Frankel colt foal out of top-level winner Callback goes for £1.5m at JRHA sale

Frankel mania in Japan is not a new phenomenon and there were plenty ready to get stuck in for Northern Farm's colt by the red-hot dual world champion at the foal section of the JRHA Select Sale on Tuesday.

The Banstead Manor Stud sire, who recently struck with Adayar in the Derby and Hurricane Lane in the Irish version, is responsible for three individual Grade 1 winners in Japan, including Oaks heroine Soul Stirring.

On Tuesday his colt foal out of the Las Virgenes Stakes winner Callback made ¥240 million (£1.57m/€1.84m) to trainer Yoshito Yahagi on behalf of Thoroughbred Club Lion.

“He's an outstanding individual," Yahagi said of his new recruit. “I visited Northern Farm for inspections three times and had a feeling this colt has been getting better and better.

"While he may not be a typical Frankel, I like him a lot and am sure he is worth paying this amount of money for.”

Yahagi trained another son of Frankel in Mozu Ascot to win top-level contests on the turf and dirt in the Yasuda Kinen and February Stakes before the colt was retired to stand at Arrow Stud last year.

A Northern Farm-consigned Kizuna colt took top lot honours when selling to Yoshihisa Ozasa for ¥410m.

Bought on behalf of Ozasa by Yahagi, the colt is the ninth foal out of Group 2 Diana-Trial winner Selkis and a half-brother to Satsuki Sho second and Japanese Derby third Velox.

“This is the one which I was determined to get hold of," said Ozasa. “Yoshito Yahagi strongly recommended him and others who inspected him told me that this is a very nice horse.

"I thought he would cost around ¥300 million but I didn’t intend to retreat at all. I won the bidding war and hopefully the colt will win big races.”

Another Northern Farm lot hit the high notes when the Lord Kanaloa colt out of the Australian champion two- and three-year-old Yankee Rose sold to Danox Co Ltd for ¥370m, the second top lot of the session.

The recently retired Heart's Cry was represented by three foals on the second day of the Select Sale and the pick of them was a colt out of Loves Only Me, who was bought by Masahiro Miki for ¥280m, the third highest price at the session.

The colt is a half-brother to Dubai Turf scorer Real Steel and Queen Elizabeth II Cup victor Loves Only You, the latter bought at the 2017 JRHA Select Sale as a yearling for ¥160m.

Overall, 213 lots from 230 offered were sold for ¥10,923,000,000 in total at the foal session, a 31.1 per cent increase on 12 months ago.

The average (¥51,281,690) and median (¥33,000,000) represented a 24.9 per cent and 13.8 per cent increase respectively from 2020. The clearance rate rose from 90 per cent in 2020 to 93 per cent this year.

In all, 439 lots from 472 offered were sold for ¥22,561,000,000 through the two-day session, a 20 per cent increase from 2020. The average price throughout the two days (¥51,391,780) was up by 18 per cent on 2020, while the overall clearance rate improved from 91 per cent last year to 93 per cent.

“This is a much stronger market than I expected,” Teruya Yoshida, active chairman of the Japan Racing Horse Association, said at the conclusion of the Select Sale.

“As the catalogue this year does not include King Kamehameha and very few Deep Impacts, I thought the market would shrink, but I was wrong. I'm very impressed to see so many new players active throughput the two days."

He continued: “The number of buyers registered at this year’s sale is more than 700, which is ten per cent more than last year, and the market has enough players at every price range. I think it created this strong market.

“I also think we have a great variety of stallions standing in Japan now. There are sires who produce good sprinters, milers and stayers on the turf and the dirt.

"The quality of broodmares we have in Japan is much higher than before, and more stallions have a chance to produce top-class racehorses. Breeders will reinvest the funds to acquire more quality mares to improve the quality of Japanese-bred horses."

Read more

Ulysses off to a winning start as Niarchos homebred Piz Badile strikes

Records broken as £2 million Deep Impact colt leads the way at JRHA Select Sale

Who possesses the sire power to succeed the great Galileo? (£)

Seldom have the words born into greatness rung as true as they did with Galileo