JRHA SELECT SALE OPENS WITH RECORD HIGHS

Lot 51 Deep Impact - Air Groove consigned by Katsumi Yoshida (inset)
(Image : TDN / Japan Racing Association)

“SHOOT TO THE MOON”

Summerhill’s connection with the Yoshida family in Japan is well publicised in the presence on the farm’s Stallion Roster of the highly performed racehorse, Admire Main.

Yesterday, it was Japan’s turn to announce it’s economic revival at the JRHA’s Yearling Sale.

In the few minutes it took for a statuesque filly to take several graceful pirouettes around the Northern Horse Park sale ring Monday, the Japanese bloodstock industry burst back into life. The daughter of Horses of the Year Deep Impact (Jpn) (Sunday Silence) and Air Groove (Jpn) (Tony Bin {Ire}) had been groomed for this moment virtually since she had been born at Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm. She did not disappoint, bringing a Japanese yearling record bid of ¥360 million ($4,390,244) from prominent agent Nobutaka Tada’s Globe Equine Management Co. Ltd. at the opening session of the Japan Racing Horse Association’s select sale of yearlings and foals.

Perhaps the best news for the JRHA is that the filly was not alone in the spotlight. A half-brother to 2007 Horse of the Year Admire Moon (Jpn) (End Sweep) by current leading sire King Kamehameha (Jpn) (Kingmambo) also smashed the previous record yearling price of ¥250 million set in 2007 when he went to Takaya Shimakawa for ¥260 million (US$3,170,731).

With the two top-priced yearlings adding turbo power, the overall sale results zoomed upward to a Japanese yearling session record gross of ¥4,726,000,000, a remarkable increase of 49.6% from 2010’s languid session total of ¥3,157,100,000. The clearance rate improved from 80.8% in 2010 to 84.5%, with 197 yearlings sold from 233 offered.

The average price of ¥23,990,000 leaped up by 31.5% from last year’s average of ¥18,249,133, all the more significant since the overall JRHA sale results had declined for four consecutive years. The vibrant trade was expected to make national news as a sign that Japanese confidence is returning after the earthquake and tsunami disaster in March.

“I was expecting the sale figures to be down, so it was a very happy mistake,” said Yoshida, who bred and consigned the two toppers. “This market is very healthy and that is good for the horse industry.”

As Japanese sales continue to shift toward yearling and 2-year-olds and away from the traditional concentration on foals, the quality of the yearlings on offer, both in pedigree and conformation, “was much better than before,” Yoshida observed.

Sticking with his decision to sell the filly out of Air Groove, the 1996 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) winner who missed catching European champion male Pilsudski (Ire) (Polish Precedent) by a neck in the 1997 Japan Cup, proved difficult.

“I didn’t want to sell her; I wanted to keep her,” confided Yoshida.

Even though he well knew the quality of the filly, who is a three-quarter sister to 2004 champion older mare Admire Groove (Jpn) (Sunday Silence) and a half-sister to a pair of Group 2 winners, the price she demanded in a market that strongly prefers colts was a surprise.

“I never expected so much in this economy,” said Yoshida’s son, Shunsuke, general manager of the huge Northern Farm operation and their international roving ambasador. He added, “When she was born, we decided we wanted her to be a star at the sale. Physically, she is very nice. She is the 10th foal out of Air Groove, but she is bigger than the others. Her brothers and sisters had strong temperaments, but she is very relaxed and has a good mind.”

“I liked everything about her: her eyes, elegance, beauty, movement - she had everything,” declared Tada, who also praised the filly’s composure. “She can pose; she can see the cameras and she knows how to behave. She’s like a supermodel.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

NEO UNIVERSE COLT TOPS JRHA SELECT FOAL SALE

Takaya Shimakawa
JRHA Select Sale Foal Session Lot 355 Neo Universe x Accoustics
(Photos : Thoroughbred Daily News) 

JAPAN RACING HORSE ASSOCIATION
SELECT SALE 2010 

No matter how challenging it might be or how unfathomable to people in other markets, Japanese owners still have a yen for buying foals as their primary racing prospects.

They demonstrated their zeal on Tuesday when spirited bidding duels reminiscent of headier financial times broke out in the Northern Horse Park sale pavilion during the foal session of the Japan Racing Horse Association select sale. When the hammer fell for the final time, three foals still at their dams’ sides each had sold for the equivalent of more than $1-million.

Overall, six foals surpassed the top price paid for a yearling on Monday, the ¥66-million (about $733,333) bid for a colt by Deep Impact (Jpn).

More aggressive spending had been predicted by JRHA Vice Chairman and Shadai Farm owner Teruya Yoshida, who said the quality of the foal section of the catalog was superior. Still, with sellers bracing for a continuation of a problematic market, the results were better than anticipated for some, giving a boost to Japan’s elite auction that has declined annually ever since 2006 as global and national economies suffered.

Of the 208 foals offered, 141 were reported sold for a clearance rate of 67.8 percent, up from the 64.7-percent rate in 2009 during two foal sessions that featured 207 sold from 320 offered. The gross reached ¥3.339-billion ($37,100,000) as compared to ¥4,913,200,000 during two foal sessions in 2009. The average price of ¥23,680,000 ($263,121) declined by less than one percent, despite ongoing economic woes, providing a reason for some celebrations.

“This is much better than we anticipated, no doubt - the prices were very good,” Yoshida said. “The main reason that expectations were exceeded is that people love horses and they have money, a little bit of money, to spend.”

The atmosphere in the pavilion, which had been politely quiet other than the rhythmical droning and gavel rapping by the auctioneers, crackled about a quarter through the 214 foal catalogue pages when a Neo Universe (Jpn) colt (hip 355) with a white face and three white legs scampered into the ring.

The second bid boosted the price up to the equivalent of $500,000, making it clear that advance billing from consignor Northern Farm that the colt out of the unraced mare Acoustics (Jpn) (Cape Cross) could be the star of the sale was not just hype.

While the colt, a full brother to 2009 champion Japanese three-year-old male and G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) winner Logi Universe (Jpn), stood calmly, prominent owners Riichi Kondo and Takaya Shimakawa fired bids from opposite sides of the pavilion.

Kondo took his time, but Shimakawa - a jovial health foods entrepreneur who had demonstrated a playful mood by bidding more than $500,000 on another colt moments earlier while casually walking into an office at the rear of the pavilion - retorted immediately during their duel.

Relaxed but determined, Shimakawa prevailed, going to ¥112-million ($1,244,444), which, while markedly higher than the top yearling price, was significantly lower than last year’s most expensive foal. A big half-brother to Triple Crown winner Deep Impact (Jpn) by Daiwa Major (Jpn) elicited a ¥165-million ($1,736,842) bid from Shimakawa in 2009.

“This is not the foal I loved the most, but when I went to Northern Farm, owner Katsumi Yoshida recommended this one very highly,” Shimakawa said of the Neo Universe colt. “I respect Katsumi, and I was happy to take his advice. I was ready to pay more for the colt, so I am happy.”

The Neo Universe colt was just one of many highlights of the sale for Katsumi Yoshida, whose Northern Farm reigned as leading consignor for the 12th time in the 13-year history of the JRHA sale. Five of the eight highest selling foals were dispatched by Northern Farm.

“I am very happy,” a beaming Yoshida said as he hosted a celebratory dinner party while noting that only four horses of the 130 he entered in the sale were not sold. “The prices were very good.”

His son, Shunsuke Yoshida, who manages Northern’s Kuko branch, said the sale of the Neo Universe colt was significant for several reasons, including the excitement factor of the more than ¥100-million winning bid, which he hoped would fire market momentum.

Some of the sale’s 350 registered buyers more than did their part to maintain the momentum. Just 15 hips after buying the Neo Universe colt, Shimakawa jumped back into action, revealing which foal he had really fallen in love with by turning back Kondo again in bidding ¥92-million ($1,022,222) for a Deep Impact (Jpn) colt out of Argentine Group 1-placed winner Data (Arg) (hip 370).

“This was the one I liked the most and wanted to buy,” Shimakawa said while more than 25 members of the Japanese news media clustered around him. The Deep Impact colt is the second foal of Data, who is a half-sister to Group 2 winner Danish (Arg) and to Chilean Group 1-placed Diamond (Arg), and will eventually join the Shimakawa racing empire that currently spans about 150 horses in training.

But Shimakawa wasn’t the only buyer at the top end of the foal market. Shortly after the Deep Impact colt was led out of the ring, agent Nobutaka Tada of Globe Equine Management Co. Ltd. lassoed a Zenno Rob Roy (Jpn) colt (hip 377) out of Festa Delle Donna (Jpn) (Hector Protector), for ¥105-million ($1,166,666), the second highest price of the day. The colt is from the family of Japanese Group 2 winner Tosen Jo O (Jpn) (Timber Country).

“The trainer likes Zenno Rob Roy - he trained him,” Tada said, referring to leading conditioner Kazuo Fujisawa, whose major clients include Hidetoshi Yamamoto, chairman of Tokyo-based Fields Corp., a distributor of pachinko gambling machines.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t win the G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) this year with Pelusa (Jpn) (Zenno Rob Roy), but he’s a really good colt and we bought him at the JRHA sale, so we’re hoping we got another good Zenno Rob Roy today.” Tada continued.

The colt was consigned by Teruya Yoshida’s Shadai Farm, and Yoshida had said he was the best individual in the Shadai foal consignment this year.

While the Yoshida family did very well in both selling the vast majority of their horses and at the highest prices, other breeders and consignors were not so fortunate. An unofficial analysis of the sale results by an independent consignor showed that 61 percent of the horses offered by those not affiliated with the Shadai Group were led out of the ring unsold.

“It means a lot of us will have big yearling consignments next year,” said Irish native Harry Sweeney, who operates Paca Paca Farm, which offered 10 foals on Tuesday. Only one of those foals was reported as sold.

“It’s tough,” he reflected. “We’re suffering from a double whammy - this market is transitioning from a foal market to a yearling market, requiring more investment and a longer wait on possible returns, and it’s happening during a recession.”

Despite the much discussed development of a yearling market in Japan, buyers still seem eager for foals.

“No one has asked me to wait to sell them until they are yearlings,” said a smiling Teruya Yoshida, who replied light-heartedly when asked why buyers still are willing to play in the riskier side of the market with unweaned youngsters : “Foals are prettier – it’s simple. It’s the same as humans. One at three to four years old is nicer than one who is 14, and who can say very bad things.”

Yoshida also said that Shadai Group horses sell strongly even when other consignors are struggling because the family farms have a long record of proven performance with their horses.

“If other breeders have a good horse, it’s no problem, but you have to have established credibility,” Yoshida said. “Not many breeders are strong enough to do that.”

“We work hard,” he stressed. “We choose which horses to sell in this market and we do not just try to sell horses based on our name.”

Overall, the reformatted JRHA sale - which was shortened from two days of foals and one day of yearlings in 2009 to one day each for yearlings and foals this year - yielded a gross of ¥6,496,100,000 ($72,178,889), while 314 horses were sold from 422 offered.

While true comparisons are not possible due to the differing format, the number of horses sold this year was just 15 fewer than in 2009. Average price of all horses sold was ¥20,690,000 ($229,869) or 10.6 percent lower than the average for all horses sold in 2009.

JRHA SELECT FOALS
TOP 10 LOTS 

Hip	Sex	Sire	Dam	Price ($)
355	C	Neo Universe	Acoustics	1,244,444
377	C	Zenno Rob Roy	Festa Della Donna	1,166,666
370	C	Deep Impact	Data	1,022,222
402	C	Deep Impact	Sonic Groove	888,888
415	C	Heart’s Cry	Moteck	777,777
324	C	Zenno Rob Roy	Exige	744,444
348	C	Deep Impact	Shes All Eltish	733,333
383	C	War Emblem	Cecil Cut	644,444
423	C	Chichicastenango	Fusaichi Mignon	600,000
447	C	King Kamehameha	Via Lactea	588,888

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

MY GOODNESS, JAPAN IS IN CLOVER

Northern Taste
(Shadai Thoroughbred Club/Skynet/Franco)

JAPAN THOROUGHBRED STATISTICS 2009

If you’d visited Japan forty-odd years back, even as an avid horseman you probably wouldn’t have bothered much with visiting their stud farms, nor for that matter making a point of going to the races. All of that has undergone a dramatic renaissance in the intervening time, to the degree that today Japan boasts the highest prize money in the world, and it’s the centre of a burgeoning breeding industry. There were many who might’ve doubted Japan’s ability to aspire to any heights in the world of thoroughbred production, given the limitations on land space and the cost of it, yet at the heart of that country’s relatively new-found prosperity was a marvellous visionary in the form of the late Zenya Yoshida, who realised that to become world class, you needed to deal at the very top of the bloodstock world.

A consummate horseman in his own right, the patriarch of what is now known as one of the most successful breeding jurisdictions on the planet, set about acquiring yearlings at the major international sales, and within a relatively short time, he struck gold, as he was to do several times thereafter. While we all need to be fortunate in our lives, it’s amazing how lucky Zenya Yoshida became, the harder he practised, and one of his early windfalls came in the shape of a typically nuggety son of the emperor of all stallions, Northern Dancer, by the name of Northern Taste.

Not only did this fellow aspire to Group One glory in the Prix de la Foret at Paris’ fabled Longchamps racecourse, but he subsequently secured in excess of ten national sires titles in his homeland Japan.

From the time Northern Taste began to leave his mark on Japanese breeding, the Yoshida family prepared themselves for the day they would have to find the antidote for his blood, and this came at a point of transition in the family’s affairs, as Zenya’s sons, Teruya and Katsumi rose to prominence.

You might find it difficult to believe it, but Americans held little faith in the stallion potential of their Horse Of The Year, Sunday Silence, as a result of which Zenya Yoshida and his sons proceeded to acquire all the ownership rights to a horse they’d earlier invested a fractional interest in, and took him back to Japan, where his influence on the affairs of the turf was even greater, from the time his first progeny hit the tracks.

Since then, the influence of Sunday Silence has been profound, not only in domestic Japan, but across the length and breadth of the world, where he has something approaching ten sons now who have left Group One winners in various parts of the globe.

Our connection with the Yoshida family came this year with the arrival of Admire Main, one of the top three runners of his Classic generation. Admire Main’s attraction to South African breeders is to be seen in the names of those farms which have patronised him in his first year at Summerhill.

To get your head around the influence the Yoshidas have had on the Japanese racing industry and the extent of their prize money, you’d need to glance quickly at their latest statistics. Before you do so though, bear in mind that for many years, Shadai stood alone as the outstanding farm, but with the advent of Zenya’s two eldest sons, a second entity in the form of Northern Farm was created (under the stewardship of Katsumi Yoshida and his son Shunsuke), and it’s through Northern Farm that we’ve developed our association.

Northern Farm have, very much like Summerhill, been Champion Breeders in their own homeland for the past six seasons, and in every instance, the runners-up have been Teruya Yoshida’s Shadai Farm. This year, their roles have been reversed, and while the “fat lady” still has to sing at the end of December, Shadai have a narrow lead of the order of ¥300 million. To put that into context, Shadai runners have earned in the region of R720 million, while Northern Farm thus far, are on the verge of R700 million.

Now have a look at the leading sires list, where nine of the top ten sires are resident at Shadai Stallion Station, and five of the top seven are sons of Sunday Silence.

Do the same with the two-year-old sires list, and you’ll find that nine of the top ten stand at the same place, and once again, with the exception of the leading two-year-old sire King Kamehameha (by Kingmambo) are all descended from Sunday Silence.

We always thought Coolmore were a dominant force in Europe (and my goodness they are), but we doubt any domestic industry has ever known the overwhelming power of a single family, as Japan has.

TOPPER GOES TO SUMMERHILL'S ADMIRE MAIN CONNECTIONS

Click above to watch Azeri selling at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale
(Footage : Keeneland)

KEENELAND NOVEMBER BREEDING STOCK SALE 2009

International connections have been the lifeblood of Summerhill going back twenty years to the time the Maktoum family arrived with their first stallions. More recently, Summerhill has connected with Japan’s headline breeding dynasty, the Yoshida’s, and one of the family was in the news again yesterday.

Multiple champion Azeri made her second appearance of the year in the Keeneland sales ring Monday, and the second time was a charm, with the chestnut mare bringing a final bid of $2.25 million from Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida to top the opening session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in Lexington. Azeri, in foal to Ghostzapper, failed to reach her reserve at $4.4 million at Keeneland in January. She sold yesterday in foal to Distorted Humor. The auctioneer looked to start the action at $1 million, but bidding began at a more modest $300,000. From there, bids came in rapid-fire succession in $100,000 increments, with Blandford Bloodstock’s Tom Goff among the bidders inside the pavilion. Bidding began to stall approaching the $2-million mark, but with encouragement from the auctioneer’s stand Azeri’s price tag inched up to the final figure. Shunsuke Yoshida, on the phone with his father Katsumi, did his bidding behind the pavilion and signed the ticket on the prized mare.

“We didn’t expect that we could buy this mare,” Yoshida said. “We just kept bidding up to our budget, and finally she came to us.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

LAND OF THE RISING SUN : The dawning of a New Era?

Shunsuke Yoshida and Mick Goss
(Photo : Tarryn Liebenberg)

About a fortnight ago we posted a piece on the anticipated visit of a delegation from Japan’s Champion breeders, Northern Farm, which is part of the Japanese thoroughbred legend. Summerhill has taken great pride in its four consecutive Breeders Championships in an era when competition for the title has never been greater. Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm has managed this on six consecutive occasions, each time at the expense of the fabled Shadai Farm, property of Katsumi’s older brother Teruya. On the face of it, this sibling rivalry has all the tenets of an internecine struggle, and while the battle for the championship is contested as stoutly as any, it’s all done in a spirit of considerable mutual admiration.

Both sons of the father of Japanese breeding’s international renaissance, Zenya Yoshida, the premiership is always a tightly contested affair between the brothers, best illustrated in the past season’s results when Northern Farm’s total earnings eclipsed those of Shadai by a mere $1 million and a touch, an aggregate of $75 million being Northern Farms championship winning total. Imagine that, $75 million US dollars (R750 million) in a single season!.

In a recent interview in America’s most famous weekly, The Blood Horse, Teruya proclaimed Katsumi’s exploits as “legend”, adding that Katsumi was the man he admired most in the breeding business. The fact is, the three brothers (there’s a third, Heruya) have it in them to co-operate on a broad scale, notwithstanding the rivalry for the Breeder’s crown, and collectively they preside over an assembly of Japan’s most formidable stallions at Shadai Stallion Station, where nine of the nation’s top ten stallions reside. We’ve always been in awe of Coolmore’s dominance of the European stallion logs, but Shadai brings a new dimension to our understanding.

The delegation this week included Katsumi’s son, Shunsuke Yoshida, resident veterinarian, Dr Kiyosumi Suygaya, and Yuku Matsmura. You can imagine the banter passing between us during the course of the weekend, and the exchange of ideas between representatives of a nation which leads the world technologically, and one which has to be as innovative as creativity allows, in order to maintain a semblance of competiveness in the international racing world.

Who knows, this could lead to the advent of Africa’s first son of Sunday Silence at stud.