After foals were exhibited in the woods with their mother for one and half hours, foal session of 2020 JRHA Select Sale started at 10:00am on Tuesday 14th at Northern Horse Park.
First fire work of the day was seen when Hip#316, colt by Lord Kanaloa out of Final Score(IRE), winner of G1/Premio Lydia Tesio, went through the ring and the consignment from Northern Farm is bought by Ryoichi Otsuka for 200,000,000yen, US$1,869,159.
“This is the pick of day for me,” Ryoichi Otsuka said of the latest recruitment. “He is from very successful female line, which is full of black type, and it caught my fancy that he is Sunday Silence free, which would be a big advantage when he becomes stallion. While the price is more than I thought, I did not want to miss him.”
Ryoichi Otsuka won his first Classic last autumn, when his World Premiere, which he bought at JRHA Sale in 2016, won G1/Kikka Sho, final leg of Triple Crown for three-year-olds.
It was widely recognized Hip#365, colt by Heart’s Cry, would be the star of foal session, as he is own brother to Yoshida(JPN), who was bought by WinStar Farm at 2015 JRHA Select Sale and proved to be the winner of G1/Turf Classic at Churchill Downs and G1/Woodward Stakes at Saratoga. The eighth foal out of Hilda’s Passion, winner of G1/Ballerina Stakes, is bought by Yoshihisa Ozasa for 380,000,000yen, US$3,551,402, the highest price at foal session.
While Yoshihisa Ozasa was not attending at the sale himself, as he hesitates to travel to Hokkaido due to continuing epidemic of COID-19, he gave a statement through his racing manager, Morito Kajihara. “I think this is outstanding individual in today’s catalogue. I was bidding in earnest and am very happy to buy such fantastic young horse. I hope he grows up well and will be in the field of major races in future.”
A day after the yearling colt out of Sheave was sold for 520,000,000yen, the highest price at yearling session, Hip#383, foal colt out of Sheave, is sold for 210,000,000yen, US$1,962,617, the third highest price at foal session. Representative of Miwa Holding, which bought the colt, said of the latest recruitment, “I believe this is the best yearling in the catalogue and this is reasonable price as I
consider true value of this yearling”.
Masahiro Noda of Danox Co Ltd, who bought Hip#56 for the second highest price at yearling session on Monday, is the buyer of Hip#407, who was bought for 270,000,000yen, US$2,523,365, the second highest price at foal session on Tuesday.
“As there is no Deep Impact in the market any more, we would like to buy a very nice foal by Heart’s Cry today”, said Yoshiki Okada, racing manager to Masahiro Noda. “Our team inspected all consignments from Northern Farm and made a short list of foals by Heat’s Cry. He is on the short list and Mr.Noda selected this one from the list. The mare, She’s a Tiger, who is US Champion Juvenile Filly, is very good looking horse and the foal is also good looking, as like his mother. Price is more than expected, but Mr.Noda did not want to stop bidding, as he would really like to buy him.”
203 foals were sold for 8,334,000,000yen in total at the foal session on Tuesday, which is 14.8% decline as compared with foal session in 2019. The average price, 41,054,187yen, US$383,684, which is 18.6% down from twelve months ago. The clearance rate is 89.8%, which is unchanged from 2019.
And 432 lots were sold for 18,762,000,000yen in total through two-days session of 2020 JRHA Select Sale, which is 8.5% down from 2019. The average price through two days, 43,430,555yen, US$405,893, is 11,9% down from 2019. The clearance rate is 90.9%, which was 91.4% in 2019.
“I would like to express my sincere thanks to the owners and trainers for attending the sale under such challenging period and for supporting the market,” Teruya Yoshida, owner of Shadai Farm and active chairman of JRHA, commented at the conclusion of the sale.
“The market is slightly slowing down today and I think the key factor is the absence of Deep Impact. For example, when Northern Dancer died, the top end of bloodstock market in America declined, and same thing happened here today.”
“On the other hand, I believe the quality of mares we have in Japan is world class and quality of horses bred in Japan is world class as well. I think the buyers are confident to make big investment on horses we offer.”
“We try to keep breeding quality horses and I hope it will keep active horse market in Japan”.
Please visit website of JRHA for detailed result of 2020 JRHA Select Sale.