Contrail

MV Magnier has described the Japan Cup as "the main aim" for Auguste Rodin (Ire) where the six-time Group 1-winning son of Deep Impact (Jpn) will bid to bridge a gap of almost two decades to the last European-trained winner of the race.  Speaking at the JRHA Select Sale in Japan last week, Magnier firmed up plans for Auguste Rodin, who is the culmination of over 10 years of Coolmore breeding mares to Japanese-based stallions.  He also confirmed that Coolmore has supported Kitasan Black (Jpn), the sire of Equinox (Jpn),...

HOKKAIDO, Japan--Expectation rather than trepidation. Pre-JRHA Select Sale nerves are different to the ones we go through back in Europe, that's for sure.  A quick scan through the over 500-strong catalogue of foals and yearlings will remind you just how small the world is with many familiar names cropping up on any given page.  However, a morning spent in the company of JRHA chairman and Shadai Farm boss Teruya Yoshida followed by a trip to Northern Farm, which will consign a massive 180 lots at the sale, pegs into light...

A yearling full-brother to the globetrotting Deirdre (Jpn) and first-crop foals by Flightline and Baaeed (GB) are among the entries for the JRHA Select Sale, which is set to take place at the Northern Horse Park in Hokkaido on July 8 and 9. Deirdre, a daughter of Harbinger (GB), was a Grade 1 winner in her native country before setting out on her worldwide travels which saw her win the G1 Nassau S. at Goodwood and finish runner-up in both Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia. Her younger brother (lot 74)...

Kitasan Black (Jpn), Japan's busiest stallion in 2023 and the sire of the world's top-rated racehorse Equinox (Jpn), has had his covering fee doubled for next season to ¥20 million (approximately £108,000/€124,000). Kitasan Black is a son of Black Tide (Jpn), a full-brother to the late Deep Impact (Jpn), and he was kept busy at the Shadai Stallion Station last spring when covering 242 mares. It remains to be seen whether his most famous son, who is favourite to extend his Group 1 winning streak to six in Sunday's Japan...

The late owners Bob and Beverly Lewis, universally beloved in the industry and honored with the Eclipse Award of Merit in 1997, got their third and final Breeders' Cup win with Folklore, made all the more special as she was a homebred. Although they used a variety of trainers, all three of their of their Breeders' Cup wins were with D. Wayne Lukas. "We partnered with WinStar on Tiznow and Folklore was in his first crop," said Mark Taylor of Taylor Made Farm, where Folklore was raised. "She was bred...

8th-KEE, $100k, Msw, 2yo, 6 1/2f, 4:44p.m. ET After the turf marathon mares dazzle the Kentucky crowd in Keeneland's GIII Dowager S. a race prior, the juveniles will take to the main track to open their dockets in this maiden dash led by Pin Oak Stud's PHANTOM SPEED (Arrogate) from the rail. A $700,000 KEESEP purchase, the grey is a half-brother to GSW Biddy Duke (Bayern) who hails from the extended female family of juvenile champion MGISW Forte (Uncle Mo); Japanese Triple Crown winner, three-time champion MG1SW Contrail (Jpn) (Deep...

Sales action returns to Hokkaido's Northern Horse Park on Tuesday, October 24 with the second edition of the Northern Farm Mixed Sale. The auction features a selection of 44 weanlings which is followed by 76 broodmares and fillies out of training. The country's most recent Triple Crown winner Contrail (Jpn) was the star of the foal section of the JRHA Select Sale in July, and the Shadai stallion is represented by two of his first-crop weanlings in the Mixed Sale. Lot 6 is a Contrail filly out of the American...

With a royal audience, Continuous (Jpn) became the seventh winner of the St Leger for Aidan O'Brien, relegating the King and Queen's runner Desert Hero (GB) to third, just as Pour Moi (Ire) had done in the Derby with Carlton House back in 2011 in front of the late Queen. There were plenty of strands to an enthralling St Leger that would have made for good storylines: two of those, victory for Desert Hero with his owners present on Town Moor, or a final British Classic for Frankie Dettori, may...

HOKKAIDO, Japan--Don't say we didn't warn you. Contrail (Jpn) has been the name on most people's lips around the sales ground at the JRHA Select Sale and when the first foals by the Triple Crown-winning son of Deep Impact (Jpn) took to the ring on Tuesday it wasn't long before the hype became reality. What's really important, of course, is what happens in two or three years' time when these youngsters make it to the track, but the first test, on the commercial market, has been passed with flying colours....

HOKKAIDO, Japan--Things are hotting up in the Northern Horse Park, literally and figuratively. As the mercury nudged 30 degrees on Saturday, the English and Irish in town for the JRHA Select Sale swooned and wilted while the many attendants showing the horses, mostly clad in jackets, went manfully and womanfully about their hot and tiring work without so much as a whimper. Both they and the young horses in their care are well prepared for the two inspection days ahead, despite having only arrived on the sales ground that morning....

HOKKAIDO, Japan--In the bloodstock world, the battle for succession does not come down to unseemly squabbles in the boardroom. What matters first is what happens on the track, and even when all goes right there, success in the breeding shed is far from guaranteed. Smallish in stature but a Goliath in influence and reputation, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Northern Dancer gave the European breeding industry many stars including, crucially, Sadler's Wells, whose line holds strong predominantly through Galileo (Ire) and his heir apparent, Frankel (GB). Northern Dancer also...

Last year's GI Breeders' Cup Classic winner Knicks Go (Paynter) was named the Longines World's Best Racehorse of 2021 during a virtual ceremony of the Longines World Racing Awards presented from the National Horse Racing Museum in Newmarket, England on Tuesday. Also during the ceremony, the G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe--won last year by Torquator Tasso (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger})--was announced as the Longines World's Best Horse Race of 2021, and Ryan Moore was celebrated as the Longines World's Best Jockey. The 6-year-old Knicks Go earned a rating of...