Forever Young is a bay Japanese stallion of the 2020s, foaled on 24 February 2021 and bred by Northern Farm. Racing in the colours of Susumu Fujita and trained from Ritto by Yoshito Yahagi, he emerged as a high-class dirt middle-distance horse with an increasingly international profile. Sold for ¥107.80 million at the 2022 Select Sale, he was a notably expensive youngster even before he began building the race record that would justify that regard.
His pedigree blends major Japanese and international influences. Forever Young is by Real Steel and out of Forever Darling, a daughter of Congrats, giving him a cross that fits his dirt-oriented career. He also comes from an active and productive family: his siblings include Mon Favori, a winner of the 2022 Teineyama Tokubetsu, and Brown Ratchet, winner of the 2024 Artemis Stakes (G3), as well as Danon My Soul. In that context, Forever Young has become the standout colt of the immediate family.
On the track, he has compiled an excellent record, with 11 wins from 15 starts in the evidence supplied. His campaign has been notable not just for volume of success but for ambition. Under Yahagi, a trainer well known for campaigning horses boldly, Forever Young developed into a dirt performer able to compete beyond Japan, matching his profile as an internationally campaigned runner rather than a purely domestic specialist.
Among the key results in the saved record are major victories in the 2025 Breeders' Cup Classic over 2,000 metres on dirt and the 2026 Saudi Cup over 1,800 metres, both at the highest level. The same record also notes a win in the Nippon TV Hai and appearances in headline events such as the Tokyo Daishoten and the Kentucky Derby. Taken together, those results mark him as a rare Japanese dirt horse with a globe-spanning résumé, and as a G1 winner capable of performing on some of the sport's biggest stages.
Forever Young remains active in the supplied records, so his legacy is still being written. Even at this stage, though, he stands out as a prominent modern representative of Japanese dirt racing: a Northern Farm-bred son of Real Steel, expertly handled by Yoshito Yahagi, and campaigned with unusual reach and confidence. His career already reflects the growing international ambition of Japanese stables in dirt racing, and his best achievements place him among the notable Japanese dirt horses of his era.
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