2018 Hokkaido Autumn Sale Review

The 2018 sales season in Japan has come to an end in Japan with the three-day Hokkaido Autumn Sale on October 1st-3rd. The first two days of the sale offered up yearlings going through the ring for the first time while the third day was filled with yearlings who had been withdrawn or RNA’d at earlier sales throughout the summer.

While the overall clearance rate of 71.7% was a slight decrease from 2017’s 75.1%, there were small gains monetarily all across the board. The sale grossed \1,757,376,000(US$15,456,253) and averaged \3,479,952(US$30,606) this year, only a 0.15% and 0.54% increase over 2017 but the median of \2,916,000(US$25,646) was a 3.85% increase and the lowest price was twice as high as last year.

The sale topper came during the first day of the sale when Hip 198, a Daiwa Major(JPN) colt out of Agnes Raspberry(JPN) who went to Shoji Ogihara for \27,000,000(US$237,467).

The Autumn Sale was the last of the of the five sales held by the Hokkaido Sales company each year. This year 2,527 lots were cataloged between the Training Sale, Selection Sale, Summer Premium Sale, Summer Sale, and Autumn Sale. The year held steady at 71.2% clearance, a 6.3% decrease from the huge industry spike felt in 2017. The five sales grossed \ 11,225,736,000(US$98,731,187) this year with an cumulative average of \ 6,239,987(US$54,881). 2017 was a very strong year with unprecedented gains across the board so the only slight course correction this year shows that the market is still strong as we approach 2019.

The 2019 Hokkaido Sales Schedule should be released in late December.

JPN\ 113.7 = USD $1