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9 August 2022
Japanese buyer’s $1 million Saratoga spend
Japanese trainer Hideyuki Mori made a mark on the first day of the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale, paying US$1 million for a colt by Into Mischief.
Hip 74, the colt by Into Mischief, was purchased for US$1 million. (Photo: Fasig-Tipton)
Japanese trainer and agent Hideyuki Mori has made a strong impression on his first visit to the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale in the United States, buying one of the four colts to sell for $1 million or more on the opening day.
Mori has been a regular visitor at Ocala’s Select 2YO Sale in Florida and Keeneland’s September Yearling Sale over the years but was making his first appearance at Saratoga, and made an immediate mark, buying two colts, including a son of Into Mischief, Hip 74, for US$1 million.
The colt is a brother to multiple Grade 1 placegetter Shoplifted out of Yes It’s True mare Shopit and was bred by Maurice and Samantha Regan’s Newtown Anner Stud.
Speaking through his translator, Mori said: “He was the first horse I looked at when (I) arrived on the sales grounds.”
📽️ Watch Hip 74 c. INTO MISCHIEF o/o Shopit sell for $1,000,000 at The Saratoga Sale! Congrats to all the connections!#FasigSaratoga @spendthriftfarm pic.twitter.com/1INrEzegVT
— Fasig-Tipton (@FasigTiptonCo) August 9, 2022
Also destined for Mori’s Japanese stables is Hip 45, the colt by Classic Empire, for which Mori paid US$240,000. He is out of Giants Causeway mare Punk Nightie, a half-sister to Grade 1 winner Mass Media.
Mori, who was assisted by Mariko Seki, has secured several stakes quality horses out of the American sales over the year including recent G2 New Zealand Trophy winner Jean Gros and the multiple Listed winner Jasper Prince.
He also paid US$1.1 million for the Into Mischief colt, Meta Max, at this year’s Ocala 2YO Sale and US$950,000 at last year’s Keeneland September Sale for a grey colt by Justify who has been named Sorakarano Chikara.
He has also campaigned an array of horses in the United States over the years.
The top-priced lot of the opening day was Hip 68, a colt by Uncle Mo out of Tapit mare Secret Sigh which sold to West Point and Woodford Racing for US$1.5 million.
The colt carries a connection to Japan through his dam, who is a half-sister to G1 Yasuda Kinen winner Mozu Ascot. The Saratoga Selected Yearlings Sale concludes on Tuesday (local time).
