NORTHERN FARM NA ISSUE 29_Jerkins feature.qxd 25/07/2013 15:00 Page 2
NORTHERN FARM
NORTHERN FARM Japanese vision continuing to scale new heights
Visitors standing on a tall wood deck on the edge of Northern Horse Park property overlooking Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm take in the stunning vista of broodmares grazing, their foals napping or playing on the gently sloping hills, in a field on the other side of a wood and wire fence. The people speak intermittently and quietly in Japanese. It doesn’t require much guesswork to understand what they are saying: The view from this spot is almost impossibly green, impossibly breathtaking, in every direction, and the language it inspires is universal. In this spot, on this summer day, this is perfection. Horses, mountains, trees, with the occasional echo of foals whinnying and crows cawing. WORDS: FRANCES J. KARON PHOTOS: FRANCES J. KARON
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ORIKO Takahashi, part of Northern Farm’s yearling office staff, says, “I used to work for an airline. Now, I work in heaven.” Hokkaido is Japan’s northernmost island, about two hours by plane from Tokyo’s Narita Airport on
the island of Honshu to New Chitose Airport, which serves Hokkaido’s capitol city of Sapporo. This is the land Yoshida’s late father, Dr. Zenya Yoshida, handpicked to establish as the epicenter of Japan’s Thoroughbred breeding empire. Here, after all, is the final resting place of his great sires Northern Taste and of Sunday
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