Oaks Winner to the Yoshidas

Tetsuya Yoshida from Shadai Farm, bidding out back alongside bloodstock agent Patrick Barbe and on the phone with his 
father Teruya Yoshida, jumped in on the final bid to secure last year’s GI Kentucky Oaks winner Princess of Sylmar (Majestic Warrior) for $3.1 million. 

Approached by the press after signing the ticket, Yoshida quickly turned things over to Barbe. “What do you want me to say?” Barbe asked Yoshida. “She’s a very nice mare,” Yoshida laughed as he walked away. Barbe followed Yoshida’s prompt and said, “Of course, she is a very nice mare.” Barbe added, “He had only one bid, so it must have been the expected price.” 

Princess of Sylmar (hip 125) was consigned by Taylor Made on behalf of her breeder Ed Stanco, who missed out on the fireworks his filly caused in the Fasig-Tipton sales ring. “He couldn’t bear to be here,” Taylor Made’s Mark Taylor said. “I told him it was going to be fun, but he said, ‘No, it’s not going to be fun. I’m staying home.’ He’s a great guy, he’s great for the sport and it was a great story all around. And he goes to Japan a lot, maybe they’ll give him visitation rights.” 
Princess of Sylmar won four straight Grade I races last summer, beginning with the Kentucky Oaks and followed by the GI Coaching Club American Oaks, GI Alabama S. and GI Beldame S. She missed out on a 3-year-old filly championship after running sixth behind Beholder (Henny Hughes) in last year’s GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff. 

The 4-year-old, who sold as a broodmare prospect, was the complete package, according to Taylor. 

“She was one of those rare fillies,” Taylor said. “First of all, conformationally, she was just a specimen, she was very, very beautiful. And more than anything she had the intangible qualities, class and grace and an intelligence about her that anybody could see if they were around her.” 

Taylor continued, “Then on the racetrack, she won four Grade Is and she won a string of Grade Is that no other horse had ever won before–the Kentucky Oaks, Coaching Club American Oaks, Beldame and Albama. There was no other horse in history to win those–there have been a lot who have tried, but couldn’t do it. She beat Beholder, she beat Close Hatches, she beat Royal Delta. She was a rare, rare commodity on the racetrack and she was beautiful and she deserved that kind of price.” 

After winning her 4-year-old debut in the Cat Cay S. in April, Princess of Sylmar was second in the GI Ogden Phipps S. and GI Delaware H. before ending her career with a fifth-place effort in the Aug. 22 GI Personal Ensign S. 
Her 2014 campaign may have affected her price, according to Taylor. 

“I thought she would bring $3 million all day long,” Taylor said. “I was hoping she might bring $4 or $5 million. Maybe if she had been able to hold her form and ended this year like she ran as a 3-year-old, she could have brought a lot more, but that was a fair price. It’s a lot of money and we are all grateful to the Yoshidas and wish them the best of luck.” 
Princess of Sylmar’s dam Storm Dixie (Catienus), in foal to Tapit, sold a short time later for $1.9 million to Olin Gentry, agent.