Japan, April 2025
It was a privilege to make a return trip to Northern Farm. This time I was based solely at their stud in Hokkaido with the primary focus being foals.
I spent four days working alongside around ten members of their farrier team and what struck me the most was the scale of the stud and how efficiently the farrier team and management work together. The quality and diversity of the broodmare band is something to behold; there was an abundance of Group and Grade One mares and no shortage of Classic winners.
This visit was a terrific opportunity to discuss how various factors including climate, feeding and breeding influence the conformational development of the foal. We exchanged ideas and shared techniques on trimming protocols and the use of various materials used for extensions and shoeing options.
As always the hospitality was outstanding and highlights included see a few of my old friends, including Equinox, Do Deuce and Shahryar who are now Stallions at Shadai Stallion Station. In addition I had the honour of being shown Wind In Her Hair, the dam of Deep Impact and at thirty-four the oldest known Thoroughbred in Japan. A truly memorable trip.
The above photo of myself alongside Almond Eye and her foal by Equinox.
Dubai World Cup, April 2025
Dubai World Cup was staged a week later then normal this year and its fair to say the temperature’s were soaring. I was reunited with a few old friends including Liberty Island and Durrezza along with a few new horses including the 2024 Japanese Oaks winner, Cervinia.
In addition to the Northern Farm horses I also shod Soul Rush, whom won the Kyoto Mile Championship the previous November, beating Charyn into fifth place. Soul Rush once again showed his courage and class to run down Romantic Warrior and prevail in the tightest of finishes.
As always Dubai produced a high class night of racing and entertainment and it was made even more special when a Wathnan owned horse won the World Cup.
Stephen, pictured with Soul Rush who would go on to win the Dubai Turf.
Japan, November 2024
Less then 24 hours after touching down in the U.K after Del Mar I retuned to Heathrow to depart for Japan. First on the agenda was making my way across country via a bullet train to shoe Charyn for the upcoming Kyoto Mile Championship. A special thankyou must go to the JRA for their help in gaining me access to the quarantine facility where as you would expect the guideline are very strict. All tools used had to be listed and weighted prior to their departure with the horse a week earlier.
Afterwards I flew to Hokkaido in the North Island to begin a ten day stint with Northern Farm that would comprise of three different locations spread around Japan. The trip was a wonderful opportunity to see for myself the structure and scale of the organisation and how the Japanese racing and breeding structure works. It’s quite different in many ways to what I’m used to in the U.K, especially in relation to the interaction between horses in full and pre-training.
