Dr. Tadashi Iida, a well-known owner, breeder, and veterinarian in Japan and CEO of Chiyoda Farm, that country’s major breeding and training facility, passed away Nov. 15 in his native land after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was 80 years old.
Dr. Iida was listed as the owner of record of more than 90 racehorses, including Japan’s 2-year-old filly champion of 2002, Peace of World. The Sunday Silence filly won the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (JAP-I) that year.
According to Nobu Araki, the Iida family’s bloodstock consultant and owner of Polo Green Farm in Lexington, KY, Iida was largely responsible for building the 2,000-acre Chiyoda Farm in Hokkaido, Japan, to its current status, along with his son, Dr. Masatake Iida.
Dr. Masatake Iida is one of Japan’s top owner/breeders and is well-known in U.S. racing circles as well. In 2006, he consigned the highest-priced weanling of Smarty Jones’ first crop when a colt out of the unraced Seattle Slew mare Laguna Seca sold for $556,521 (U.S.) at the Japan Racing Horse Association sale of yearlings and weanlings.
Funeral Services for the elder Dr. Iida were to be held Nov. 19 at Yatsutomi Narita Saijyou in Japan. He is survived by his wife Masako Iida, three daughters, and Dr. Masatake Iida.