A yearling bred and consigned by a group of high school-age boys and girls was sold for ¥27,500,000 (US$260,911) Aug. 25 during the Hidaka Horse Breeders Association Summer Yearling Sale. The price was the fifth-highest achieved at the Hokkaido sale on Saturday.
Consigned as Hip 305, the colt by Makfi out of the Dance in the Dark mare Madrigal Score, was bred by the Shizunai Agriculture High School which is located in a suburb of Shizunai, the central city of the Thoroughbred breeding region in Hokkaido. A couple of mares are boarded at the school and students who study animal husbandry are tasked with looking after the mares as well as the school's crops. The best horse bred by the operation to date is Yume Roman, who won three races from 2005-08 at Japan Racing Association tracks.
For the past two decades, yearlings bred by the school have been offered at the HBA Summer Sale.
Hip 305 was offered on the first day of sale and was purchased by Masatsugu Takezono, a long-standing owner who is well-known as the owner of T.M.Opera O, who was named Japanese Horse of the Year in 2000. The highest price previously achieved by any yearling from the Shizunai Agriculture school was ¥5,200,000. Hip 305's final price of ¥27,500,000 set a new record. The three students who were in attendance at the sale as representatives of the program were moved to tears once the colt left the ring.
A total of 825 horses were sold for gross receipts of ¥5,721,870,000 ($54,287,100) during the four-day sale. The final number represented a 13.8% increase over 2019. The average price of ¥6,935,600 ($65,803) and median price of ¥5,500,000 ($52,182) were also up over 2019 by 18.5% and 19%, respectively. The gross and average both set a new record for the HBA Summer Sale.
