‘I’m About To Cry’: Bidders Go All In On Equinox’s First Foals At The JRHA Select Sale

[Wandering Eyes]

HOKKAIDO, Japan — Via a select bunch of his first foals, Equinox made a JRHA Select Sale debut every bit as explosive as his killer turn of foot on the track, with 23 of his youngsters sold for an average of ¥155m ($1.04m/€897,450).

As widely tipped, the group was led by the colt out of Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute), a champion herself on the dirt of America, and the first winner of the world's most valuable race, the Saudi Cup. She had herself topped the Keeneland November Sale of 2022 at $5.5 million, her buyer that day having been Katsumi Yoshida, whose Northern Farm presented her colt foal. He equalled the second-highest price ever recorded for a foal at this sale, the final bid of ¥580m ($3.91m/€ 3.36m) coming from a new partnership by the name of Nebraska Racing, which reportedly features a group of new owners along with a more established name in Japanese racing. The same group had bought the most expensive yearling, by Equinox's sire Kitasan Black out of Australian Classic winner Mosheen, on the sale's opening day. It's a select strategy: one purchase a day, at top dollar (or yen). 

With a star turn from the 2023 world champion and a notable rise in new buyers, the sale continued on its upward trajectory, with Shadai Farm principal Teruya Yoshida referring to the “unrealistic market” in his close-of-trade address to the media. 

He said, “I am amazed to see this market. I have been seeing a very strong market all over the world in recent years, but I have never seen a market where there is such depth. 

“Of course I have to thank the long established clients of JRHA but I am also very happy to see many new players coming into this market. And I am very pleased that these new players do not hesitate to invest a huge amount of money on horses that we have bred.

“I think they are really enjoying it just for the simple pleasure of ownership, and I am very happy to see that. Horseracing in this country is very attractive entertainment.”

Yoshida continued, “Now we have a very strong roster of stallions, such as Kizuna and Kitasan Black, who are proven stallions, and in addition to them we have new young stallions like Contrail and Equinox. Japanese breeders have been spending a lot of money to invest in mares of the highest quality from all over the world, and now those mares we have bought in America and Europe are producing good foals and we can afford to buy more good mares.”

He added, “I think Kitasan Black is now establishing Japan's own sire-line. He is producing horses with good size, good depth and most of Kitasan Black's offspring are correct horses.”

That amazing market saw a clearance rate of 95 per cent, with only 12 of the 240 foals offered returning to their farms unsold. The second-day turnover increased by 19 per cent from the record trade at last year's sale to ¥17,154,000,000 ($115.9m/€99.3m). The average rose by 20.5 per cent to ¥75,240,000 ($507,965/€435,291).

The aggregate for the sale as a whole increased by 13.1 per cent to ¥32,700,000,000 ($221m/189.3m), while the average similarly climbed by 13.6 per cent to ¥72,190,000 ($488,004/418,124).

Equinox Brings Buyer To Tears

The clamour for certain members of Equinox's stock began with his first foal through the ring, lot 518, a lookalike colt out of the French Group 3 winner Camprock (Myboycharlie), who was sold for ¥230m ($1.55m) to Makoto Kaneko and will be sent eventually to the stable of his sire's trainer Tetsuya Kimura.

Yoshihisa Osaza, buyer of lot 431, the colt out of Northern Farm's GI Rodeo Drove Stakes winner Going To Vegas (Goldencents), said that he was “about to cry, because this is too expensive”, but he was smiling as he did so, having been urged on by the colt's future trainer, Yoshito Yahagi, who sat alongside the owner as he made his play.

“I could not stop bidding,” Osaza admitted after having his final say at ¥450m ($3.04m/€2.6m). “He is very nice horse and he has a gorgeous pedigree behind him. As I am convinced that this is the best foal in today's catalogue, I tried to save my budget until this colt went up to the sale ring.”  

He added, “I hope he will be competitive in three-year-old Classic races in 2028.”

It was another heroine of the Rodeo Drive Stakes, the eight-time winner Mucho Unusual (Mucho Macho Man), who featured as the dam of lot 396, Shadai Farm's March-born son of Equinox, who sold for ¥260m ($1.75m/€1.5m) to Susumu Fujita, the sale's leading buyer overall.

Don't Forget Dad…

Always in danger of being upstaged by his own son as his first foals appeared, Kitasan Black did however provide the second-top foal of the day in lot 407, the colt out of Simply Glorious (War Front), whose immediate family has performed consistently well at the highest level in Ireland 

At ¥500m ($3.38m/€2.89m), the Northern Farm offering was bought by Naohiro Sakaguchi, who will send him into training when the time comes with Makoto Saito.

The trainer said, “I have seen him at Northern Farm three times and found that he has been getting better and better.

“He is well-balanced, walks beautifully, and is very elegant thoroughbred.”

The stakes-placed Simply Glorious is a sister to the G1 July Cup and  G1 Dewhurst Stakes winner US Navy Flag as well as the treble Group 1-winning miler Roly Poly. Their dam is the European champion two-year-old filly Misty For Me (Galileo).

…Or His Brother

A colt by a Triple Crown winner and a half-brother to one of the hottest stallions in the world? That'll do nicely was the view taken by the buyer of lot 327, the Contrail half-brother to Kitasan Black for ¥220m ($1.48m) from Yanagawa Farm.

Contrail was twice named Japanese Horse of the Year during his days in training with Yoshito Yahagi, and this colt will eventually end up in the same barn. The foal's dam Sugar Heart (Sakura Bakushin O) is now 20 and has produced another three black-type earners in addition to the 12-time winner Kitasan Black, who also took Horse of the Year honours twice during his racing career. 

“I could not believe it when I saw this colt for the first time at Yanagawa Farm,” said Yahagi, who will train him for a leading owner who trades under the name of Y's Consignment Sales. “He is very nice individual and I hope he will run in the Japanese Derby for his owner.”

Contrail was also the first covering sire for the unbeaten G1 Fillies' Mile winner Commissioning (Kingman), who was sold privately to Katsumi Yoshida by her owner-breeders Isa Salman and Abdulla Al Khalifa after the end of her successful juvenile season. Her first foal (lot 389) was bought from Northern Farm by Junko Kondo for ¥220m ($1,48m/€1.27m).

His future trainer Yasuo Tomomichi said, “When I saw him for the first time at Northern Farm, I felt a lot of the influence of Deep Impact in him. He is a very nice individual and he has pedigree of the highest class: his dam won the Fillies' Mile at Newmarket, his broodmare sire is Kingman and the sire of his second dam is Galileo – both of them were champions in Europe – and he is by a Japanese champion.”

Commissioning's dam Sovereign Parade is a full-sister to the Irish Derby and St Leger winner Capri as well as G2 Curragh Cup winner Tower Of London.

Fireburn's First is Hot Stuff

In interviews this week, both Teruya and Katsumi Yoshida have referred to their international quest for broodmares and it is no empty boast. America and Ireland were the origins of the dams of some of the most expensive horses of the day, but so too was Australia. Yearlings out of Group 1 winners Mosheen and Yankee Rose had sold well on Monday and a similar story was repeated in the foal session, where lot 369, the first foal of the G1 Golden Slipper and G1 Sires' Produce Stakes winner Fireburn (Rebel Dane) brought the hammer down at ¥320m ($2.16m/€1.85m) in favour of Tetsuhide Kunimoto.

Fireburn, who won more than A$4.2m from her 20 starts, was a private purchase by Northern Farm and is the daughter of the So You Think mare Mull Over, who was bought for A$22,000 by Fireburn's co-breeder Louis Mihalyka of Laurel Oak Bloodstock.

Chile, too, got in on the action when lot 381, the chestnut colt by Japan Cup winner Suave Richard out of the G1 Premio Seleccion de Potrancas winner Sankalpa (True Cause), fetched ¥290m ($1.96m/€1.68m).

Epiphaneia Rules The Waves

Rule Britannia (Deep Impact), the winning sister to Japanese Oaks winner Mikki Queen, featured as the dam of one of a pair of Epiphaneia colts in the spotlight. Her son, lot 331,  was one of a number of foals bought on the day by Hajime Satomi, the former CEO of gaming company Sega, who acquired the full-brother to G3 Kokura Daishoten winner Epiphany at ¥230m ($1.56m/€1.33m).

Epiphaneia is also the sire of lot 377, a ¥260m purchase by Masahiro Noda's Danox Ltd. 

The colt's Grade 3-winning dam Shamrock Hill (Kizuna) is herself a daughter of the GI Hollywood Starlet Stakes winner Laragh (Tapit). 

Noda, who is involved in the software business, runs his horses with the Danon suffix, including last year's Japanese Derby winner and this season's Dubai Sheema Classic winner Danon Decile, who is also by Epiphaneia. The four-year-old is currently being prepared by trainer Shogo Yasuda for a trip to England to run in the G1 Juddmonte International at York. He is set to arrive in Newmarket on August 6.

Grand Adventure with European Purchases

A Frankel colt out of Sauterne (Kingman), from the family of his sire's first top-level winner Soul Stirring, was the star of the Grand Stud draft when he too was bought by Danox Ltd for ¥300m ($2.03m/€1.74m). 

A homebred of Jean-Pierre Dubois, Sauterne won the Prix du Moulin and was bought on Grand Stud's behalf by Emmanuel de Seroux of Narvick International for $4.2m at Fasig-Tipton two months after her Group 1 victory.

Frankel's Irish Derby-winning son Westover, now resident at Japan's Yushun Stallion Station, had two members of his first crop sell on Tuesday for ¥80m (€463,280) and ¥62m (€359,052) from Northern Farm and Shadai Farm respectively. 

Also of European interest early in the session was the first foal of Marc Chan and Andrew Rosen's G1 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Lezoo (Zoustar), a colt by Kingman (lot 307), who was another consigned by Grand Stud and fetched ¥135m ($912,163/€782,055).

Lezoo, like Westover, was trained by Ralph Beckett, and was sold to Grand Stud, again through Narvick International, at the 2023 Tattersalls December Sale for 2.2m gns. 

Just as John Stewart had been the day before, David Redvers became the sole buyer from outside Japan during the foal sale when securing a Palace Malice filly out of Storm Hill for ¥18m ($121,700/€104,274) from Harry Sweeney's Paca Paca Farm. Her dam, by Stormy Atlantic, won twice at Grade 3 level in the USA and her sire has proved quite the hit with local breeders since relocating from that same country, where he stood at Three Chimneys Farm, to Darley Japan two years ago. That popularity owes much to his top-rated son, the treble Grade 1 winner Jantar Mantar, who was bred by Shadai Farm and recently won the Yasuda Kinen. 

Palace Malice covered 262 mares in 2024, and Sweeney, who is also the president of Darley Japan, reported that he had also been busy this season.

Redvers meanwhile said of his new Palace Malice filly, “I thought she was an absolute star and I'm delighted to have been able to buy her as we've been blown out of the water a few times this week. The market has been very strong and it is difficult to buy.

“She's for Sheikh Fahad and will be trained in time by Mitsu Nakauchida.”

 

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