Son of Henny Hughes Tops Hokkaido Summer Sale

The yearling market in Japan is still strong with record gross sales for the 2021 Hidaka Horse Breeders' Association Hokkaido Summer Yearling Sale at Shizunai, which concluded its five-day session Aug. 27. A giant firework kicked the sale off Monday when Lot 1, a colt by Henny Hughes, was bought by Toshiya Miyazaki for ¥46.2 million (US$420,777), the highest price of the sale. From the consignment of Yoshiyuki Ito's Grand Stud, the colt is the second foal out of the multiple stakes-winning Tiny Dancer (JPN), the National Association of Racing champion juvenile filly of 2015. Tiny Dancer won the 2015 Edelweiss Sho, the 2015 Hokkaido Nisai Yushun, and the 2016 Kanto Oaks and she is from the same family as Higashi Will Win (JPN), NAR Horse of the Year in 2017 and the winner of that year's Japan Dirt Derby. Of 1,336 lots offered, 1,004 yearlings sold for gross receipts of ¥6,912,400,000 ($62,797,100), which is a 20.8% increase from the 2020 figures, setting a record at the Summer Sale. The median price of ¥5.5 million ($49,966) was the same as 12 months ago and the co-highest for the sale. An average price of ¥6,884,860 ($62,547) was down 0.7% from last year. The clearance rate decreased slightly from 77% in 2020 to 75.1% in 2021. "The gross sale receipts are much higher than expected, and I am delighted with the clearance rate," Mitsugu Kimura, representative director at HBA, said after the sale. "I am pleased to see 53 yearlings were bought by online bidders, although I am convinced we need to improve our online bidding system."