was pensioned at Shadai Stallion Station in Japan.

Heart's Cry, out of the dual Grade 3 winner Irish Dance (Jpn), herself a daughter of the Arc winner Tony Bin (Ire), has lived in the shadow of his more famous stud-mate Deep Impact. This is despite Heart's Cry having been the only horse to have beaten him on Japanese soil, in the G1 Arima Kinen in the year of Deep Impact's Triple Crown success. Heart's Cry was a year older, and after winning the G2 Shimbun Hai went on to run second in the Japanese Derby to another legend of the Shadai stallion ranks, King Kamehameha (Jpn). Campaigned at three, four and five, he will doubtless be best remembered as a racehorse for his defeat of Deep Impact, but he was beaten only a nose by the English-trained raider Alkaased in the Japan Cup a month before that, and after his Christmas Day triumph went on to Nad Al Sheba, where he was the easy winner of the Dubai Sheema Classic, with Ouija Board (GB) and Alexander Goldrun (Ire) among those to have finished behind him that day.

In 2007, both he and Deep Impact retired to Shadai's imposing stallion roster, and three years later they were first and second on the first-season sires' table. By 2012, Deep Impact was champion sire, a position he is only likely to relinquish this year, four seasons after his death. Heart's Cry worked his way up the table and has never been out of the top five stallions in Japan in the last decade, with his highest placing coming in 2019 when he was once again runner-up to his old rival.

In the 2,000 Guineas winner Saxon Warrior (Jpn), Oaks victrix Snowfall (Jpn) and this season's Derby, Irish Derby and Irish Champion S. winner Auguste Rodin (Jpn), we have seen Deep Impact blend well with mares by Galileo (Ire). It is fair to assume that that is where Fluff (Ire), the full-sister to Saxon Warrior's dam Maybe (Ire), was heading in 2019 in the season in which Deep Impact became incapacitated before his death in the August of that year. Heart's Cry stepped in and on Saturday, as Continuous unleashed a lethal injection of pace to cruise to make the front-running Gregory (GB) look as if he was standing still, it was easy to spot the thick silver lining to what may have once felt like a black cloud. 

Natagora (Fr), the 1,000 Guineas winner of 2008 after her previous season's victory in the G1 Cheveley Park S., is the only outlier to the group. Conceived during the three seasons in which her sire Divine Light (Jpn) stood in France, she is out of the Lagardere-bred Reinamixa (Fr) (Linamix {Fr}).

Deep Impact has also been represented by three French Classic winners in Study Of Man (Ire) and Beauty Parlour (GB), both out of Storm Cat-line mares, and Fancy Blue (Ire), whose dam is a full-sister to High Chaparral (Ire) (Sadler's Wells).

Heart's Cry can't match him in the depth of his haul of Group 1 winners but he has been no slouch himself. In Australia, he has sired the Cox Plate winner Lys Gracieux (Jpn) and the Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti (Jpn). The latter was another to have been out of a mare by an Arc winner, this one being Helissio (Fr), who also started his stud career at Shadai.

A nice postscript in the year of Heart's Cry's demise is that his son Suave Richard (Jpn), one of his two winners of the Japan Cup, is currently leading the freshman sires' table in Japan. 

What will arguably be most important to Japan on the reputational front, however, is if Heart's Cry appears as the sire of an Arc winner himself. It's a tall order to turn out a relatively lightly-raced colt again just 15 days after his St Leger triumph but it is hard not to feel that Continuous, who will need to be supplemented, has much in his favour to make an impact at Longchamp on the first Sunday of October. 

The only thing that would make the Japanese fans happier on Arc day than a win for Continuous would be if the spoils went instead to Through Seven Seas (Jpn). The five-year-old mare is by Dream Journey (Jpn), a grandson of Sunday Silence, and she was last seen running the mighty Equinox (Jpn) to a neck in the G1 Takarazuka Kinen in June. Trained by Tomohito Ozeki, Through Seven Seas arrived in Chantilly on Friday and is boarding at Nicolas Clement's stable in the build-up to the Arc.

A Valued Test

While there is plenty of head-shaking at the shuffling off to National Hunt studs of St Leger winners in this part of the world (NB: this doesn't prevent Flat breeders from using their services), the picture is entirely different in Japan.

As Triple Crown winners, Deep Impact and his immensely popular young stallion son Contrail (Jpn) of course both won Japan's St Leger equivalent, the Kikuka Sho. So did Kitasan Black (Jpn), the sire of Equinox and the busiest stallion in Japan this year with 242 mares covered. So too did Orfevre (Jpn), who was beaten a neck into second in the following year's Arc, and also Epipheneaia (Jpn), who went on to win the Japan Cup and sired the Fillies' Triple Crown winner Daring Tact (Jpn) in his first crop. They too remain popular members of the Shadai roster. 

Another For the Late Adlerflug

Doncaster's was not the only St Leger to be run over the weekend, as the German equivalent was also staged at Dortmund on Sunday, though this, like the Irish St Leger, has in recent years been opened up to older horses. 

This year's winner, the Gestut Hof Ittlingen homebred Lordano (Ger), is a four-year-old, and the son of Adlerflug (Ger) went one better than his full-brother Loft (Ger), who was second in the same race two years ago.

The most famous member of this family that has served Ittlingen so well, in international terms at least, is Lando (Ger) (Acetanango {Ger}), a full-brother to their grand-dam, Laurella (GB). At home, Lando took the scalp of Monsun (Ger) in the Deutsches Derby and in the following season's Grosser Preis von Baden. Twice named German Horse of the Year, he spread his wings to win two Group 1 races in Italy and, finally, the Japan Cup of 1995. He makes an appearance in modern-day pedigrees most usually as the damsire of the talented but subfertile Farhh (GB), who already has four young sons at stud: Far Above (Ire), King Of Change (GB), Wells Farhh Go (Ire) and Dee Ex Bee (GB).

Despite twice beating Monsun (Ger), Lando could not be held in the same regard as him as an influence at stud. In reflecting on Monsun's reign it is worth remembering that his sire Konigsstuhl (Ger) won the German Triple Crown, while his damsire, the Deutsches Derby winner Surumu (Ger), also features as the paternal grandsire of Lando.

Class will out, if only we give it a chance.

Hotter Still

As the two-year-old racing steps up a notch in Europe, it is hard not to be impressed with the start Too Darn Hot (GB) has made to his stud career. 

After the previous weekend's victory for his daughter Fallen Angel (GB), whose owner-breeder Steve Parkin outlined plans for his own stallion operation in Monday's TDN, Too Darn Hot was represented by another eye-catching success in the facile winner of the G2 May Hill S., Darnation (Ire), for owner-bredeer Newtown Anner Stud.

Karl Burke is the trainer behind both of these fillies and he's pretty darn hot himself at the moment with a 30% strike-rate. Burke also provided Ballyhane Stud's Soldier's Call (GB) with his first group winner over the weekend in the G3 Prix Eclipse scorer Dawn Charger (Ire), as well as winning the Listed Stand Cup S. at Chester with Al Qareem (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}). At Ireland's Champions Festival, Burke had also saddled G2 Dullingham Park S. winner Flight Plan (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}).

Another highly impressive juvenile performance at Doncaster came from Iberian (Ire), winner of the G2 Champagne S. for Charlie Hills. The son of Lope De Vega (Ire) was bred by Ballylinch Stud, who retained a share in him when he was bought by Johnny McKeever on his trainer's behalf, and Ballylinch now races him in partnership with Teme Valley Racing. With luck we will see this progressive colt next in the Dewhurst.

Lope De Vega, whose first-crop son Belardo (Ire) won the Dewhurst in 2014 and was also bred by Ballylinch, has sired more winners (138) in Europe than any other stallion so far this year, and that haul includes 14 black-type winners. 

Iberian's success capped a good 36 hours for bloodstock agent Johnny McKeever, who saw two of his in-training selections for the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable land group wins in Australia. Just Fine (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) won Saturday's G3 Kingston Town S. at Randwick after being bought from from last year's Horses-in-Training Sale, while Goffs London Sale purchase Military Mission (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) landed the G3 Newcastle Gold Cup.

 

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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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