Northern Farm

Killer Ability (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) showed plenty of talent to take the G1 Hopeful S. at Nakayama on Tuesday. The 2000-metre affair featured 15 colts in the final Japan Racing Association Group 1 of 2021. It was an exacta for the deceased Shadai kingpin Deep Impact, as Justin Palace (Jpn) was 1 1/2 lengths behind. Second choice at 2-1, the blinkered colt rated in an ideal position perched in third while saving ground against the rails as Grand Line (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}) carved out even splits of :23.90, :48.10...

Flotus (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) (lot 1798), who ran second in the G1 Cheveley Park S. earlier this year, broke the seven-figure mark at 1 million gns to Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Farm on Tuesday. The new topper, consigned by Gainsborough Thoroughbreds, also won a listed race and her dam is a half-sister to G1 Phoenix S. third Lottie Dod (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and the dual group-placed Rockaway Valley (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}). Bred by Newtown Stud and T. J. Pabst, the juvenile hammered at €65,000 as a Goffs November...

Dandalla (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}) was the first mare to breach the 750,000gns mark at the Tattersalls December Mare Sale, which was in its second session on Wednesday. Northern Farm struck for lot 1735, who was consigned by Karl Burke's Spigot Lodge Stables on behalf of Nick Bradley Racing 28 & Partner. A winner of the G2 Duchess Of Cambridge S., G3 Albany S. and the Listed The Arran Scottish Sprint EBF Fillies' S., the Robert Norton-bred was also fourth in this year's G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. Dandalla...

Strengthened by victories from homebreds Modern Games (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Space Blues (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Yibir (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), for the fourth consecutive year Godolphin has won the John Deere Award, honoring the outstanding breeder of the 2021 Breeders' Cup World Championships and the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series. The John Deere Award, presented by Breeders' Cup Limited and NTRA Advantage, emphasizes the contributions of breeders to the Breeders' Cup program. NTRA Advantage and John Deere will award a John Deere TS Gator Utility Vehicle to Godolphin. Godolphin-bred runners earned...

Japanese champion Gran Alegria (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) signed off her career with her second consecutive G1 Mile Championship victory, her sixth top-level score, at Hanshin on Sunday. She is the first horse to win back-to-back Mile Championships since Daiwa Major (Jpn) (Sunday Silence) in 2006/07. Tabbed the heavy favourite at 70 cents on the dollar, the 5-year-old mare was content to race near the rear of the field as Ho O Amazon (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) sped through fractions of :23.70 and :47.60. Jockey Christophe Lemaire had a ton...

by Jessica Martini, Brian DiDonato, and Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY - The Fasig-Tipton November Sale opened Tuesday afternoon with strong returns for its weanling offerings before exploding with frenetic bidding from an internationally diverse buying bench on a wide selection of superstar mares that ultimately produced a sales record gross of $103,699,000 for 149 head. That figure bested the auction's previous record of $89,473,000 which was set in 2018. The average of $695,966 was the second highest in sale history, falling short only of the 2008 average of $772,297, while...

Peter Callahan's Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil--Expo Gold, by Johannesburg) didn't turn a single hair for the entirety of the five minutes and change that she stood in the ring at Fasig-Tipton November Tuesday evening, and when the dust had settled, the chestnut filly had sold for $4.7 million to the bid of Northern Farm's Shingo Hashimoto. It took just a bit more than the 1:53 required for Swiss Skydiver to win last year's COVID-delayed GI Preakness S. for the bidding to wander into the $3-million territory, with interested parties both inside...

Over the last quarter-century, horses based in Japan have increasingly made their presence felt on the international stage, winning top races on the European continent, the Middle East, Hong Kong and places as far afield as Australia. Though clearly possessed of the horseflesh to make an impression--no matter the port of call--the Breeders' Cup had eluded the island nation, but history was made Saturday at Del Mar when the well-traveled Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) sliced her way between rivals in the dying strides to salute in the...

Frankel (GB) is having a stellar season and currently holds a narrow lead over his sire Galileo (Ire) on the European sires' table, and his proficiency has extended to Japan; in fact, it was there that he posted his first Group 1 win as a sire with the subsequent Classic winner Soul Stirring (Jpn) in the 2016 G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies, and he now has three Group 1 winners in Japan with Mozu Ascot (Jpn) and Grenadier Guards (Jpn) also making the grade. It should have come as no surprise,...

Though he is gone, Deep Impact (Jpn) is far from forgotten, Shadai's breed-shaping sire having this year provided Classic winners in both his native country and in Britain in the form of the 16-length G1 Cazoo Oaks winner Snowfall (Jpn). He retains his position atop the Japanese sire standings, where he has sat uninterrupted since 2012, and the presence of four of his last-crop yearlings in Monday's opening session of the JRHA Select Sale were unsurprisingly among the very highest draws for buyers at Hokkaido's Northern Horse Park. His colt...

Chrono Genesis (Jpn) (Bago {Fr}) justified 4-5 favouritism and took her second consecutive G1 Takarazuka Kinen title at Hanshin on Sunday. The 2200-metre contest is a "Win and You're In" for the GI Breeders' Cup Turf at Del Mar in November, as well as the Oct. 23 G1 Cox Plate at Moonee Valley Down Under. Unicorn Lion (Ire) (No Nay Never) led the charge into the first turn while shadowed by Lei Papale (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and Chrono Genesis sat third a few lengths back. A touch keen, pilot...

Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm has continued his association with French-raced mares with the purchase of G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches winner Coeursamba (Fr) (The Wow Signal {Ire}) and G1 Prix Saint-Alary scorer Incarville (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Jour de Galop reports. Bloodstock agent Emmanuel de Seroux said the two 3-year-old fillies would remain with their respective trainers, Jean-Claude Rouget (Coeursamba) and David Smaga (Incarville), before being exported to Northern Farm in Japan at the end of their racing careers. "Coeursamba is a Classic winner and victorious in the Poule...