The next Deep Impact or a Just A Way in waiting? There’s always that excitement and trepidation when a great horse’s first offspring hit the sales, but the market on day two of the JRHA Select Sale in Japan suggested buyers were pleased enough with the first offerings from 2023 world champion Equinox.
Deep Impact was Japan’s greatest stallion, of course: Just A Way isn’t anywhere close despite the distinction of being the only other Japanese horse besides Equinox to have topped the end of year world rankings. The only Just A Way to be seen on Tuesday was bought for the second lowest price of the day, 15 million yen (USD$100,750) but there was plenty of interest in the Equinox youngsters on the unique sales ground.
The day is reserved entirely for foals, creating a surreal vista in the two hours before the session started at Northern Horse Park as the paddocks were blanketed with youngsters and their mothers. Some of the world’s top mares were present along with their most recent offspring, but all eyes were on the progeny of the Shadai Stallion Station newcomer Equinox whose first season covering fee was a Japanese record 20 million yen (US$134,000).
At the top end, Equinox’s foals were highly sought after. He was responsible for three of the top five lots, including the highest-priced foal at the sale in eight years when a colt out of champion American mare and the inaugural Saudi Cup winner Midnight Bisou was purchased for 580 million yen (USD$3.93 million).
When the last of 240 foals departed the ring on Tuesday evening, a total of 24 youngsters by Equinox had gone under the hammer, aggregating 3.56 billion yen at an average of just over 148 million yen with a median price of 84 million yen. Only one of the 24 lots did not find a buyer.
Equinox is the most significant addition to Japan’s stallion ranks since 2020 Triple Crown winner Contrail. By comparison, when Contrail’s first foals sold two years ago, he had 20 lots sold with a top price of 520 million yen, an average just under 129 million yen and a median of 81 million yen.
For Equinox’s trainer Tetsuya Kimura, watching on as the first progeny of his former stable star went under the hammer, there was a sense of pride at the latest milestone in his career.
“I feel very happy and I’ve become emotional watching all of these owners bidding for Equinox foals,” Kimura told Idol Horse. “I think it shows how highly everyone rates Equinox and his foals and I feel appreciated too.
“There are a lot of his foals that look like their father, they are physically very well put together and their muscles are very supple. They walk very nicely too. I can’t wait to see them run.”
Masashi Yonemoto, chief executive of Equinox’s ownership group Silk Racing, told Idol Horse that it was one of the highlights of his career to have produced such an exciting stallion prospect.
“Personally, I feel delighted to see him having such success already,” he said. “We saw Kitasan Black doing so well yesterday and he is so popular at the moment that I think expectations for Equinox are continuing to grow as well.
“Equinox’s foals are very similar to Kitasan Black’s foals. I don’t think they are precocious, they need a bit of time to mature like he did. I can’t wait to see what they are like two years from now.”
Silk Racing has plenty to look forward to with Equinox. Not only is the path now set towards his first yearlings next year, but the club is likely to race perhaps the most exciting of all of his first foals: a colt out of another Silk Racing flagbearer, Almond Eye.
“He has been a well put together type since he was born and he is developing well now,” Yonemoto said. “He is not one who has been stamped completely by Equinox – he looks more like his mother, especially his blaze. I really hope he can develop into a nice horse like his parents – and hope that he gets to race in the Silk Racing colours!”
The Midnight Bisou colt was the third-highest purchase in the 27-year history of the JRHA Select Sale, behind a 600 million yen filly foal from the first crop of King Kamehameha in 2006 (named Daoine Sith, she retired unraced) and a 590 million yen colt yearling from last year’s auction (named M’s Begin, he is in training with Yasuo Tomomichi).
The colt was purchased by Nebraska Racing, the new outfit that also made waves on Day 1 as the buyer of the highest-priced yearling – a Kitasan Black colt out of Australian Group 1 winner Mosheen. It was widely reported yesterday that Nebraska Racing was a vehicle for amusement chain chief Masahiko Sugino, whose horses generally race under the M’s Racing banner.
“If he can blend the strongest parts from both his father and his mother, he will be a very nice horse,” said Kimura, who is understood to be one of the trainers in contention to prepare the colt from 2027. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he is a dirt horse and can have great success in the years ahead.”
The sale’s highest buyer, Umamusume founder Susumu Fujita, was the underbidder on the Midnight Bisou colt.
“Unfortunately, the horse I wanted the most today was the Midnight Bisou colt but I just fell short,” he told Idol Horse. “It was the same last year when we just fell short with the top lot (the Kitasan Black-Delphinia filly who sold for 590 million yen). As the price went higher and higher, I decided I had to stop myself once it started getting close to historic levels.”
Also going for big prices were a colt out of American Grade 1 winner Going To Vegas, who sold for 450 million yen (USD$3.04 million) to “Ho O” owner Yoshihisa Ozasa, and a colt out of top Argentine mare Global Beauty, who reached 310 million yen (USD$2.09 million) for new buyer YF Horseclub.
“I am very grateful to have landed this horse, it is making me teary to realise we got him,” Ozasa said.
While Equinox may have been the shiny new toy, his tried and tested sire Kitasan Black continued to prove popular too. He was responsible for the second top lot, a colt out of well-related Irish mare Simply Glorious who sold for 500 million yen (USD$3.38 million) to relatively new owner Naohiro Sakaguchi; the colt will eventually be trained by Makoto Saito.
“I visited him three or four times before the sale and he has kept growing nicely between all of these visits,” Saito said. “So I told the owner that he must buy this horse. He’s very balanced, his conformation is very beautiful and his walk is tremendous too.
“He was a little bit pricey but I think he’s a good horse. I hope that he will make a nice horse over a mile and a half.”
Equinox aside, it was the first season mares that highlighted the second session and Group 1 winners Fireburn and Sauterne were among the stars early.
The first foal out of Golden Slipper winner Fireburn, a colt by Kizuna, sold for 320 million yen (USD$2.17 million) to Tetsuhide Kunimoto, who has raced horses like Japan Cup winner Shonan Pandora.
“I feel like this horse picked me rather than me picking him,” Kunimoto said. “He is a horse that will make my dreams come true.”
The first foal of Golden Slipper winner Fireburn, a colt by champion Japanese sire Kizuna, sold for 320 million yen (AUD$3.3 million, US$2.17 million) to Tetsuhide Kunimoto. He will carry a "Shonan" name in the future. https://t.co/xPcyvdZy3X
— Idol Horse (@idolhorsedotcom) July 15, 2025
Prix du Moulin winner Sauterne arrived in Japan in foal to Frankel and the resulting colt sold for 300 million yen (USD$2.03 million) to Danox Co Ltd’s Masahiro Noda.
Frankel has had 79 runners in Japan for 51 winners, including three Group 1 winners: Mozu Ascot, Soul Stirring and Grenadier Guards.
There were three buyers who spent more than 1 billion yen (USD$6.77 million) on Day 2: Fujita and Noda, who both added to their billion-yen hauls on Day 1, and former Sega chief Satomi Hajime, who races horses under the Satono banner and missed out completely in the opening session.
Fujita continued his spending spree but could have been more prolific. Along with the Midnight Bisou colt, he was the underbidder on most of the top lots that he did not secure.
“A lot of the horses that I was after got to a very high price,” he said after he secured his final lot of the sale, an Equinox filly out of Argentine Group 1 winner Conviction, to bring his haul across both days to 13 horses. “I lost bidding wars on consecutive big lots and there were a lot of big spenders. It’s easy to lose track here – I have to remain calm and try not to lose myself while buying horses.
“A lot of people complained to me that after I became involved in the JRHA Select Sale, the overall price of horses went up – but I am a victim of it as well. I don’t think it is because of me that prices are that much higher – it’s because there are more and more good horses.
“For example, I was on the Conviction yearling as well but got beaten by Mr Noda. This one, I was expecting to pay more but managed to get her for cheaper – which hasn’t happened a lot for me at this sale! Comparatively, it was still 150 million yen but this one was cheap.”
At the conclusion of the sale, Japan Racing Horse Association (JRHA) chairman Teruya Yoshida said that the auction had exceeded all expectations for local breeders.
“This is an unrealistic market and I don’t think I have ever seen a market like this in the world,” Yoshida said. “The market was strong at every price point across the two days and it was a great mix of new players and long-established clients. Japanese horses are performing well around the world and I think that is a factor in the strong market, too.
“We have such a strong roster of stallions in Hokkaido now – proven stallions like Kitasan Black and Kizuna, promising young sires like Contrail and now we have Equinox as well. And for years we have been trying to improve the quality of our broodmares so it was great to see yearlings and foals out of high-quality mares from around the world performing well. It gives us more reason to go out and import even more mares.”
Across both days, 453 lots were sold for a total of 32.7 billion yen (USD$220.73 million) at an average of more than 72 million yen (USD$486,000) with a clearance rate of 97 per cent – all new records. ∎
