The rising Stars of Japanese breeding

Cover image courtesy of Sportpix

G1 Queensland Oaks weekend revived memories of the High Chaparral (Ire) filly Youngstar, who won the Classic feature in the autumn of 2018.

Up to that point, Youngstar had given Chris Waller a decent trot through three straight victories, including the G2 The Roses, and she wrapped up her streak by going down in the Queensland Derby to Dark Dream (All American) and Heavenly Thought (So You Think {NZ}).

Youngstar didn’t win again after her Oaks victory through a career that spanned 26 starts. But the tale of the filly from the Danehill (USA) mare Starspangled (Ire) was only just beginning, as it often is for these well-bred, well-performed females.

At the 2020 Inglis Chairman’s Sale, Youngstar was presented by Middlebrook Valley Lodge in a catalogue that burst with the likes of Samaready (More Than Ready {USA}) and In Her Time (Time Thief). We all know how things worked out for Samaready, and Youngstar was one of the four 'millionaires' in that sale, bought by Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida for $1.4 million.

She was exported to Japan in December that year as the bloodline continued to blossom.

Youngstar’s half-sister, the Adelaide (Ire) filly Funstar, bettered her sibling by racing through victories in the G1 Flight S. and Group 2 pair of the Phar Lap S. and Tea Rose S. In the latter, she led home Probabeel (NZ) (Savabeel) and Libertini (I Am Invincible).

Funstar was second in the G1 Epsom H. as a 4-year-old, proving a little sharper than her half-sister when trained on, and within a month of her retirement, she too was for sale, this time bringing the house down at Inglis Digital.

Funstar was sold on the online platform for $2.7 million in July 2021, once again to Katsumi Yoshida. It was the most paid for any horse anywhere in the world through any online auction at the time, and Yoshida was not to be outdone that night on the bloodline.

“I am so thrilled that we were able to purchase a beautiful mare,” he said in the twilight of the sale. “We have her half-sister, and also mares related to the grandam, User Friendly. We are looking forward to seeing their progeny winning in Japan.”

Olly Koolman, who had co-owned Funstar with an Inglis syndicate (after buying her as an Easter yearling for just $80,000 from Bowness Stud), couldn’t believe his good fortune at the time. And it was a second strike of lightning because he had also been involved in Youngstar’s $1.4 million price-tag the year before.

“It’s a warm and fuzzy feeling for us,” he said. “We know they’re in good hands (in Japan) and we’re attached to them. You deal with them every day and you don’t want to see them go, but it’s got to be done.”

Koolman had paid $200,000 for Youngstar at the 2016 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale and, as it transpired, there was more to this family than just Youngstar and Funstar.

Their dam, Starspangled, had also foaled Baggy Green (Galileo {Ire}), who was later the dam of the outstanding Tofane (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}).

With all this in mind, it was little wonder that Yoshida was so keen to get more of the family into Northern Farm, and the first fruits of his investment will appear in July when Youngstar’s first foal, a yearling colt by Kizuna (Jpn), is offered as Hip 1 at the Japan Racing Horse Association (JRHA) Select Sale. In the Foal Session, Funstar’s first foal, a colt also by Kizuna, will be offered as Hip 441.

The Australian broodmare in Japan

The JRHA Select Sale is Japan’s elite weanling and yearling sale. On July 10, 231 yearlings will be offered as a complete catalogue, and the Foal Session will commence on July 11, with 242 youngsters catalogued.

This sale each year is a photographer’s paradise, and not just for the calibre of bloodstock that it attracts. The foals are on-complex with their dams, parading in tree-lined surrounds in high summer. It’s a destination sale for almost that reason.

Youngstar’s first foal is Hip 1, offered by Northern Farm without reserve. According to Sydney-based Japanese bloodstock agent Satomi Oka of Satomi Oka Bloodstock (FBAA), who does some work with Northern Farm, the first and last lot (the latter a colt by Rey De Oro {Jpn}) are offered unreserved.

“It’s only at the Select Sale that they don’t put a reserve price on the first lot and the very last lot,” Oka said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “And it’s only in the last couple of years that the yearling market in Japan has picked up so much that it’s now as competitive as the foal market. Traditionally, the foal prices were more expensive, but now, if you look at the results, they’re pretty similar.”

This is an interesting facet of the Japanese bloodstock market. It’s fair to say that foals being more sought-after than yearlings at a commercial level defies much of the rest of the bloodstock world.

“Last year, the yearlings became more expensive than the foals, and that was probably one of the first times that had happened at the Select Sale,” Oka said.

The 2022 JRHA Select Sale posted new high markers in all sectors of the Japanese market. The aggregate was a record, up 14 per cent on 2021, and the average was also up. The figures from 2021 had also been records, and all this amid an industry adjusting to life without Deep Impact (Jpn) and King Kamehameha (Jpn), both of whom had died in 2019.

Youngstar’s foal is one of 15 by Kizuna in the yearling catalogue, that sire a son of Deep Impact standing at Shadai Stallion Station, which he entered in 2016 after a career that fetched wins in the G1 Tokyo Yushun, G2 Kyoto Shimbun Hai and, at Longchamp, the G2 Prix Niel.

Kizuna was Champion First Season Sire in Japan in 2019. In 2022, he was fourth on the Japanese sire table behind Deep Impact, Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) and Heart’s Cry (Jpn), a position he holds in the current season in Japan. He was therefore a logical, commercial choice for the richly bred Youngstar and Funstar.

The mares' presence in the catalogue this July isn’t new fare for Australia.

Last year, the brilliant Australian Group 1 winner Mosheen (Fastnet Rock) topped the yearling session when her Maurice (Jpn) colt sold for ¥450 million (AU$4.9 million). The following day, in the foals’ session, her Epiphaneia (Jpn) colt sold for ¥300 million (AU$3.3 million).

In the past, the likes of the Australian dual Group 1 winner Shamrocker (NZ) (O’Reilly {NZ}) have spread their bloodlines successfully through Japanese racing, while the latest star to shine in that respect is Yankee Rose (All American), who has proved herself a darling with her dual Group 1-winning daughter Liberty Island (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}).

The Yankee Rose fairytale is far from over. Just last week at the Magic Millions National Broodmare Sale, Isotope (Deep Field) was sold by Black Soil Bloodstock for $2.3 million to Yulong. Isotope, a triple Listed winner, is very closely related to Liberty Island, her dam a half-sister to Yankee Rose.

“I think it’s fantastic that there is this relationship between Australia and Japan,” Oka said. “I think both can benefit from each other’s existence. And being in different hemispheres, you can decide if things aren’t working in Japan, they may work in Australia, or vice versa. And also, Australian stayers or middle-distance horses may not be as commercial as they are in Japan, so it tends to work out.”

Oka highlights the differences between the way the two industries work. She said breeding in Japan leans towards the Classic distances, so those are the bloodlines that are most valued there. In Australia, the sprinter is king.

“On saying that, Japan is bringing in those American speed horses now, and even from Europe, to breed for speed,” she said. “Australia will definitely benefit from that too because we love a speed horse down here, and Northern Farm and Shadai, in particular, have invested heavily in mares with those pedigrees.

“When it comes to these Australian mares that are doing so well in Japan, I would also say that a lot of smaller breeders in Japan are starting to look into the Australian market too. They’re paying more attention to what is available here.”

This symbiosis has been propagated by the success of Japanese shuttlers in Australia since the 1990s, namely Maurice in the Hunter Valley and Satono Aladdin (Jpn) in New Zealand right now. Before them, there was the success of the Sunday Silence (USA) line.

Family reunion

Oka is heading to Japan for the Select Sale in July. In Australia, her bread and butter is assisting clients to purchase horses from Japan in both private and public auctions. However, she also does a lot of background work for the Yoshida family’s high-profile purchases in Australia, like Funstar.

She knows that Youngstar’s colt will be a drawcard of the upcoming catalogue, as will be the two half-sisters (one a yearling and one a foal) to the globetrotting champion Gentildonna (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). It's part of the theatre of this sale that two offspring from a mare, and the mare herself, can and regularly do appear in the same sale.

So why is Northern Farm selling the Youngstar and Funstar colts in the first place?

“Northern Farm’s fundamental business model is to breed to sell,” Oka said. “Yes, they do retain horses to race, and often it’s through horses that couldn’t be sold due to injury, and those horses are often raced in the owners’ name or shared with friends.

“But most of the horses they breed are sold at this auction, or through the syndicates they manage.”

Youngstar has visited Kitasan Black (Jpn) at Shadai Stallion Station since her colt by Kizuna. This July at the Select Sale, which will take place at Northern Horse Park in Tomakomai City, it will be a family reunion, of sorts.