Shadai Stallion Station Announces Breeding Season Stats
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Photo: Naoji Inada
Drefong's stud fee more than doubled from 2021 to 2022.
Shadai Corporation, which runs Shadai Stallion Station, recently announced the statistics from the 2022 breeding season. The busiest among 33 stallions at the complex owned by the Yoshida family was Drefong, who covered 198 mares, despite his fee being raised from ¥3,000,000 (U.S. $20,725) in 2021 to ¥7,000,000 ($48,276) in 2022.
Drefong was U.S. Champion Sprinter in 2016, when he won four races from four starts, including the TwinSpires Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) and the Ketel One King's Bishop Stakes (G1). He started to stand at Shadai Stallion Station in 2018, and 129 foals were born in 2019.
In 2021, Drefong sent 31 winners, including Geoglyph, who won Sapporo Nisai Stakes (G3), and was named Freshman Sires' Champion in Japan. Geoglyph won the 2022 Satsuki Sho (G1), the first leg of the Japanese Triple Crown, and it was a pleasant surprise that Drefong sent the winner of a major race over 2,000 meters on turf.
The busiest first-season sire at Shadai Stallion Station in 2022 was, as expected, Contrail, who was visited by 193 mares.
Contrail, by Deep Impact , was the 2020 Japanese Triple Crown winner. Although he was beaten second to Almond Eye (JPN) in the 2020 Japan Cup (G1), he won the same race in 2021 by two lengths. His fee in 2022 was ¥12,000,000, ($82,759), the same price as Deep Impact in 2007, his first season at stud.