Records fall again at JRHA Select Sale as £2.75m Maurice colt leads the way

An immaculately bred colt by Maurice out of Australian champion Mosheen led the way at the opening yearling session of the Japan Racing Horse Association (JRHA) Select Sale on Monday.

Masahiro Noda's Danox Company outlasted Susumu Fujita to snap up the bay lot 76, consigned by Northern Farm, at ¥450,000,000 (£2,750,000/€3,250,000), a fee only a little way off the Japanese yearling record set by a son of the late Deep Impact at ¥510,000,000 this time two years ago.

Fastnet Rock mare Mosheen was sold on to Northern Farm after her racing career, which comprised four Group 1 wins including the Oaks at Flemington and the Australian and Randwick Guineas. She has proved productive as a broodmare already with her three winners in Japan to date including Deep Impact mare Primo Scene, a multiple scorer at Grade 3 level.

“This is the very best one in the consignments from Northern Farm and Northern Racing today," said breeder Katsumi Yoshida.

"Foals out of Mosheen have been getting better and better crop by crop and this yearling, who is the eighth foal out of Mosheen, is a fantastic individual, therefore, I set the highest reserve price [¥100,000,000] in all our consignments.

"Many owners and trainers who visited and saw him at Northern Farm were enchanted by him and I expected he would be expensive. But the price is much more than I expected.”

Maurice, by Screen Hero, was Japan's horse of the year in 2015 and claimed several major titles in Hong Kong. He has shuttled between Shadai Stallion Station and Arrowfield in Australia with his three crops of racing age producing top-level winners in both countries through Hitotsu, Mazu and Pixie Knight.

A large handful of others surged into nine-figure yen territory at the Northern Horse Park in Hokkaido which boasted buoyant overall figures for a yearling session which is followed by foals on Tuesday.

In total, 222 from 233 lots offered found new owners at record turnover of ¥12,870,000,000, 11 per cent up on 2021. The average ¥57,972,973 was also a new record for the session, up 13 per cent year-on-year.

Two One Racing went to ¥300,000,000 to acquire Northern Farm's chestnut son of Duramente (96), Japan's champion first-season sire in 2020 and responsible for this year's Classic heroine Stars On Earth. The colt is the first foal of Jaywalk, who landed the 2018 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies for John Servis.

Trainer Yoshito Yahagi had not returned in time from saddling King Hermes in the July Cup at Newmarket but will be in receipt of the first lot through the ring, a colt by his Dubai Turf winner Real Steel.

The half brother to three-time Graded winner Sciacchetra was bought for ¥180,000000 by DMM.com, which runs Tokyo-based partnership DMM Dream Club.

"We looked for a nice colt by Real Steal, and I am very happy to buy him," Hiroki Awazu, racing manager for DMM, said.

"As there is no Deep Impacts and very few [by] Heart’s Cry in the catalogue, it is not very easy to predict this year’s market and I intend to put in a lot of energy at the early part of sale. And our trainer Yoshito Yahagi recommends him as the best colt by Real Steel in the catalogue."

As travel restrictions relaxed, international buyers returned to the JRHA Sale and they included US-based Emmanuel de Seroux of Narvick International, who bought a Lord Kanaloa colt (146) at ¥100,000,000.

"This is for my international client," he said. “My client, who likes to study pedigrees, regards Lord Kanaloa very highly and we looked for a colt or filly by Lord Kanaloa with high quality. He is a very nice yearling and a good mover."

A Frankel colt out of Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Jet Setting (23) made ¥155,000,000 to American Turf.

Katsumi Yoshida, a pivotal actor in the sale and Japanese breeding, concluded: "This is an amazing market. As it was a record breaking market last year and I thought it was difficult to pass over it this year, this is pleasant surprise.

“I am very impressed with the depth of buyers, which include a lot of newcomers. And the most important aspect of today’s market is the very high clearance rate.

"While this year’s catalogue does not include any yearling by Deep Impact, several stallions, such as Duramente, Epiphaneia and some others, played the role of replacements. I am very happy to have
the depth of young stallions in Japan now.

“I would like to thank everybody who supported the market, first of all, buyers, all consignors who offered yearlings with such high quality, and all involved in managing the sale."

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