Rowe On Monday – New horizons for Rising Sun Syndications, an array of agents share Millions glory, backing in second-season sires

Kosi’s campaign leads to an increasing Japanese presence

The influence of Japan on the Australasian bloodstock market has been going on for decades.

Predominantly, that impact has been through the investment of Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida, a long-term partner of Arrowfield Stud, who has purchased some of the country’s best breeding prospects.

More recently, that includes Golden Slipper winners Fireburn and She Will Reign, Mystic Journey, Yankee Rose and Mosheen before them.

Last year, leading Japanese trainer Mitsu Nakauchida’s fleeting trip to the Gold Coast netted the Home Affairs-Sunlight filly for $3.2 million. She was exported to Japan a month later and has been named Lia La La.

But such is Northern Farm’s dominance in its home country that many Japanese rivals have increasingly seen Australia as a good place to source yearlings to race in this country rather than having to take on the might of the Yoshidas and company.

“It’s a very hard game in Japan. The prize money is great. But it’s very competitive and hard for the small to medium individual owners,” Australian-based expatriate Rising Sun Syndications principal Kosi Kawakami tells The Straight of what could be described as a “closed shop” ownership environment in Japan.

One of the beneficiaries of that dynamic is Rising Sun Syndications, run by expatriates Kawakami, Yusuke Ichikawa and Shinya Mori, whose business went from a $40,000 budget at the Inglis Classic sale five years ago to spending $2.8 million on yearlings at the Magic Millions in 2026.

Among the Rising Sun Syndicate’s haul was the three-quarter sister to this season’s stakes-placed juvenile I’m Ya Huckleberry, who set back her new Japanese owner $1.2 million. 

The I Am Invincible filly is out of Key, who was bought for Japanese client Mr Kawabe’s Knine Inc, and was the most expensive of the Rising Sun’s six-lot haul. She will be trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.

“We’ve got some owners who are interested in buying fillies in Australia, race them here and then bring them back to Japan to breed to Japan’s best stallions,” Kawakami says. 

“We’ve also got a few different clients who are really interested in Australian racing and they know how attractive it is and they just really want to have a crack.”

Million-dollar yearlings are a long way from buying two yearlings costing a combined $40,000 at the Classic sale in 2021.

“We’re still doing that, but at the same time, it’s such an honour to be entrusted by those big owners to be able to select those top yearlings for them,” Kawakami says.

“And it’s great to be involved because this is something we’ve always wanted to do, bring more Japanese owners to Australia. I’m also working really hard to get Australian owners into some of the Japanese imports I’m bringing in.”

Agents earn Magic Millions accolades

In many ways, the Magic Millions carnival belonged to trainer Ciaron Maher.

He won the Magic Millions Subzero with Snitzanova, the Snippets with Axius and quinellaed the 2YO Classic with Unit Five and Tornado Valley, underscoring his ability to have horses peak on the right day – and when the big money was up for grabs.

But when it comes to the bloodstock agents or the buyers behind the winners of the 10 races at the Gold Coast on Saturday, the honours were far more shared around.

And there were some “good guys” amongst them able to put their names up in lights, and not always able to bound up and down the sales ground causeways with big budgets in mind.

Neil Jenkinson, a long-term bloodstock advisor to trainer Matt Dunn, is credited with selecting Torque To Be Sure, a Shamus Award gelding who promised plenty this time last year.

It took longer than expected, 11 starts in fact, but the three-year-old was in front when it mattered: in the Magic Millions 3YO Guineas, putting his owners well in front on the $260,000 they paid in 2024.

Whether Sam White would classify himself as a bloodstock agent is one thing, but he is certainly a studmaster these days with Lovatsville under his management, and Unit Five, the 2YO Classic winner for Maher, was an $80,000 buy at the behest of the Victorian 12 months ago.

In the $2 million Magic Millions Cup, King Of Roseau landed the money for Pulse Racing, trainer Peter Snowden and agent Dave Mee of Pinhook Bloodstock.

A $95,000 buy, King Of Roseau had promised plenty, having won his first start as an early-season two-year-old, but the now four-year-old son of Capitalist has gone to another level since being gelded.

And his come-from-behind victory backed up Snowden’s opinion that the horse would run out a strong 1400m when others doubted that would be the case.

Phil Wells’ name might not appear on the docket, but he deserves a mention too as a key part of the Bennett Racing syndication company owned by Nathan Bennett.

Wells helped select Snitzanova while he was also part of the team when selecting 2YO Classic runner-up Tornado Valley, who was beaten narrowly by his stablemate. Axius, a $200,000 buy for Dynamic Syndications, has now won four times his purchase price after Saturday’s victory with Dean Watt Bloodstock on the buyers’ sheet.

International agent Arthur Hoyeau helped select the Chris and Corey Munce-trained Poster Girl, who made it two lucrative wins in the space of a week at the Gold Coast.

Boomer Bloodstock’s Craig Rounsefell helped select the winner of the rich maiden and opening race on the card, Melanite, while Kiwi agents Bevan Smith and Andrew Williams combined in the selection of Hawker Hall, the winner of the final race on the 10-race card.

Staying the distance with second-season sires

The next few months of the season will be pivotal for studmasters at Newgate and Coolmore, in particular, with high-profile sires Stay Inside and Home Affairs, respectively.

The two stallions, Golden Slipper and Coolmore Stud Stakes winners, have started promisingly with their first two-year-olds and they had solid Magic Millions sales, selling up to $750,000 and $700,000 with their second-crop yearlings.

Such is the fickle nature of the market, however, that some buyers felt there was good value in backing the second and third-season sires at the sales, as the competition went for the first-season Anamoes, Jacquinots and In The Congos.

Belmont Bloodstock’s Damon Gabbedy, in conjunction with microsyndicator MyRacehorse, bought the highest-priced Stay Inside at the sale, a filly out of Ruru from the Sledmere Stud draft.

“It is a much-used phrase but she had a huge walk. As loose as a goose. She was a machine, I thought,” said Gabbedy, always good for a word.

“She has the biggest overstep on the complex. She’s a great mover, great temperament and we just loved her.”