A week after a record-breaking JRHA Select Sale in Chitose, the Hokkaido Selection Sale in Shizunai kept the momentum going with a record-shattering ¥3,110,616,000 (£21,362,915/€24,161,725) gross and 81.4% clearance rate. This was the fifth consecutive year the Selection Sale has seen growth and the second year in a row of significant gains across the board, which has continued a fairly consistent decade of improvement. Leading the charge was the JRA's leading freshman sire Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}).
The 2013 JRA Horse of the Year has had a remarkable start to his stallion career, having four individual winners from 13 starters to date. Lord Kanaloa's results on the track and his progeny's physicals drove the market on Tuesday, with 12 of his second crop grossing ¥289,440,000 (£1,988,250/€2,248,226), which was ¥100,000,000 or more than any other stallion at the sale. He had the sale topper, a half-brother to multiple graded stakes winner Hakusan Moon (Jpn) (Admire Moon {Jpn}), who went for ¥47,520,000 (£326,429/€369,098) to Gaen Kogyo LLC. All of Lord Kanaloa's 12 sold went for over ¥10,000,000.
The progeny of well-established sires Harbinger(GB) and Kinshasa no Kiseki (Aus) also sold well during the one-day sale, grossing ¥192,672,000 (£1,323,660/€1,496,525) for 10 lots and ¥170,100,000 (£1,168,590/€1,321,351) for 12 lots, respectively. Both stallions have been consistently showing favourable results with each crop they produce. Black Tide (Jpn), the full-brother to Deep Impact (Jpn) who stands in the Hidaka region, grossed ¥168,156,000 (£1,155,235/€1,306,250) for 10 lots sold.
Since 2014, the Selection Sale–the Hidaka region's premier yearling sale-has seen across the board increases in gross, clearance, average and median. The gross in 2014 was ¥1,852,956,000 and has broken that record every year since, though there was a ¥600,000,000 increase from last year alone. The average and median have steadily risen but this year saw a significant increase, an average of ¥16,905,521 (£116,141/€131,313) was up by 17.1% over last year, and a median of ¥15,120,000 (£103,874/€117,444) was up by 33%. The clearance rate has risen steadily from 62.1% in 2014 to 73.5% in 2016, and jumped to 81.4% this year.
After the sale had finished, Hidaka Breeders Association president Mitsuki Kimura said a few words about the sale: “This is one of the best sales we have had here in the Hidaka area. We are always working to improve our sale, not only for the buyers who come but also to support the breeders of the Hidaka region.”
Bolstered each year by the many Group 1 successes of the Hidaka-bred horses such as Maurice (Jpn), Kitasan Back (Jpn), Gold Ship (Jpn), Straight Girl (Jpn), Deep Brillante (Jpn) and Big Arthur (Jpn) (Selection Sale grad), the Hokkaido Selection Sale is developing a brand of excellence all its own.
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