Japanese yearling sales

With the Hokkaido Autumn Sale's conclusion on Oct. 22, it was a wrap for the 2020 yearling sales season in Japan. While the world reels from the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the Japanese yearling market held strong in 2020. The Autumn Sale was in the spotlight this year thanks to 2018 graduate and G1 Kikuka Sho contender Babbitt (Jpn) (Nakayama Festa {Jpn}). He won G2 St Lite Kinen in September, setting him up to be one of undefeated Triple Crown hopeful Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn})'s biggest threats. Babbitt...

In a unique year where the Japanese yearling sale calendar has seen some reshuffling, the Hokkaido Summer Sale from Aug. 25 to 28 returned significant gains, especially across the first two days. With a clearance rate of 77%, up from 71.8% last year, the sale overall saw healthy gains across the board. It set a new gross record of ¥5,721,870,000 ($53,901,091/£42,126,688/€45,495,755), a 15.9% increase from 2019. The average rose 22.7% to ¥6,935,600 ($65,334/£51,062/€55,146) while the median saw a 21.3% increase to ¥5,500,000 ($51,811/£40,492/€43,730), both records for this sale despite there...