WE are a month away now from the annual Japan Racing Horse Association (JRHA) sale of yearlings and foals. Northern Horse Park is the venue for the two-day auction which comprises 243 yearlings and 241 foals.

We are well aware of the roll that Japanese-bred horses have been on since last November when the country took home two of the Del Mar features, headed by Loves On You’s victory in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf. She followed up the following month at Sha Tin where she won the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup, while another Group 1 there was annexed by Glory Vase.

As a prelude to the UAE highlight, Dubai World Cup night, Japan won four races in Saudi Arabia on their biggest day’s racing, and then the nation celebrated five wins at Meydan, notably taking the Group 1 Dubai Turf with Panthalassa and the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic with Shahryar.

Capping this recent fine run of international success Glint Of Hope in April landed the Group 1 Australian Oaks.

A feature of any catalogue for the JRHA’s annual sale is the preponderance of foals and yearlings out of some of the world’s best racemares. The leading breeders in Japan are always to the forefront when it comes to acquiring the best racemares offered for sale, especially when they come under the hammer in the USA. The numbers on offer this year from champions and Group and Grade 1 winning mares is simply astounding.

To whet your appetite, and draw you to go online and look at the catalogue (jrha-selectsale.com), here are just a handful of some of the outstanding lots on offer on July 11th (yearlings) and 12th (foals) which have a European flavour to them.

Yearlings for sale

A daughter of the dual Hong Kong Sprint winner and leading sire Lord Kanaloa (King Kamehameha) is the second produce of the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac winner Lily’s Candle (Style Vendome), and she is followed two lots later by a son of the leading three-year-old Satona Diamond (Deep Impact), and he is a half-brother to the Group 1 Irish Oaks and Group 1 Prix de l’Opera winner Covert Love (Azamour).

The Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas winner Jet Setting (Fast Company) is the dam of a winner with her first runner and she has a colt by Frankel (Galileo) who has done well with his runners in Japan. Horse of the Year in 2015 and now a leading young sire, Maurice (Screen Hero) is the sire of a half-brother to Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Shale (Galileo), and he is out of the Group 1 1000 Guineas winner Homecoming Queen (Holy Roman Emperor).

Coolmore’s Saxon Warrior is represented by a colt, the first foal of the Curragh Group 2 winner Red Tea (Sakhee) who was placed in the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet. Sire of this year’s dual classic winning filly Stars On Earth, Duramente (King Kamehameha) has a daughter out of the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes winner Necklace (Darshaan) for sale.

European Horse of the Year Golden Horn (Cape Cross) has a colt who is the first foal of Commes (Le Havre), runner-up in both the Group 1 French Oaks and 1000 Guineas.

The final yearling in the catalogue is a colt by Duramente out of the Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) mare Listen, winner of the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile, runner-up in the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and whose eight winners include two stakes winners, both of whom were Group 1-placed.

Foals on offer

The first foal to be mentioned is a fascinating European prospect, a son of No Nay Never (Scat Daddy), and the third offspring of the unraced Danehill Dancer (Danehill) mare Rachevie. Her first two foals are the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Helvic Dream (Power) and the Group 3-placed Flirting Bridge (Camelot).

Champion three-year-old Kizuna (Deep Impact) has a son for sale out of the Group 1 Preis der Diana-German Oaks winner Feodora (Lord Of England).

Paca Paca Farm offers a colt by Saxon Warrior and he is the second produce of the multiple graded stakes-placed Zaffinah (Casamento), while another colt by the Coolmore stallion is out of the multiple Grade 3 winner and Grade 1-placed Elysea’s World (Champs Elysees).

Paca Paca has another Saxon Warrior colt near the end of the two-day sale, and he is the first offspring of the stakes winner and group-placed Shailene (Rip Van Winkle).