Details
| Name / Japanese | Northern Taste / ノーザンテースト |
| Birth Year | 1971 |
| Birth Country | CAN |
| Sex | horse |
| Sire | Northern Dancer |
| Dam (Sire) | Lady Victoria (Victoria Park) |
| Other Site Link | JBIS Stallion Reports / en.netkeiba Progeny Stats |
As a Racehorse Briefly
- Zenya Yoshida, the general manager of Shadai Group, ordered his son, Teruya Yoshida, to purchase a Northern Dancer colt that could be used as a stallion in the future.
- Northern Taste was based in France as a racehorse.
He finished fourth in the Two Thousand Guineas Stakes and fifth in the Derby Stakes in England, and first in the Prix de la Forêt and second in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp in France.
As a Stallion
- He became a stallion in Japan in 1975.
When Northern Taste first came to Japan and showed himself, he was very much underestimated.
He had a small body, short legs, and an ugly face with a strange white pattern.
Some breeders derided him as being like a dog or a goat.
When Zenya Yoshida first saw him, he lamented that he had made a mistake in entrusting the purchase to Teruya, saying, “A horse with such a small body and funny face can never be successful.
Google Image Search Northen Taste - He became a tremendously successful stallion, something unprecedented in Japan.
He took the title of Japan’s leading sire from Tesco Boy in 1982, and was the leading sire a total of 10 times. (In the JRA-only tally, he has been 11 years in a row.)
He was also the leading broodmare sire for 17 consecutive years from 1990 to 2006. (In the JRA-only tally, 15 consecutive years from 1991 to 2005) - A phrase often used to describe the characteristics of his foals is that “Northern Taste foals change three times.
His foals are often successful early with few failures, but their true value is in their ability to grow and remain active for a long time, even as they get older. - Although there were so many of his active foals, it is sometimes said his lack was that he did not have any super great foals.
(Specifically, he does not have the very great foals such as Shinzan by Hindostan, Tosho Boy by Tesco Boy, and Symboli Rudolf by Partholon.)
His most successful foal was Amber Shadai.
Amber Shadai also became a successful stallion. - One of the main characteristics of his pedigree is that he is an inbreeding horse, 3 x 2, out of the broodmare Lady Angela. (Lady Angela is the dam of Nearctic and the dam of Lady Victoria, the dam of Northern Taste.)
Due to the inbreeding of Lady Angela, Northern Taste seems to have more elements of Nearctic and Hyperion than just Northern Dancer.
Thanks to Northern Taste’s success, his full brother Sudden Thaw and half-brother Tanzor were also imported to Japan as stallions. - The Shadai Group became a top-class racehorse breeder with the success of their stallion, Guersant.
After that, however, the stallions and mares they purchased at high prices were not successful, and after the death of Guersant, they were close to bankruptcy.
The money to buy horses like Real Shadai, Tony Bin, Sunday Silence, White Muzzle, etc. came from the success of Northern Taste.
Northern Taste is the biggest reason why the Shadai Group has become the undisputed No. 1 racehorse breeder in Japan.
He retired from stallion work at the end of 1999, and in his later years was given free access to his room and private pasture, where he lived long enough to reach the age of 33 as the greatest contributor to the Shadai Group.
///Unrelated Topic///
Another topic is that a racehorse named Wajima, who won the 1975 Eclipse Award for Outstanding 3-Year-Old Male Horse, saved the Shadai Group.
One of Wajima’s co-owners was Zenya Yoshida.
Wajima was syndicated for the sum of $7.2 million, a world record at the time.
The profit from the sale saved the Shadai Group.
Foals that won the G1 races, or the G1-level races prior to the establishment of the grading system
- 1977
Amber Shadai - 1979
Shadai Ivor - 1980
Gallop Dyna
Dyna Carle
Shadai Sophia - 1983
Dyna Gulliver - 1989
Adorable - 1990
Northern Rainbow (He is a full brother of Adorable and won the Nakayama Obstacle before it was classified as G1.) - 1998
Big Taste - Famous horses that did not win G1 races but are still famous include Dyna Actress, Legend Teio and Matikanetannhauser.
Sire Line
- The line Amber Shadai to Mejiro Ryan to Mejiro Bright is the main Northern Taste sire line.
Amber Shadai and Mejiro Ryan were quite popular stallions for domestic sires.
However, they fell out of the mainstream due to Northern Taste’s own activity for quite a long time and the success of foreign stallions such as Sunday Silence.
(The fact that Mejiro Ryan’s stud fees were high due to the birth of such successful foals as Mejiro Bright and Mejiro Dober in his first year did not bode well for his subsequent life as a stallion.)
Mejiro Bright died prematurely without producing a successful foal. - In 2010, Matikanetannhauser retired as a stallion and the Northern Taste Sire Line in Japan ceased to exist.
Few people would have expected the disappearance of the Northern Taste Sire Line so soon. - His foal Aswan also did well as a stallion.
Aswan was a reasonably good stallion, producing a good number of foals each year.
Aswan’s foal, Mejiro Ardan, was a good racehorse, finishing second twice and third once in G1 races.
Mejiro Ardan went to China in his later years.
Mejiro Ardan’s foal, Wu Du, was apparently a successful racehorse and also a successful stallion in China.
The only Northern Taste Sire Line still in existence is descended from Wu Du.
However, the situation of racehorse production in China are unclear, and the Northern Taste Sire Line would not survive in the international studbook.
///Horse Racing in China///
The situation of horse production in China (excluding Hong Kong) is not clear.
China was raking in racehorses not only from Japan but from all over the world.
In the past, a colt by Mejiro Ryan has become a stallion in China, so perhaps the Amber Shadai line may also remain in China.
In terms of world famous horses, the Irish horse Bigstone went to China.
It may be possible that the offspring of famous horses whose sire lines did not survive in Japan also have sire lines surviving in China.
The foals of Tamamo Cross, Dance in the Dark, Sakura Chitose O, Meisho Doto, Sakura Laurel, Marvelous Sunday, Fusaichi Concorde, Durandal, etc. have been registered as stallions in China.
However, it is not clear what is happening now and in the future.
His Influence on the Japanese Horse Racing
- He was a very good broodmare sire.
Racehorses for which he was a broodmare sire include Soocer Boy, Sakura Bakushin O, Flower Park, Air Groove, Admire Cozzene, Durandal, Daiwa Major, Daiwa Scarlet, Company, and many other famous horses. - His descendants include Soccer Boy, Sakura Bakushin O, Stay Gold, Admire Cozzene, Durandal, Admire Max, Daiwa Major, Rulership, Duramente, and many others who produced many foals as stallions.
There are also many descendants of Northern Taste in South America, especially in Brazil, by Agnes Gold. - In terms of pedigree only, Northern Taste still exerts a great deal of influence on Japanese horse racing today.
Moreover, as mentioned above, he is the savior of the Shadai Group.
No one can deny that the Shadai Group is the foundation of Japanese horse racing today, so he can be considered the father of today’s Japanese horse racing.