Hokkaido Autumn Sale Review
The 2019 sales season comes to an end with the shortened two-day Autumn Sale, andwhile the gross was significantly down this year, the clearance rate was significantly up
from last year’s three-day sale.
The addition of a new sale in the Hokkaido Sale calendar likely impacted theperformance of the Autumn Sale this year; the clearance rate was a robust 74.1% for the2019 renewal, up from 71.7% in 2018. In 2019, the sales company added a two-day
September Sale, which took one day worth of horses away from both the Summer Saleand the Autumn Sale. In doing so, this likely had a negative impact on the overall
statistic for the Autumn Sale, make it much more of a buyers’ market than any other salethis year. The number of horses was down from 38.6% in the Autumn Sale due to theaddition of the September Sale, which ended in a gross of¥1,023,770,000(US$9,479,351), a reasonable 41.7% drop in the gross when comparedto the situation the market was last year.
The highest-grossing lot sold for ¥22,000,000(US$203,703) down from 18.5% from lastyear, but the lowest-priced lot was ¥550,000(US$5,092), and this was up 27.3% fromlast year. The average was ¥3,199,281(US$29,622) down 8.0%, and the median of¥2,750,000(US$25,462) was down 5.6%, both minimal decreases showing the market
has not changed all that much.
Hip 332 a Just a Way(JPN) filly out of Eminent City(JPN), a half-sister to champion dirt
horse Espoir City(JPN) was top lot of the sale going to Yoshiki Noda for¥22,000,000(US$203,703). Even though Just a Way only had two lots in the sale, bothclosed over into six figures, grossing their sire a total of ¥26,510,000(US$245,462). The
sole Lord Kanaloa(JPN) in the sale Hip 428, a colt out of Forever Dance(JPN), was thesecond-highest lot, bought by Yoshio Matsumoto for ¥14,850,000(US$137,500).
Dirt sires ruled the sale with the late South Vigorous(USA)’s last crop’s only had six lotsin the sale. Still, all six brought in more money than any other stallion in the sale,grossing ¥39,710,000(US$367,685) with the highest being Lot 247 going to Hokkaido
Bussan Kenkyusho Co., Ltd. for ¥9,020,000(US$83,518). Rising dirt sire Espoir City(JPN)
sold ten lots at the sale grossing ¥35,310,000(US$326,944), and his highest lot was Hip
48 bought by LEVEL-K Co., Ltd. for ¥5,720,000(US$52,962). Multiple Champion dirt
horse Hokko Tarumae(JPN) had his first crop debut as yearlings at the sales this year,
and he sold five at the Autumn Sale, ending with him being the 5th highest-grossing sireat the sale with ¥27,500,000(US$254,629) in the bank. His highest-grossing lot was Hip
180 for ¥6,380,000(US$59,074) going to Hatsue Okada.
Turf sires, especially younger generations, had an excellent end to the season as well.
Eishin Flash(JPN) came out on top for turf sires and was third overall on the sire’s grossrankings with ¥31,130,000(US$288,240) from eight lots sold. His highest-grossing lot
was ¥6,820,000(US$63,148) going to Masatoshi Haramura. Derby hero
Duramente(JPN)’s first crop closed out a strong yearling sale season as the fourthhighest-grossing sire, selling all five lots available for a gross of¥30,580,000(US$283,148). His top lot was Hip 305, selling to¥11,550,000(US$106,944) to Shinichiro Shimai.

The Japanese Sale’s will be back in action next spring with the 2020 renewal of theHokkaido Training Sale held at Sapporo Racecourse in late May.
¥108 = US$1