Gone West Colt, Sekiguchi's Buys Top Japan Sale Session

One day after paying a world-record price for a suckling or weanling sold at public auction, Japanese owner Fusao Sekiguchi went to â280 million ($2,592,593) to acquire a Gone West colt on the final day of the Japan Racing Horse Associations select foal sale at Northern Park on the island of Hokkaido.

On Monday, Sekiguchi paid a record â490,000,000 ($4,537,037) for a Dance in the Dark colt.

Consigned by Northern Farm, as was Mondays record-priced colt, the Gone West colt was produced from the unraced Belong to Me mare Seattle Sunset. The colts second dam, Weekend in Seattle, is a multiple grade I-placed daughter of Weekend Surprise. A multiple grade III winner, Weekend Surprise the is the dam of champion and sire A. P. Indy, classic winner and sire Summer Squall, grade III winner Welcome Surprise, and sire Honor Grades.

The JRHA reported 234 horses sold during the two-day auction for a gross of $71,129,630. The average price was $303,973 and the median was $224,537. During the same sale one year ago, 211 horses grossed $59,840,948 for an average of $283,066 and a median of $177,665.