Dual Surface Grade 1 Winner Yoshida Retires to WinStar
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Photo: Coglianese Photos/Chelsea Durand
Yoshida gets his second grade 1 victory in the 2018 Woodward Stakes at Saratoga Race Course
Yoshida , a grade 1 winner on dirt and turf, has been retired and will stand the upcoming breeding season at WinStar Farm. He will stand for $20,000 with a stands and nurses guarantee.
Owned by WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, and Head of Plains Partners and trained by Bill Mott, Yoshida earned more than $2.5 million in a sensational racing career. A versatile four-time stakes winner hailing from the influential Halo line, Yoshida competed on three different continents and recorded five triple-digit Beyers over both surfaces—108, 106, 105, 103, and 102.
"We are excited about his next chapter," said Elliott Walden, president, CEO, and racing manager of WinStar Farm. "He's a horse who competed with the best of the best on both surfaces. He ran against Bricks and Mortar four times and beat him twice. When Tom Ryan and I bought him as a yearling, we envisioned him retiring to WinStar and bringing back the hallowed blood of Sunday Silence. He was grade 1 class on both surfaces, and not many horses are able to do that."
Yoshida registered his biggest victories as a 4-year-old in 2018, capturing both the Woodward Stakes Presented by NYRA Bets (G1) on dirt at Saratoga Race Course and the Old Forester Turf Classic Stakes (G1T) at Churchill Downs. He won the Woodward with an impressive fast-closing score over a deep and competitive field in his first start on dirt, earning a 102 Beyer speed figure, and ran a 106 Beyer in winning the Turf Classic in decisive fashion.
Video: Woodward S. Presented by NYRA Bets (G1)
A game winner of the 2017 Hill Prince Stakes (G3T), defeating multiple grade 1 winner Bricks and Mortar, Yoshida also finished a strong second in this year's Whitney Stakes (G1) to multiple grade 1 winner McKinzie and finished ahead of eventual Longines Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) winner Vino Rosso , earning a 108 Beyer in the second-fastest Whitney since 1955.
At 4 Yoshida traveled to Royal Ascot in 2018, where he was beaten just 1 1/4 lengths in a field of 15 in the prestigious Queen Anne Stakes (G1) and he also contested this year's Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline (G1) at Meydan Racecourse. He retires with a 5-4-1 record out of 18 starts and earned $2,505,770.
Bred in Japan by Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Farm, Yoshida is by Heart's Cry, one of the leading sires in Japan and a son of influential stallion and dual American classic winner Sunday Silence, the greatest sire in Japanese history. Heart's Cry is the sire of nine grade 1 winners, two champions, and the winners of 57 graded stakes races worldwide with more than $243 million in progeny earnings.
Yoshida is the second foal produced from Hilda's Passion, who captured the 2011 Ballerina Stakes (G1) at Saratoga before selling for $1,225,000 at that year's Fasig-Tipton The November Sale. Yoshida was purchased as a yearling for 94 million yen (US$765,160) at the 2015 JRHA Select Sale in Japan.
"Yoshida proved to be a versatile racehorse, winning prestigious grade 1 races on dirt and turf," said Sean Tugel, director of bloodstock services and assistant racing manager at WinStar. "He is out of a very fast grade 1-winning mare and brings back the Sunday Silence/Halo blood to America through his sire Heart's Cry. He is an outstanding physical that possesses heart as a racehorse that everyone is looking to breed into their foals."