Contrail, St Mark's Basilica and Palace Pier yearlings just some of the highlights in sumptuous JRHA Select Sale

The debut crop of Contrail, Deep Impact's Japanese Triple Crown-winning son, are expected to set off fireworks of the New Year's Eve variety in the ring at the JRHA Select Sale on Monday, and if their staggering launch onto the market at last year's foal sale is anything to go by, the bid board at the Northern Horse Park sales complex will be like Sydney Harbour as they ring in the new year.

Naohiro Goda, the JRHA's representative for international clients, said: "One of the features at the 2024 JRHA Select Sale is the first-crop yearlings by Contrail, as his first-crop foals were so popular at the 2023 Select Sale, where 20 by him were offered and all sold. The average price was ¥128,600,000, which is approximately £612,381 (€723,232) at current exchange rate."

They included the most expensive foal sold in the world last year, the ¥520,000,000 (£2,869,900/€3,336,817) colt out of Argentine Grade 1 winner Conviction, bought by Contrail's breeder Koji Maeda to be trained by the superstar's jockey Yuichi Fukunaga, who has embarked on a training career.

According to Goda, the stunning first impressions made by Contrail's foals last year looks set to be repeated.

"Contrail yearlings are, in general, very athletic types ,well boned, with good size, very correct, and so elegant," he said. "The JRHA expects yearlings by him to be a driving force to boost the market."

There are just eight members of that first crop catalogued in the yearling section of this year's Select Sale, with Shadai Farm consigning three including lot 70, a colt out of the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks winner Fatale Bere. He is the fourth foal produced by the Pedro The Great mare, who was acquired by the Yoshida family for $700,000 at the 2019 Keeneland January Sale.

Shadai also consigns lot 133, a Contrail three-parts brother to a Group 1 winner and a half-brother to another.

The three-parts brother to this colt is Ask Victor More, who won the 2022 Kikuka Sho (St Leger) and was third to Do Deuce and Equinox in the Tokyo Yushun (Derby). The colt's half-sister, Qemah, won the Coronation Stakes and Prix Rothschild for Jean-Claude Rouget and Al Shaqab Racing.

Their Rainbow Quest dam Kartica was third in the Group 3 Prix Fille de l'Air and is a half-sister to Lady Gorgeous, who was third in the Listed Surrey Stakes and is the dam of Lawman's Group 1 Fillies' Mile winner and Moyglare Stud Stakes runner-up Pretty Gorgeous. 

Northern Farm also offers a trio of Contrail yearlings, with a half-sister (102) to Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes and Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes winner Greatest Honour a potential star. Their dam, Tiffany's Honour, is a Street Cry half-sister to Belmont Stakes winners Rags To Riches and Jazil out of Better Than Honour, Kentucky Broodmare of the Year and a Deputy Minister daughter of Kentucky Oaks winner Blush With Pride.

This Contrail colt out of Group 1 winner Conviction is the third most expensive foal in the JRHA sale's history

One of the Northern Farm Contrail colts (82) is bred on a variation of the Deep Impact - Galileo cross which has produced European Classic-winning luminaries like Auguste Rodin, Snowfall and Saxon Warrior. 

He is the second foal out of Group 3 Prix Minerve winner Tamniah, who is a daughter of Nathaniel. She was acquired by Katsumi Yoshida for 260,000gns at the 2020 Tattersalls December Mares Sale and is from a deep Ballylinch family; Tamniah's dam is a Rock Of Gibraltar half-sister to Breeders' Cup Turf and Man o' War Stakes winner Red Rocks from the first crop of Galileo.

Their third Contrail yearling (14) is a three-parts sister to Group 3 Saudi Arabia Royal Cup winner Command Line and the Group 2 NHK Milers Cup runner-up Al Jannah out of the Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes winner Condo Commando.

Of course, Contrail isn't the only sire to have his first yearlings feature in the JRHA Select Sale and three European Classic winners are represented, with Poetic Flare and Siskin having been exported to Japan for the stallion careers, and joined by representatives of two European-based first-crop sires.

"It's very exciting to have first-crop yearlings by St Mark's Basilica and Palace Pier in the catalogue," said Goda.

St Mark's Basilica: first yearling by the multiple Group 1 winner comes under the hammer at the JRHA Select SaleCredit: Colin J Kenny Photography

Northern Farm consigns the only yearling (96) by Siyouni's Poule d'Essai des Poulains, Prix du Jockey Club and Eclipse-winning son St Mark's Basilica in the sale. He is the first foal out of Argentine triple Grade 1 winner Carta Embrujada, a daughter of Bernstein and granddaughter of Tapit.

Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary winner Incarville was acquired privately by Katsumi Yoshida during her three-year-old career and Northern Farm offers her first foal (11), a grey colt by Palace Pier, again the sole member of the first crop of the multiple Group 1-winning miler in the sale.

There are a quartet of yearlings by Jim Bolger's 2,000 Guineas and St James's Palace Stakes winner Poetic Flare, including Lake Villa Farm's half-brother (105) to last year's UAE Derby third Continuar out of a half-sister to Almond Eye.

Juddmonte's Irish 2,000 Guineas and Phoenix Stakes winner Siskin is the sire of six yearlings in the catalogue, with Northern Farm offering a colt (210) out of Rapsodia, a Deep Brillante three-parts sister to Martinborough and Frere Jacques and a half-sister to brilliant broodmare Halwa Sweet. The Machiavellian mare is the dam of three individual Group 1 winners – Cheval Grand, Vivlos and Verxina – with the latter pair by Deep Brillante's sire Deep Impact.

The catalogue is studded with the progeny of outstanding established sires and brilliant broodmares, and one young stallion who combines both of those elements is Shadai's Dubai Turf winner Real Steel.

Lot 45 is a half-brother to Lys Gracieux, a multiple Group 1 winner by Heart's Cry and the first Japanese horse to win the Cox Plate. The March-born colt is from the fourth crop of Deep Impact's son Real Steel, who is a full-brother to Hong Kong Cup and Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf winner Loves Only You. Their dam, Loves Only Me, is an unraced Storm Cat half-sister to dual juvenile Group 1 winner Rumpelstiltskin out of Monevassia, a full-sister to Kingmambo and a daughter of the great Miesque.

Real Steel's family is also responsible for a colt who could be a stallion prospect if his racing career lives up to his pedigree.

Lot 145 is the fourth foal of a Deep Impact mare who was placed three times and whose first foal is a winning son of Epiphaneia, which is promising, and her pedigree is sumptuous.

The mare in question, Cadenas D'Amour, is a full-sister to aforementioned duo Loves Only You and Real Steel. Her other full-siblings include Listed winner Prodigal Son and Listed-placed Langley, while she is a three-parts sister to the triple Group 3 winner Terzetto.

Saturnalia in splendid isolation during his win in the Kobe Shimbun HaiCredit: Masakazu Takahashi

Her yearling is inbred 4x3 to the full-siblings Kingmambo and Monevassia and the same to Sunday Silence through his sons Special Week and Deep Impact, and to Storm Cat through his daughters Lady Blossom, dam of Lord Kanaloa, and Monevassia.

Shadai Farm's colt is from the second crop of Saturnalia, who stood this breeding season for ¥8,000,000 at Shadai Stallion Station, and is a Group 1 winner at two and Japan's champion three-year-old colt courtesy of success in the Satsuki Sho (2,000 Guineas).

Saturnalia is a Lord Kanaloa three-parts brother to the Group 1 Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes winner and sire Leontes and a half-brother to Japan Cup and Kikuka Sho winner Epiphaneia, who is now the sire of seven individual Group 1 winners following Blow The Horn's victory in the Takarazuka Kinen last month.

The Group 1-winning trio are sons of Cesario, who was Japan's champion three-year-old filly of 2005, when she won the Yushun Himba (Oaks) and was runner-up in the Oka Sho (1,000 Guineas). She was also successful in the Grade 1 American Oaks.

Northern Farm offers an impeccably bred filly by Saturnalia (66) who is the second foal out of Stay Gold's Group 1 Victoria Mile winner Admire Lead. Her first foal, a three-year-old colt by Maurice, won the Listed Junior Cup. This March-born filly is inbred 4x3 to Sunday Silence, whose quadruple Group 1-winning son Special Week is the sire of Cesario, while Stay Gold (sire of Orfevre) is by Sunday Silence.

Cesario's influence in the sale is immense; there are 12 yearlings each by Saturnalia and Epiphaneia catalogued and five by Leontes, which amounts to 11 per cent of the lots in the yearling section.

JRHA Select Yearling Sale factfile

Where Northern Horse Park, Hokkaido

When From 10am Monday (2am BST)

Last year's stats From 222 offered, 216 sold (97 per cent) for turnover of ¥13,365,000,000 (up 15 per cent year-on-year), an average of ¥67,488,584 (up 18 per cent) and median of ¥41,000,000 (up three per cent)

Notable graduates Danon Decile (sold by Shadai Farm, bought by Danox Co Ltd for ¥148,500,000), Notturno (sold by Shimokobe Farm, bought by Kaneko Makoto Holdings Co Ltd for ¥47,300,000), Admire Belle (sold by Northern Farm, bought by Junko Kondo for ¥35,200,000)

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