Scottish Lassie's recent win in the Coaching Club American Oaks Invitational Stakes (G1) was notable for breeder Winchester Farm as she is the second grade 1 winner (Point Me By) for the husband-and-wife duo of Marie and Dr. Naoya Yoshida.
Riding high from the victory at Saratoga Race Course, the Yoshidas are excited about what the future holds for the daughter of second-crop sire McKinzie , as well as looking ahead to the Keeneland September Yearling Sale.
Marie Yoshida discusses her memories of raising Scottish Lassie, global commonalities, and delivering a personal experience through Winchester Farm.
BloodHorse: What is new with you and Winchester?
Marie Yoshida: We feel we are very blessed, my husband Dr. Yoshida and I, because it's like riding a wave of good news between Scottish Lassie, of course, and we also have Locked who we raised, we foaled, and we advised on the mating and all that. And we have our own little filly named Joke Maker with some friends, partners. We are very excited. We are in a good place, and we are preparing for the (Keeneland) September yearling sale.
BH: You mentioned Scottish Lassie. She's the second grade 1 winner that you've bred. What do you remember about her early days?
MY: I would say it's very similar to children. Also, you love the ones who are born easily, sleep well, eat well, grow nicely, good conformation—you love when everything is easy. ... My husband always called her the little princess, because, frankly, she was very nice, very easy on the eye. She was so stress-free. She brought us joy.
BH: Did you have a really good feeling about what she was going to become as a runner?
MY: Well, we were hoping. ... You never know if the sire (McKinzie) would give enough not only physical, but will to win, heart to win. You need a strong temperament to overcome all the stress of the racetrack. ... We kept the mare and she's now in foal to Practical Joke. We really believe there is a bright future because the bloodlines are strong.
BH: You've worked in the Thoroughbred industry across the globe. Do you find that despite cultural and even political differences, there is more in common than not?
MY: I would say for me, especially, and for my husband, with Japan, it's already very specific. But me with Europe, Hong Kong, Australia, my biggest frustration before was that many horses in the U.S. were bred in sometimes not a very sound way. They could use stallions that were giving genetic defects, and you could hide that at the track because of medication. And thankfully, now everybody is obliged to be much cleaner in the U.S., which the rest of the world has been doing. ... I'm a very strong advocate that horse racing and Thoroughbreds—everybody should remember that we organize racing to select the best, the fastest, but also the soundest. You know, they have to be athletes. So I've seen much better now. I am much more optimistic than 20 years ago.
BH: You have a yearling half by Corniche coming up in the Keeneland September Yearling sale.
MY: Hip 1442. He's in Book 3, Day 1. For me, Book 3 is very important to me and my husband. It's a very important book, because you can find treasures in Book 3. We are excited. And why Corniche? We need to go back to basics again, what the Hancocks have always preached, you need grade 1 winners at 2. Corniche was a very important racehorse, and we need that bloodline because if you want a bit of diversity, you really need it. We believe Corniche will make it as a stallion because of his athleticism, his abilities. He was a very exceptional 2-year-old. ... We already sold a very nice Corniche filly last November. She was in Book 1 because she deserved to be in Book 1.
BH: You saw firsthand the impact on the breed that Sunday Silence had in Japan. Do you feel like there may be an up-and-coming sire in the United States that could have that same type of influence?
MY: What I love, and I've always loved in the Lexington airport, where you have the map of this stallion, you know, the sires table. This needs to be updated regularly, and you need to see which lines survive, which lines disappear, which this and that. So I would like to make sure that we don't have all our eggs in one basket. ... We need diversity. So I really want that this year, especially, and these buyers of yearlings to keep their minds open, because, yes, we need the Quality Road lines. Yes, we need the Curlin line. But we've seen Good Magic is now a good representative. Practical Joke is lovely for me. I can smell something really big as the Into Mischief line. But I applaud, for instance, the Justify line, because you have a different type of sire line there behind which complements what we need.
I believe in Jack Christopher. It's so interesting that sometimes resilient, strong, athletic horses can come from the turf and can adapt some of their progeny to the dirt. And we need to keep dirt racing as number one in the U.S. ... So this year, we are so lucky because we have new young sires on the market. ... Now is the right time to invest, sometimes even for not that much money.
BH: Twenty years ago, you purchased Indian Hill Farm. Looking back, how did that purchase accelerate Winchester's growth?
MY: It was very important. ... Thanks to our friend, Bill Justice, when we became aware that Indian Hill Farm could be on the market, and we went (there) quickly, and we realized location, location, location. We just had our baby boy, born in Lexington in August, and then we visited and signed. It was October 20. Finally signed in December 2004.
Everything changed. We had to adapt, find (additional) staff. My husband was so happy. We were like, an eight-minute drive from Hagyard, we were near Keeneland. The soil was amazing quality. When we are talking about exceptional horses, you also have sometimes exceptional breeders. ... You had the grave of Comely Nell there. We knew it was like walking on sacred ground.
BH: On your website, it touts Winchester Farm as providing a unique experience to your clients. What is involved in putting together such a singular experience?
MY: It was so important that we built relationships with American clients. Of course, we have the Japanese also, and we have the Europeans. We always welcome or make sure that our clients become our friends, (welcome them at) barbecues. We just make it so people don't have to worry about anything, because we treat each horse like our horses. We do a lot of communication, and we are sharing the ups and downs.
We had a long-lost friend from Arizona who had left the business in 2008 when there was the economic crisis and he wanted to come back. His wife wanted to come back. Their friends wanted to come back, and they wanted to visit the stallions. And for us, that is more important than going to New York to watch races. We had them with us and made them feel like co-partners of the moment, of the emotion. And they know how hard it is to achieve that, because we already went through ups and downs. Then they said, 'We want a horse with you.' We now have a filly with them, Joke Maker. They chose the name. We have her with Rodolphe Brisset and Joke Maker, she's by Practical Joke. She's out of one of our favorite mares, Swan of the Nile. She's a Mrs. Marylou Whitney bloodline. You know my husband, he's very strong-minded. When Mrs. Whitney passed away. He said he wanted some of her bloodlines. So we purchased one by Pioneerof the Nile. We love Pioneerof the Nile.
We have a colt with our friends from Texas. We call him Normandy Hero because the sire is Omaha Beach. To encourage them, we went to the Normandy beaches, to visit the beaches, to see what it is to be a Normandy hero. You want to go to France, we will give you advice. You want to go to Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, wherever you want to go, our friends know they can ask us (for advice). If you don't have friends, what's the point?
My husband is the social butterfly of the family. He became friends with the owners of Scottish Lassie, a large group of friends, too. Over the winter, we were in Florida, and my husband said, 'I would like to see Scottish Lassie in training. Let's go to Palm Meadows.' So we wake up early. We drove there, and we couldn't enter because of security. Behind us at the car stop, my husband says, 'Oh, this is Joe (D'Agostino),' co-owner of Scottish Lassie. And we all went in together. Yes, money is important; yes, sell. But at the end, we have wonderful friends. My husband is so happy. We are delighted to live in America. We enjoy every minute. We know we are blessed, and we are very thankful. At the end of the day, it's the journey, it's the trip; it's the same as a horse. ... If everybody could be horse breeders, the world would be at peace.
