First Foal For Firenze Fire Arrives in Japan

The first reported foal for nine-time GSW Firenze Fire (Poseidon's Warrior) has arrived in Japan, according to a tweet from Yano Farm in Hokkaido. The new filly is a daughter of the 5-year-old mare Wicked Bisou (Wicked Strong), who is out of Diva Delite (Repent) and therefore a half-sister to champion and millionaire Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute).

“I was born small, but the best thing is that I am healthy,” the tweet reads.

Florida-bred Firenze Fire raced over five seasons and amassed a career line of 38-14-7-3, $2,730,350. He won the GI Champagne S. as a 2-year-old and eight other graded stakes over his career, including the GII True North S. in both 2020 and 2021, the 2020 GII Vosburgh S. and 2018 GII Dwyer S. He was also third behind champion Whitmore in the 2020 GI Breeders' Cup Sprint.

Aside from his outstanding race record Firenze Fire is perhaps best known for savaging Yaupon (Uncle Mo) and grabbing his bridle during the stretch run of the 2021 GI Forego S. After the incident he finished second.

Owner-breeder Ron Lombardi sold Firenze Fire to stand at Arrow Stud in Japan following the horse's eighth-place finish in the 2021 Breeders' Cup Sprint at Del Mar.

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Firenze Fire to Stand Stud in Japan

Firenze Fire (Poseidon's Warrior–My Every Wish, by Langfuhr), whose many accomplishments include a win in the GI Champagne S., will be retired after his upcoming start in the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint and head to Japan, where he will stand stud at Arrow Stud.

Owner Ron Lombardi said the offer from Arrow Stud was just one of many he fielded.

“I had offers from California, Kentucky, New York, Maryland, Florida and Japan,” he said . “I would have liked to have kept him in the U.S., but the Japanese made me an offer I couldn't refuse. They really wanted him. They came to the table and are very excited to have him. He will be standing there with California Chrome and Shanghai Bobby, so they have a nice little network of horses over there.”

Trained by Jason Servis until his indictment in March 2020 and transferred to Kelly Breen after that, Firenze Fire, who is six, won the 2017 Champagne as a 2-year-old and went on to finish 11th in the 2018 GI Kentucky Derby. After the Derby, the connections focused on shorter, one-turn races and Firenze Fire went on to be one of the top sprinters in the country. Wins in the 2020 and 2021 GII True North S., the 2020 GII Vosburgh S. and the 2018 GIII Gallant Bob S. are among his nine graded stakes wins and 13 overall stakes victories. He most recently second in both the Aug, 28 GI Forego S. and Oct. 9 GII Vosburgh S., the former of which he attempted to savage winner Yaupon (Uncle Mo). Firenze Fire's record currently stands at 37-14-7-3 and earnings of $2,710,350.

“I'm going to miss him a lot,” Lombardi said. “I got the final offer, I signed it, I scanned it and started writing an email back. It took me about 45 minutes to push send. I was really thinking it over, but I am good with the decision. I think this will be good for him. I have two full-brothers to him, a 2-year-old and a weanling, and then I have a yearling half-brother by Speightstown. Hopefully, the bloodlines will continue.”

Firenze Fire will be making his fifth straight appearance in the Breeders' Cup. His best showing came when he was third in the 2020 Sprint.

“I would love to go out a winner,” Lombardi said. “I even get a kicker if that happens. Hopefully, there will be a little speed duel up front we can sit off of that and make our move. He's doing great. We're pretty excited.”

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Firenze Fire To Enter Stud In Japan After Breeders’ Cup Sprint

Grade 1 winner Firenze Fire will enter stud at Arrow Stud in Japan for the 2022 breeding season, following a projected final start in the upcoming Breeders' Cup Sprint, Daily Racing Form reports.

The 6-year-old son of Poseidon's Warrior has won 14 of 37 starts heading into this year's Breeders' Cup, earning $2,710,350 as a Florida-born homebred for Mr. Amore Stable.

Firenze Fire has been a stakes winner in each of his five seasons, starting with his 2-year-old campaign when he won on debut at Monmouth Park and took the Grade 3 Sanford Stakes, before highlight his season with a triumph in the G1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park.

He was put on the Triple Crown trail at three, winning the listed Jerome Stakes and earning enough qualifying points to earn a spot in the 2018 Kentucky Derby, where he finished 11th. Firenze Fire was then moved to the sprint ranks, where he saw immediate dividends, with wins in the G3 Dwyer Stakes and G3 Gallant Bob Stakes, and a third in the G1 H. Allen Jerkens Stakes.

The horse's 4-year-old campaign featured listed wins in the Runhappy Stakes, Fabulous Strike Stakes, and Gravesend Stakes in the Mid-Atlantic region, and Grade 1 placings in the Forego Stakes and Vosburgh Stakes. His 5-year-old season started with a win in the G3 General George Stakes, and later included scores in the G2 True North Stakes and G2 Vosburgh Stakes, before running third in the Breeders' Cup Sprint at Keeneland.

His 2021 campaign started with wins in the G3 Runhappy Stakes and G2 True North Stakes. He enters the Breeders' Cup off a pair of runner-up efforts in the G1 Forego Stakes and G2 Vosburgh Stakes.

Firenze Fire is out of the placed Langfuhr mare My Every Wish.

Firenze Fire will join a roster at Arrow Stud that also includes Eclipse Award winners California Chrome and Shanghai Bobby.

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Bloodlines: How California Chrome’s Successful U.S. Runners Project For His Stud Career In Japan

In mid-November two years ago, the JS Company of Japan bought one of the most popular American racehorses of the past 20 years, Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner California Chrome (by Lucky Pulpit), and exported him to stand at Arrow Stud on the northern island of Hokkaido.

At the time of purchase, Keisuke Onishi of the JS Company noted that several of the young stallion's first-crop yearlings had sold well to buyers from Japan (four of the six highest-priced lots, in fact). Other factors that made the chestnut champion a horse of interest for Japanese breeders include the fact that California Chrome was a sound horse who raced effectively from age two through six (although the horse made only a single start in 2017 in the inaugural Pegasus), winning seven G1 races and $14.8 million.

In addition to soundness and high racing class, California Chrome is an outcross to the prevailing lines in Japan, especially that of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Sunday Silence (Halo) and his sons Deep Impact, Heart's Cry, and Stay Gold. California Chrome does have both Mr. Prospector 3×4 and Northern Dancer 4×5, but those will be a generation further back in the younger stallion's foals.

So, as an attractive stallion for Japan, California Chrome presented racing class of a high order, physical quality and soundness over a lengthy career, and a pedigree open to easy matching with the prevailing lines in the Japanese broodmare population. Furthermore, nothing was known about the racing potential of his progeny, except what they looked like.

When the JS Company bought California Chrome, the horse had completed his third season at stud at Taylor Made Farm in Kentucky, and his first-crop were only yearlings. The chestnut champion arrived in Japan on Jan. 7, 2020, spent his time in quarantine, and then came to Arrow Stud on Jan. 29 last year. On the basis of race record and physique, California Chrome was greeted with enthusiasm from breeders in Japan, who sent him a large book of quality mares.

Now, the horse's first crop in the States is three, and according to Jockey Club statistics, there are 104 foals from the first crop by California Chrome, 93 current 2-year-olds of 2021, and 96 yearlings from the sire's last Kentucky crop.

From the first crop, California Chrome has four stakes horses, led by Cilla, who became her sire's first stakes winner with a victory in the Blue Sparkler Stakes at Monmouth Park on July 10, running 5 1/2 furlongs in 1:03.07, and another filly by the sire, Decade, was third in the race.

Cilla followed up that show of speed with victory in the Grade 2 Prioress Stakes at Saratoga on Sept. 4, becoming the first graded winner for California Chrome.

Scarcely more than a month later, California Angel, a 2-year-old from the stallion's second crop, became his second graded stakes winner on Oct. 13 with a win in the G2 Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland.

The latest graded stakes winner contributes two points of interest that offer hope for breeders in Japan that the stallion may be better suited to their condition than to those here in American. First, California Angel won her race on turf, which is the primary racing surface in Japan and the surface over which nearly all the important races are conducted, and also, she won her third outing going a mile and a sixteenth.

California Chrome himself won the G1 Hollywood Derby on turf, as well as racing effectively on all weather surfaces when called to do so. That he has sired a good winner on turf is a point in the right direction for breeders and owners in Japan.

In addition, California Chrome physically is a type that should fit well with the training and racing environment in Japan, with an emphasis on high fitness and racing a distance. The trainers there are historically known for their enthusiastic training methods, believing that their stock should be hard and fit for any amount of racing activity.

And Onishi commented that California Chrome was an average horse in build, not especially large or heavy, but tough in training and determined in his racing. Those are insightful comments because the American commercial market wants young horses that are big, strongly muscled, and rather hefty. These horses appear likely to have speed and early maturity, which are important in any sort of racing, but they are not the principal characteristics sought in Japan.

There, many of the good races are at 10, 12, or 14 furlongs (or their equivalents in meters), and as a result, horses with better balance and efficiency of motion are at a greater advantage there than in most of American racing. These differences will not guarantee that California Chrome will become a great sire in Japan, but his stock should get a fair trial over distances and conditions that should suit their physical aptitudes.

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