Shadai Farm

In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Tokyo and Niigata Racecourses: Saturday, October 26, 2024 5th-TOK, ¥13,720,000 ($90k), Newcomers, 2yo, 1600mT TOSEN PENELOPE (f, 2, Maximum Security--Hassenah {Brz}, by Red Runner) becomes the first Japanese starter for her first-crop sire (by the now Japan-based New Year's Day)...

SAPPORO, Japan -- "It's been a hard day's night," sang Masayuki Goto, vice-chairman of the Asian Racing Federation (ARF), as he took to the stage for his keynote speech during the closing exchanges of the 4oth Asian Racing Conference (ARC). And it is plain that Goto, the former president and CEO of the Japan Racing Association (JRA), and his fellow ARF committee members are looking forward to the day when their counterparts around the world are singing along in perfect harmony, perhaps to the tune of Here Comes The Sun....

Harry Sweeney is one of Irish racing's finest exports. A qualified vet, he has been based in the Far East for 35 years, where he operates from the world renowned Paca Paca Farm as well as holding the position of President at Darley Japan.  From big-money pinhooks to sleepless nights after some frightening losses, breeding Japanese Derby winner Deep Brilliante and how he engineered a plan to be granted an owner's licence in the country, Sweeney makes for a fascinating and entertaining Q&A.  The Marco Polo of Irish racing sat...

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...

Hot on the heels of the announcement that his US Classic-winning sire would be relocating to Japan in time for the 2024 breeding season, Shadai Race Horse's American-conceived, but Japanese-foaled Jantar Mantar (Jpn) (Palace Malice) provided the perfect advertisement Sunday with a smart success in the G1 Asahi Hai Futurity S. at Hanshin. With the victory, his third in as many trips to the races, the homebred is in the reckoning for champion Japanese 2-year-old male honours. Favoured to build on his last-out score in the G2 Daily Hai Nisai...

Sent off the fourth betting favourite at a little more than 6-1, the progressive Durezza (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}) was given a cerebral ride by Christophe Lemaire in Sunday's G1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) at Kyoto and raced away in the final 200 metres to defeat the winners of the first two legs of the Triple Crown--G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) hero Tastiera (Jpn) (Satono Crown {Jpn}) and market leader Sol Oriens (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}), victorious in the G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) in the spring. Only once...

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--"Welcome from the USA, from Europe, from Down Under," said Naohiro Goda at Sunday evening's party on the eve of the JRHA Select Sale. The welcome in Japan is always warm, but what is clear is that the extraordinary demand for racehorses in the country makes it difficult for those overseas visitors to make much of a mark in the ring where, once again, new record prices for turnover and average were set on Monday.  The names on the list of buyers were exclusively Japanese, bar that of David...

We are poised midway between Japan's Oaks (Yushun Himba), which took place last Sunday, and Derby (Tokyo Yushun) this coming Sunday. What is not in doubt in the country that has led the way at so many international meetings in recent years, is that those two races over 2,400m are still very much targeted and revered by owners and breeders. In Japan, there is no shortage of horses bred specifically for that distance, or further.  In any country, it takes a special horse to win the Triple Crown. For the...

Coming into this G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen off a seasonal bow back in January in the G3 Silk Road S., where he finished second behind Namura Clair (Jpn) (Mikki Isle {Jpn}), First Force (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) found his redemption after a ninth place effort in this contest last season with a grinding, determined victory to pick up his career-first Group 1 black-type on Sunday. Breaking in good order from barrier 13 over a rain-drenched course, First Force was pushed along by Taisei Danno to hold an outside spot from mid-pack...

Ecurie des Monceaux's G2 Rockfel S. heroine Hello You (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) (lot 195) made €1.55 million to Shadai Farm in the Deauville ring on Saturday. A €350,000 Arqana September Yearling Sale alumni, Hello You was also second in the G3 Albany S. and third in the G2 Duchess Of Cambridge S. and G3 Nell Gwyn S. Her dam had brought €710,000 earlier in the day as lot 164, also from the Monceaux draft to BBA Ireland. A half-sister to Signs Of Blessing (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), Lucrece is...

Classic heroine Toskana Belle (Fr) (Shamalgan {Fr}), who raced most recently for Andreas Wohler and Australian Bloodstock, has been sold to Shadai Farm and will be trained by Roger Varian going forward, Wohler announced on his website. Bred by Ecurie Normandie Pur Sang, the chestnut was an €40,000 RNA at the Arqana October Yearling Sale. Raced initially by trainer Marian Falk Weissmeier and Stall Piccadilly, the filly won at second asking at Evreux in May before adding the Listed Henkel-Stutenpreis on May 14. Purchased by Australian Bloodstock, she was third...