YOSHIDA. What does the name conjure up when you hear it? Yes, a great family name in Japan where Katsumi Yoshida runs Northern Farm, established in 1993 following the death of his father Zenya.

At the same time Katsumi’s older brother Teruya took on the name Shadai, which his father had established and run, and started his own breeding operation. A third son, Haruya, started Oiwake Farm. The dominance of the first two brothers has been incredible, and their names are intertwined with most things that happen in the worlds of Japanese racing and breeding.

Now we also have the horse Yoshida, named in honour of Katsumi who bred him and sold him as a yearling at the JRHA Select Sale in 2015. There he was purchased by bloodstock agent John McCormack for a group of owners that includes the China Horse Club, WinStar Farm and SF Bloodstock. The colt cost 94 million yen, equivalent to €750,000.

Last weekend at Saratoga the equine Yoshida, a son of Heart’s Cry (Sunday Silence), established himself as a racing star and a hugely desirable stallion prospect when he added the Grade 1 Woodward Stakes on dirt to an earlier victory in the Grade 1 Turf Classic at Churchill Downs on turf. In between these victories he travelled to England and ran fifth in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes.

Placed on his only run as a juvenile, he progressed at three to win half of his six starts, notably the Grade 3 Hill Prince Stakes at Belmont and the Listed James W Murphy Stakes at Pimlico, He was runner-up in both a Grade 2 and Grade 3 at Saratoga, the scene of his most recent triumph. His win in the Woodward at the weekend was his first start on dirt.

RISE TO THE TOP

His rise to the top of the racing tree, his ability to act on dirt and turf at the highest level, and his pedigree all point to him being popular when the time comes to go to stud. Should he add a Breeders’ Cup victory on either surface to his record he would be odds-on to find a place on the roster of stallions for the 2019 breeding season.

Yoshida is the second foal from the Grade 1 winner Hilda’s Passion, the best winner sired by Canadian Frontier (Gone West) who was also responsible for another Grade 1 winning filly in No Such Word. A high-class sprinter whose six victories included the Grade 3 Bold Ruler Handicap, Canadian Frontier started his stud career at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky, stood also in Louisiana, and was then sold to Saudi Arabia in 2014.

Hilda’s Passion was the more than nine-length winner of the Grade 1 Ballerina Stakes in 2011 before being sold for $1.225 million to Katsumi Yoshida at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale the same year. This was one of eight career victories which included Grade 2 wins at Belmont, Gulfstream Park and Keeneland.

Yoshida is one of three winners from the first three foals for Hilda’s Passion, the other pair being sons of Deep Impact (Sunday Silence) and both are multiple winners in Japan. Hilda’s Passion is the only stakes winner, prior to Yoshida, in a couple of generations of the female family. She is the best of seven winners from the four-year-old winner Executricker (El Prado) and she in turn is one of half a dozen winners from Trick Trick (Clever Trick) who was placed.

Heart’s Cry was the champion older horse in Japan as a four-year-old in 2005 when he won the Listed Arima Kinen (a local Group 1 in Japan) and was runner-up in the Group 1 Japan Cup to Alkaased. He spread his wings at five and travelled to Dubai where he beat Collier Hill and Falstaff in the mile and a half Group 1 Sheema Classic at Nad Al Sheba.

He was third, behind Hurricane Run and Electrocutionist, in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, only a length off the winner.

Among the leading sires in Japan, he is also sire of a number of top-level winners around the world. This list includes Just A Way, winner of the Dubai Duty Free Stakes at Meydan, Admire Rakti who landed the Caulfield Cup in Australia, and Yoshida. Heart’s Cry is sire of eight Group 1 winners.