The global confidence of the bloodstock industry has been on display at Newmarket this week, led by an extraordinary spending spree by global giant Godolphin, but Japanese trainer Yoshito Yahagi, attending the Sale for the first time, made his own mark, spending 1.6 million guineas (US$1.9 million) on a colt by Champion sire Dubawi.

Yahagi has already made an impression on the European sales season when paying 2.1 million euros (US$2.08 million) for a brother to Arc winner Sottsass at the Arqana August Yearling Sale and was determined to secure Lot 301, the Dubawi colt offered by Fittocks Stud at Tattersalls.

The colt is a half-brother to Grade 1 winner Digital Age and Yahagi already has high ambitions for him.

“I want to win the Arc,” he told reporters through an interpreter.

“This colt has very good points of Dubawi. This is my first Dubawi. He will come back to Japan. This is my first time buying at Book 1. First and last.”

The colt is the most expensive Dubawi to sell in the first two days of the sale and the Darley stallion had five yearlings, four colts and a filly, sell in the seven-figure range.

That’s more than even Frankel, who stole the Day 2 headlines when his colt, Lot 221, sold for 2.8 million guineas (US$3.32 million), the highest price of any yearling in the world to date in 2022.

The colt, out of Group 2 winner So Mi Dar, from the family of Darley stallion Too Darn Hot, was snapped up in Godolphin’s Tattersalls spending spree, which has seen bloodstock agent Anthony Stroud sign for 22 yearlings at a total price of 16.5 million guineas (US$19.6 million).

That anchored a record day two of trade which saw nearly 50 million guineas (US$59.3 million) spent across 144 yearlings on Wednesday.

Japanese buyer Hisaaki Saito has also been active at Tattersalls, buying two yearlings to date.

Sebastian Desmontils of Chauvigny Global Equine signed the deal for Saito on a Night Of Thunder colt (Lot 184) for 575,000 guineas (US$682,000), as well as a filly by the same sire (Lot 106) for 525,000 guineas (US$623,000).

Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm secured a trio of yearling fillies, spending a total of 520,000 guineas (US$617,000) on daughters of Make Believe (Lot 304), Night Of Thunder (Lot 50) and Soldier’s Call (Lot 51).

The Hong Kong Jockey Club was also busy picking up candidates for its Hong Kong International Sale, with a trio of colts by Invincible Spirit (Lot 249), Australia (Lot 269) and Starspangledbanner (Lot 10). The Invincible Spirit colt, out of Group 1 winning French mare Teppal, cost 600,000 guineas (US$712,000), while the other two cost 280,000 (US$332,000) and 220,000 (US$261,000) respectively.

One of the few Australian-based buyers active so far this week at Tattersalls has been bloodstock agent James Harron, who came together with international agent Hubie De Burgh to purchase Lot 264, a filly by Siyouni, for 680,000 guineas (US$806,000).

That filly is out of a sister to G1 Mackinnon Stakes winner Magic Wand.

Earlier in the week, noted Australian breeder John Camileri, the man who bred superstar mare Winx, got a notable result when Lot 167, a colt he bred by Dubawi, sold for 1.5 million guineas (US$1.78 million) to Godolphin.

Yahagi has substance to match his style