Is Forever Young the next superstar for Yoshito Yahagi? The 3-year-old should give us the answer to this question at Riyadh Feb. 24, when he tries to extend unbeaten record to four in the Saudi Derby (G3) Feb. 24 at Riyadh.
Yahagi picked up the colt out of Forever Darling, a grade 2 winner in the United States, at the 2022 JRHA Select Sale for his client, Susumu Fujita. Fujita was the biggest spender at JRHA Sale in the last three years, for ¥98,000,000 (US$725,926).
The son of Real Steel broke his maiden last October at Kyoto by four lengths, followed up with a 1 1/2-length score in the JBC Nisai Yushun at Monbetsu Racecourse in November. He capped off his juvenile season with a victory in the Zen-Nippon Nisai Yushun, Japan’s championship race for 2-year-olds on the dirt, by seven emphatic lengths Dec. 13 at Kawasaki Racecourse. The performance earned Forever Young a Japanese race rating of 113, which is the highest rating of any 2-year-old on the dirt in the history of the Japanese Thoroughbred Ranking system.
Last year’s Zen-Nippon Nisai Yushun winner, Derma Sotogake , went on to capture the UAE Derby (G2) in Dubai before finishing sixth in the Kentucky Derby (G1). The connections of Forever Young have expressed interest in running their colt in the March 30 UAE Derby (G2) after the Saudi Derby with the hope of securing enough points to make the 2024 Kentucky Derby field.
