Shadai Stallion Station

Shadai Stallion Station (社台スタリオンステーション, Shadai Sutarion Sutēshon) is a thoroughbred breeding facility located in Abira on the island of Hokkaido in Japan. The farm was begun in the late 1970s to early 1980s by the late Zenya Yoshida, and is now run jointly by his sons (Katsumi, Haruya, and Teruya Yoshida), known collectively as the Shadai Group.[1] As of 2006, the brothers own 3,000 horses worldwide.[1] The farm houses stallions from Japan and many other countries and racing circuits.[2] The grounds also house a racing museum and tourist park called the Northern Horse Park and the Northern Farm Kuko, a large horse-training and conditioning facility. The most expensive acquisition was War Emblem, which was bought for US$17 million in 2002 to replace Sunday Silence, which died suddenly that year of a heart attack (and whose offspring are most notable among the stable's horses today). War Emblem was a reluctant breeder, siring only 106 registered foals between 2004 and 2011.[3] He did not sire a foal after 2012, and was pensioned and returned to the United States in the fall of 2015 to Old Friends Equine.[4] Other recent acquisitions include 2010 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Harbinger[5] and 2010 Epsom Derby and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Workforce.[6]