Palace Malice and Yoshida to stand at Darley Japan for 2024

Darley Japan has added to its roster a pair of established stallions who did their racing in North America in Classic winner Palace Malice and two-time Grade 1 winner Yoshida.

Palace Malice won the 2013 Belmont Stakes by more than three lengths. He also won the Metropolitan Handicap at four, a season that saw him amass four Graded victories. He is by leading sire Curlin, who is also sire of Godolphin's outstanding multiple Breeders' Cup winner Cody's Wish and is a half-brother to this year's Tenno Sho winner Justin Palace.

Palace Malice wasted little time in getting his career at stud off to a flying start, siring a Breeders' Cup winner in his very first crop when Structor landed the 2019 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. He has sired 23 stakes performers to date, including unbeaten Japanese Grade 2-winning juvenile, Jantar Mantar, who is one of four winners from just seven runners in Japan for his sire.

Japanese-bred Yoshida was also a multiple Grade 1 winner, remarkably winning at the highest level on both turf and dirt when landing the 2018 Turf Classic Stakes at Churchill Downs and Woodward Stakes at Saratoga. He was also beaten by just a length in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot and finished fourth in the Breeders' Cup Classic, both in 2018.

Yoshida is a son of Heart's Cry who is also the sire of Japanese stallions Just A Way and Suave Richard. He is out of the Grade 1-winning mare Hilda's Passion, also dam of Japanese Graded winner Sanctuaire.

Yoshida's first crop of two-year-olds arrived this season and include two stakes performers and nine individual winners through to Wednesday. His best sales figures to date have been in Japan, with a foal and yearling by him selling for ¥20 million (approx. $181,235) and ¥23,100,000 ($154,415), respectively.

"In addition to [previously announced] Adayar and Hukum, we are very pleased to introduce two more exciting stallions," said Darley in Japan president Harry Sweeney. "Palace Malice has already had success on the turf in Japan, and Yoshida is a promising stallion who won Grade 1 races on both turf and dirt in the United States as a Japanese-bred horse. 

"Even though both stallions raced in the US, they are well-known among Japanese breeders. With the addition of these two exciting new stallions, we have an even stronger and more varied line-up for next season. We look forward to welcoming you to view these stallions."

Fees for both stallions will be announced at a later date.

In 2023, Palace Malice stood for $7,500 at Three Chimneys Farm and Yoshida stood for $10,000 at WinStar Farm.

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