22 October, 2008
On Wednesday, July 23, the Hidaka Breeders' Association(HBA) hosted the Selection Sale auction for foals at the Hokkaido Sales Complex in Shinhidaka. The highest priced foal was a son of King Halo out of Takano Secretary (USA), full brother to Kawakami Princess, a foal that is symbolic to the Hidaka breeding district. After some intense bidding, the colt went to Darley Japan of Hidaka for JPY 63,525,000. The highest price for a filly was the JPY 13,650,000 paid by Takaya Shimakawa of Miyagi Prefecture for a foal sired by King Kamehameha out of Grace Maria. King Halo topped the list of average price by stallion with the sale of Kawakami Princess's brother (JPY 63,525,000 - just one progeny sold). Next were Agnes Tachyon (JPY 27,195,000) and Zenno Rob Roy (JPY 24,202,500), respectively. This placed Japan-bred stallions in all of the top three positions.
178 foals (119 colts and 59 fillies) were offered, and 58 (47 colts and 11 fillies) were hammered down. The percentage sold was therefore 32.6%, which was down 4.7 points from last year. The total value of horses sold was JPY 776,475,000, which was decline of 6.5% from last year. However, the average price climbed 16.0% on the year to JPY 13,387,500, even though the median price slipped a bit at just 0.5% to JPY 10,500,000.