WinStar Farm's Yoshida , a grade 1 winner on dirt and turf, sired his first reported foal when a colt was born at WinStar on Saturday night, Jan. 9. Bred by Anastasie Astrid Christiansen-Croy, the bay colt, who arrived at 10:58 p.m. EST, is out of the Monsun mare Gravata and hails from a family replete with black type.
"We're thrilled to welcome the first Yoshida foal here at WinStar Farm on behalf of our client Ms. Christiansen-Croy," said Liam O'Rourke, WinStar's director of bloodstock services. "Yoshida has repatriated the Sunday Silence line to America and these foals represent the next generation of that world-class sire. Yoshida was an elite and versatile racehorse and will be strongly supported again in his second year at stud in 2021."
A son of Heart's Cry, one of the leading sires in Japan by dual-classic winner and influential sire Sunday Silence, Yoshida earned $2,505,770 in a sensational racing career for WinStar Farm, China Horse Club, and Head of Plains Partners. Trained by Bill Mott, Yoshida was a versatile four-time stakes winner on dirt and turf. He competed on three different continents and recorded five triple-digit Beyer Speed Figures over both surfaces: 108, 106, 105, 103, and 102.
Yoshida won the 2018 Woodward Stakes presented by NYRA Bets (G1) at Saratoga Race Course in his first career start on dirt, defeating five grade 1 winners. That same year at 4 in 2018, he defeated eight graded stakes winners, including three grade 1 winners, in the Old Forester Turf Classic (G1T) at Churchill Downs. He also won the 2017 Hill Prince Stakes (G3T) at Belmont Park
Bred in Japan by Katsumi Yoshida's Northern Farm, Yoshida sold for $765,160 at the 2015 Japan Racing Horse Association Sale of Yearlings and Weanlings. Yoshida is the second foal produced from Hilda's Passion, who captured the 2011 Ballerina Stakes (G1) at Saratoga before selling for $1.2 million at that year's The November Sale, Fasig-Tipton's premier breeding stock sale.
Yoshida bred 148 mares in his first book in 2020 and he will stand the upcoming breeding season for $15,000 stands and nurses.
