Japan’s powerhouse breeding and racing operation Northern Farm has been given the green light to race on the Hong Kong circuit after its vice president Shunsuke Yoshida appeared among those the Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) has granted an ownership permit.
In a groundbreaking development, the Club’s annual list of successful applicants for a Privately Purchased horse (PP), a previously raced import, has opened the way for the Yoshida silks or perhaps one of Northern Farm’s famous affiliated racing clubs to be a regular sight at Sha Tin and Happy Valley.
The HKJC changed its longstanding policy as recently as October 2022, opening up ownership permits to non-resident overseas owners. Yulong’s Zhang Yuesheng and notable South African owner-breeder Mary Slack were among the first non-residents to have a horse trained in Hong Kong.
Yoshida’s name on the successful permit list, released June 5, is a notable development at a time when the HKJC’s ownership base has been impacted by economic downturn.
A club statement to Idol Horse said: “Mr Yoshida has become a Racing Member of the Club under the scheme established several years ago to create a pathway for a select number of significant owners in other countries to participate directly in Hong Kong as racehorse owners. The criteria for this pathway places an emphasis on owners who have achieved success in Group races and have involvement in the breeding sector.”
Yoshida is the son of Northern Farm’s supremo, Katsumi Yoshida, and the boss of Sunday Racing, the club with the black, red and yellow silks made famous globally by star gallopers such as Orfevre and Gentildonna. He visited the HKJC’s Conghua training complex in Guangdong, the day after Hong Kong’s Champions Day in late April.
The list also includes Japanese owner Koji Oka, whose Obamburumai won the lucrative Golden Eagle in Sydney in 2023.
Gaynor Rupert, the owner of Drakenstein Stud in South Africa whose husband is the billionaire Johann Rupert, has been handed a permit, while John Kelly of Newhaven Park Stud in Australia is another overseas owner granted a permit for the first time. Yulong’s Zhang has received another permit. ∎
