Japanese Horse Of The Year Kitasan Black, the sire of world champion Equinox, had the honour of siring the top-priced colt and filly at the yearling session of the JRHA Select Sale, and both were records for the sale.
The sale-topper was Northern Farm’s half-brother to stakes-paced winner Best Me Ever, a ?590m (A$5.4m) buy for Rodeo Japan and a record price for a colt at the sale. (lot 100)
The dark bay or brown colt is the third foal of the stakes-winning Galileo mare Delphinia, who was runner-up in the Group 1 British Champions Fillies' and Mares' Stakes Prix de Royallieu.
A Kitasan Black half-sister to the Champion Japanese 2yo Filly Ascoli Piceno and stakes-winner Ascoltare took the honours as the top-priced filly.
Masahiro Noda’s Danox Co.Ltd had the final say at ?400m (A$3.7m). (lot 71)
The filly is the sixth foal of the winning Danehill Dancer mare Ascolti, a half-sister to three stakes-winners out of the Listed stakes-winner and Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes runner-up Listen (Sadler’s Wells).
Noda owns Danon Decile (JPN), winner of G1/Japanese Derby, which he bought at JRHA Select Sale for 135,000,000 yen, He was also very active at yearling session buying four yearlings for 1.200,000,000yen in total.
Fujita spent 850,000,000yen to acquire 5 yearlings, including Lot 127, the white yearling by Maurice(JPN), which he bought for 190,000,000yen, (US$1,180,125).
“As it has been one of my dreams to add a white horse to my string, I am very happy to buy this colt”, Fujita said after the purchase. “And this is from very successful Japanese family. I hope he runs well and becomes a popular horse, which racing fans like to support. It is still regrettable for me to miss Lot 100”, for which Fujita was the underbidder. “I am so happy to win the battle for this lot.”
After buying at the 2yo sale in May, Mike Repole’s Repole Stable was active throughout the day.
Through agent Alex Solis it signed for a Contrail colt US$310,000, two Drefong colts for US$254,659 and US$310,560, Kizuna filly US$422,361, and a Nadal filly for US$484,473.
Overall, 224 yearlings were sold for 14,497,000,000 yen an 8.5% increase from twelve months ago. Average price, 64,718,750 yen, is 4.6% increase from 2023. Both gross and average set new records at the yearling session of JRHA Sale, while the clearance rate 96.1% is slightly lower than 2023, when it was 97.3%, and median price, 41,000,000 yen, is down 8.9% from 2023.
“It is an amazing market”, Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm, the biggest consignor at the sale, commented at the conclusion of the yearling session.
“The number of buyers registered at this year’s sale is the biggest ever, and the number of owners and trainers who visited my farm before the sale was the biggest ever. I am so glad to see so many people joined and supported the market.”
“The stock exchange market in Japan has been active recently, and I think it is one of the factors behind the strong market here today. And another factor is the success of Japanese runners at international races in recent years.”
“I am proud of the quality of foals we offer tomorrow, and I hope the market tomorrow is as strong as today”
