A Breeder's Proposition

One weekend after the Breeders' Cup.

Before October was auction season, and the farm's attention had mostly been focused on foals and yearlings.

But in the period ahead, they would need to begin the mid-stage training after weaning while also planning next year's breeding arrangements.

Still, repeatedly considering pedigree pairings was one of the most enjoyable parts of being a breeder.

Especially for the mares newly acquired at breeding stock auctions in addition to the farm's original broodmares, thinking about their pedigree pairings was exciting every time.

As usual, they had received the following year's stallion fee lists from domestic and overseas stud farms such as Shadai Farm, Coolmore, and Godolphin at the earliest opportunity.

Some of the contents had been expected, while others came as a surprise.

First was Brimming Glory's fee rising from its long-standing one million yen to five million yen.

Though the increase itself was still bearable, he had already heard plenty of complaints from familiar breeders along the lines of, "Are they giving up on Hidaka again?"

Of course, even if the stud fee had not changed at all, Baozuo's full brother could easily be expected to draw a sky-high price at auction.

Beyond that, the lineup of dirt stallions remained as lacking as ever. Even Everlasting Youth, despite his elite race record, had kept his fee at the same three million yen as last year.

Of course—

The main reason was perhaps that Shadai Farm was not targeting sales in the Hidaka region.

Their possible reasoning was that, just as King Kamehameha had once won on both turf and dirt, as long as a horse possessed absolute speed, it could win dirt races through class superiority as well.

It was probably something along the lines of, "Even without specifically stocking dirt stallions, our current