Deep Impact (Jpn) | Horse Racing Free Tips

Loves Only You Strikes in Kyoto Kinen

Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) conquered all her rivals in the G2 Kyoto Kinen on Valentine's Day at Hanshin.

Wearing a full hood, the 4-5 crowd's pick found a good spot in a tracking fourth one off the fence as Happy Grin (Jpn) (Lohengrin {Jpn}) threw down splits of :23.10 for the quarter and :47.20 for the half-mile. The field was well strung out due to the demanding pace, but pilot Yuga Kawada was calm aboard the 2019 G1 Japanese Oaks winner. After seven panels in 1:23.20, Happy Grin relinquished the lead to the stalking Stay Foolish (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) and Loves Only You was poised three deep to pounce. Asked at the head of the lane, she rallied in tandem with Danburite (Jpn) (Rulership {Jpn}) to her inside before making her own way to the front and winning by 1 1/4 lengths with ears pricked. Stay Foolish was a half-length to the good of Danburite at the line.

Loves Only You was undefeated in her first four starts culminating in her Oaks tally, and was third in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup in November of 2019.Winless in 2020 from five appearances, she was third two back in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup again last fall and was 10th in the G1 Arima Kinen on Dec. 27. Her next intended start is the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan on Mar. 27.

Pedigree Notes
The much missed Deep Impact has 47 Group 1 winners, Loves Only You among them. In addition, his total number of group winners is 135 and his mark of overall black-type winners stands at 169 worldwide. Storm Cat has sired the dams of 291 black-type winners, 143 at group level, with 43 Group 1 winners. Loves Only Me is one of eight top-level winners by Deep Impact out of a Storm Cat mare.

Loves Only You is one of three black-type winners and the second Group 1 winner after UAE highweight and G1 Dubai Turf hero Real Steel (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) from her unraced dam. She is also a full-sister to SW & MGSP Prodigal Son (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and the SP Langley (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). Since foaling the winner, Loves Only Me has the winning 4-year-old filly Love You Live (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), a 2-year-old colt by Deep Impact (Jpn) and a yearling colt by Duramente (Jpn). She was covered by Heart's Cry (Jpn) last spring.

Loves Only Me, a half-sister to European highweighted juvenile filly Rumplestiltskin (Ire) (Danehill) and Group 3 winner I Am Beautiful (Ire) (Rip Van Winkle {Ire}), was covered by Heart's Cry (Jpn) last spring. Loves Only You's third dam is the outstanding runner and blue hen Miesque (Nureyev).

Sunday, Hanshin, Japan
KYOTO KINEN-G2, ¥119,620,000 (US$1,139,690/£823,274/€940,306), Hanshin, 2-14, 4yo/up, 2200mT, 2:10.40, fm.
1–LOVES ONLY YOU (JPN), 119, m, 5, by Deep Impact (Jpn)
                1st Dam: Loves Only Me, by Storm Cat
                2nd Dam: Monevassia, by Mr. Prospector
                3rd Dam: Miesque, by Nureyev
(¥160,000,000 Ylg '17 JRHAJUL). O-DMM Dream Club;
B-Northern Farm (Jpn); T-Yoshito Yahagi; J-Yuga Kawada.
¥62,784,000. Lifetime Record: G1SW-Jpn, 11-5-1-2. *Full to
Langley (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), SP-Jpn, $1,173,360; Real
Steel (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), Hwt. Older Horse-UAE at 7-9
1/2f, G1SW-UAE, MGSW & MG1SP-Jpn, $7,508,769; and
Prodigal Son (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), SW & MGSP-Jpn,
$1,564,219. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
   Werk Nick Rating: B+.
2–Stay Foolish (Jpn), 123, h, 6, Stay Gold (Jpn)–Kauai Lane
(Jpn), by King Kamehameha (Jpn). O-Shadai Race Horse;
B-Shiraoi Farm (Jpn); ¥25,224,000.
3–Danburite (Jpn), 123, g, 7, Rulership (Jpn)–Tanzanite (Jpn), by
Sunday Silence. O-Sunday Racing; B-Northern Farm (Jpn);
¥16,112,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, HF, 3/4. Odds: 0.80, 6.00, 10.10.
Also Ran: Jinambo (Jpn), Wagnerian (Jpn), Dance Delight (Jpn), Satono Lux (Jpn), Mozu Bello (Jpn), Leyenda (Jpn), Best Approach (GB), Happy Grin (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart & video or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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Deep Impact Filly Stars in Queen Cup

Akaitorino Musume earned her first black-type and group win in the G3 Daily Hai Queen Cup at Tokyo on Saturday. In midfield three paths off the fence through the initial stages, the 4-1 second choice sat six deep through 1000 metres in :58.40. She cruised into contention at the 400-metre mark, took over a furlong from home and withstood the late runs of Art de Vivre and favoured Kukuna to win by a neck. The same margin separated that duo in second and third, respectively, while A Shin Hiten (Jpn) (A Shin Hikari {Jpn}) was another three-quarters of a length back in fourth.

Off the board in a Niigata newcomer affair in August, the dark bay saluted over the same 1600-metre trip in a maiden at Tokyo on Oct. 17. She made it two on the bounce with a score in the Akamatsu Sho there on Nov. 22. Saturday was her sophomore bow.

Pedigree Notes

Akaitorino Musume's victory on Saturday gave her late sire Deep Impact his 169th black-type winner and 135th group winner. Others bred on the cross of Deep Impact over a King Kamehameha mare include G1 Japanese Derby hero Wagnerian (Jpn) and MGSW & MG1SP Denim and Ruby (Jpn).

The fourth runner, winner and first stakes winner for her Japanese dual champion dam, Akaitorino Musume is a full-sister to the MGSP horse Jinambo (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and the GSP Rhinebeck (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). Since foaling the winner, 2010 Japanese Filly Triple Crown heroine Apapane has a Black Tide (Jpn) yearling filly and was covered by that sire last spring.

Saturday, Tokyo, Japan
DAILY HAI QUEEN CUP-G3, ¥67,440,000 (US$642,603/£464,037/€530,141), Tokyo, 2-13, 3yo, f, 1600mT, 1:33.30, fm.
1–AKAITORINO MUSUME (JPN), 119, f, 3, by Deep Impact (Jpn)
         1st Dam: Apapane (Jpn) (Ch. 2yo & 3yo Filly-Jpn,
                 MG1SW-Jpn, $6,487,548), by King Kamehameha (Jpn)
         2nd Dam: Salty Bid, by Salt Lake
         3rd Dam: Piper Piper, by Spectacular Bid
1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN. 1ST GROUP WIN. O-Makoto Kaneko
Holdings; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); T-Sakae Kunieda; J-Keita
Tosaki. ¥35,588,000. Lifetime Record: 4-3-0-0. *Full to
Jinambo (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), MGSP-Jpn, $833,327; and
Rhinebeck (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), GSP-Jpn, $580,057. Click
   for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick Rating:
   A+++. *Triple Plus*.
2–Art de Vivre (Jpn), 119, f, 3, King Kamehameha (Jpn)–
Isabel (Jpn), by Deep Impact (Jpn). O-Hideko Kondo;
B-Northern Farm (Jpn); ¥14,168,000.
3–Kukuna (Jpn), 119, f, 3, King Kamehameha (Jpn)–
Culminar (Jpn), by Deep Impact (Jpn). O-Carrot Farm;
B-Northern Farm (Jpn); ¥8,884,000.
Margins: NK, NK, 3/4. Odds: 3.90, 8.50, 2.20.
Also Ran: A Shin Hiten (Jpn), Isn't She Lovely (Jpn), Stellaria (Jpn), Salvia (Jpn), Happy Awesome (Jpn), Infinite (Jpn), Slyly (Jpn), Miyabi Heidi (Jpn), Kaito Genie (Jpn), Reframe, Main Target (Jpn), Kanari Kiken (Jpn), Leggiadro (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart and video or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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Posthumous Championship for Deep Impact

For the first year since 2008 there will be no Deep Impact (Jpn) foals born this season, but the late Shadai resident was still Japan’s champion sire in 2020, a title he has held without pause since 2012. That was the year his eldest runners were four; he had also been champion first-season sire in 2010.

He had already been responsible for former Horse of the Year Gentildonna (Jpn) but Deep Impact’s crowning glory among his many talented colts has come posthumously, with his son Contrail (Jpn) having become his sixth Derby winner–and third in a row–on the middle leg of taking the 2020 Triple Crown. Bred by Koji Maeda’s North Hills Farm, Contrail has been beaten just once in his eight starts when finishing second at the end of November in the Japan Cup to the country’s retiring champion Almond Eye (Jpn). There’s no shame in being defeated by the Horse of the Year and Contrail ended 2020 with a rating of 122, just two behind Almond Eye.

The 5-year-old Almond Eye has a huge following even beyond Japan and she is very much the star performer for her sire Lord Kanaloa (Jpn), who was the leading active sire of 2020. The 13-year-old sired Group 1 winners in three different countries in 2020, with Almond Eye being backed up by Tagaloa (Aus), winner of the G1 Blue Diamond S. in Australia, while Danon Smash (Jpn) took the G1 Hong Kong Sprint.

Like Deep Impact, Lord Kanaloa has been graced with huge books ever since his retirement to stud. From 2014, when he covered 254 mares, he climbed to a high of 307 in 2018.

While Deep Impact’s dominant father Sunday Silence still features as either sire or grandsire of six of the top 10 stallions in Japan in 2020, Kingmambo’s influence remains strong. That comes essentially through his late son King Kamehameha (Jpn), who was champion sire in the two years before Deep Impact’s long reign started and was fifth this time around, and through King Kamehameha’s sons Lord Kanaloa and Rulership (Jpn).

Sunday Silence’s 20-year-old son Heart’s Cry (Jpn) was runner-up in 2019 and slipped a place to third in 2020. His leading performer, Salios (Jpn), chased home Contrail to be second in both the Japanese Derby and 2000 Guineas and won the G2 Mainichi Okan.

The 2011 Triple Crown winner Orfevre (Jpn) was next in the table and among his group stakes winners in 2020 was the durable mare Lucky Lilac (Jpn), who has won at the highest level as a 2-year-old and at four and five. In 2020, she recorded her second win the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup as well as victory in the G1 Osaka Hai, beating subsequent G1 Arima Kinen winner Chrono Genesis (Jpn) (Bago {Fr}).

The aforementioned Rulership (Jpn) is another among the Japanese ranks to have previously been represented by a top-flight international performer with his son Mer De Glace (Jpn) having won the 2019 Caulfield Cup. The 14-year-old’s sixth place finish in the sires’ championship helped boost the sire-of-sires claim of King Kamehameha, who, like Deep Impact, died in the summer of 2019.

Of note among the younger sires bidding to establish themselves, last year’s freshman champion Kizuna (Jpn), a son of Deep Impact, was 12th overall. He improved on his previous season’s tally of 27 2-year-old winners to make it 31 this time around. His second crop of foals, though still large at 138, was down from 184 in his debut season. He is yet to sire a Group 1 winner but had two Group 2 and two Group 3 winners last year.

His contemporary in the stallion ranks, Epiphaneia (Jpn), by Symboli Kris S, may have notched 50 fewer winners than Kizuna but he has the distinction of having a first-crop winner of the Fillies’ Triple Crown, Daring Tact (Jpn), who was also third behind Almond Eye and Contrail in an epic running of the Japan Cup.

Japan’s first-season sires’ list was headed by King Kamehameha’s Japanese Derby and Guineas-winning son Duramente (Jpn), who covered almost 300 mares in each of his first two seasons at Shadai Stallion Station and recorded 35 winners from his first group of runners. Close behind him on 32 was the good-looking Maurice (Jpn), a son of Screen Hero (Jpn) who won six Group 1 races in Japan and Hong Kong and has also shuttled to Arrowfield Stud in Australia.

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Big Books and Breaking Records

The setting of new sire records in the modern era tends more than not to be a direct consequence of ever-greater book sizes. But they must still be acknowledged as legitimate breeding benchmarks as they will inevitably feature some outstanding performances. Just look at Mehmas (Ire)‘s tally of first-crop 2-year-old winners this term. Currently on 56 winners, he is already 17 clear of Iffraaj’s old record and in normal circumstances we might be entitled to expect his record to stand for many years. It may well do, but his strike rate of 53% winners to runners, achieved by quite a few other freshman sires down the years, suggests that the big total of winners is just as much a function of a big crop of runners. So, we cannot rule out another Mehmas-like total in the near future.

We could say the same about black-type records. Larger numbers of runners tend to be the reason why these records fall, but it’s not always so. Take the case of Frankel (GB), the sire who has posted the highest number of stakes winners (56) and group winners (41) of any European sire in the first five years of his career. Frankel has already eclipsed the previous records set by Dubawi after his first five years, which stood at 53 stakes winners and 35 group winners. Dubawi, in turn, took the record away from Galileo (Ire), who had amassed 51 stakes winners and 30 group winners after his first five years.

No one could accuse Frankel of relying on sheer numbers of runners to outpace Dubawi and Galileo. In fact, he has set the new standards with fewer runners than either of his major rivals. Hence he has posted superior strike rates–14.2% stakes and 10.4% group winners–than Dubawi and Galileo had at the same point in their careers. But Frankel really did get a head start on all his rivals by covering Europe’s best mares from the outset of his career, unlike either Galileo or Dubawi. As many as 62% of the mares that have produced Frankel’s runners so far can be classed as elite, which is in stark contrast to the corresponding percentages for the early runners by Dubawi (30%) and Galileo (35%). What’s certain is that Frankel will need to have very long innings at his current strike rate to overhaul Dubawi’s current mark of 171 stakes winners and, by my calculations, another 20-plus years to reach his sire’s tally of 298. It’s a sure sign of the times that Frankel not only has more group winners than Galileo after five years but also has nearly double the number of his grandsire Sadler’s Wells and has over three times what the great Northern Dancer had in their first five years.

Remarkably, there is yet another sire that can boast an even higher number of group winners in his first five years. Shadai’s Deep Impact (Jpn), the very definition of a big fish in a small pond, sired 47 group winners in his first five years with runners. The lack of serious competition among Japan’s stallion ranks possibly casts a shadow over such an achievement, as does the fact that Deep Impact’s percentage of group winners (7.4%) is not quite as good as the percentages posted by Frankel, Galileo or Dubawi all of whom average above 10% group winners to runners. To counter that argument, though, it must also be recognized that Japan has far fewer group races per head of population than Europe does. So, 47 group winners in five years is still a formidable achievement.

Not surprisingly, North America’s records for stakes winners and graded winners at the end of five years have also fallen quite recently. The phenomenal Uncle Mo set new standards at the end of 2019 with his 48 stakes winners and 26 graded winners. It’s hard to believe that there are now 19 sires with more stakes winners in their first five years than the great Danzig, but none will ever get close to his 21% strike rate.

Among sires who stood exclusively in America, few would have guessed that it wasn’t Speightstown, nor Distorted Humor, nor Scat Daddy that held the record prior to Uncle Mo, but the one and only Kitten’s Joy, a sire that perhaps still struggles for due recognition.

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