Caressing (Honour and Glory–Lovin Touch, by Majestic Prince), the dam of Eclipse Award winner West Coast (Flatter), passed away due to laminitic conditions at Hermitage Farm Sept. 14. She was 23 years of age and was laid to rest between the paddocks and next to the foaling barn at the Kentucky nursery.
Bred by Brereton C. Jones, Caressing was purchased by Hermitage's Carl Pollard for $180,000 at the 1999 Keeneland September Yearling Sale and was a maiden winner at second asking before adding a seven-length victory in the Bassinet S. at River Downs. Runner-up in the GIII Arlington-Washington Lassie, the dark bay belied odds of 47-1 in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, giving young jockey John Velazquez the second of his 18 championship victories to date and securing the Eclipse Award. She added the GIII La Troienne S. and GIII Singapore Plate at three and retired in 2002 with five wins from 18 starts and earnings of $955,998.
The dam of GSP duo of Gold Hawk (Empire Maker) and Juan and Bina (Indian Charlie), Caressing produced a colt to the cover of Flatter in 2014. Ben Glass, agent for Gary and Mary West, had a budget of $350,000 when the colt went through the ring at Keeneland September in 2015, but Glass went to $425,000 for Caressing's eighth foal. Turned over to Bob Baffert, West Coast made up for lost time at three, winning the Easy Goer S. and the GIII Los Alamitos Derby before defeating each of the Classic winners from 2017–GI Kentucky Derby hero Always Dreaming (Bodemeister), GI Preakness S. winner Cloud Computing (Maclean's Music) and GI Belmont S. victor Tapwrit (Tapit) in the GI Travers S. His third-place effort to Horse of the Year Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) cemented the 3-year-old championship. Now standing at Lane's End, West Coast is represented by his first crop of yearlings this year.
Caressing's first live foal, My Goodness (Storm Cat) was a $475,000 KEESEP yearling and since her export to Japan has been responsible for Danon Kingly (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), winner of this year's G1 Yasuda Kinen, as well as Group 3 winner Danon Legend (Macho Uno) and SW Danon Good (Jpn) (Elusive Quality).
Caressing is the dam of the Pollard-owned 2-year-old colt Touch Code (Honor Code), in training at Saratoga with Bill Mott and a yearling colt by Gun Runner that also be retained.
WATCH: Caressing winning the 2000 BC Juvenile Fillies
Danox Inc.'s Danon Kingly (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) dethroned MG1SW Gran Alegria (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in her bid to win back-to-back G1 Yasuda Kinens, with a narrow victory at Tokyo on Sunday. It was the 5-year-old entire's first win at the highest level after he had been placed in a pair of Classics in 2019 and the race is a “Win And You're In” for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile this fall.
Sent off at 47-1, Danon Kingly perched three deep in midfield as Daiwa Cagney (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) rattled off fractions of :23.30 for the opening quarter and :46.40 for the half-mile over the firm turf. Winding up for his bid on the far turn, the bay fanned widest of all bar two at the 400-metre mark. He was soon in touch with the leaders, but inside the final furlong, anyone of four were in with a shot.
Favoured at 50 cents on the dollar, Gran Alegria, who had arrived on the scene from farther back than Danon Kingly, thrust her head in front in the shadow of the wire towards the inside, but the winner was flashing home even more strongly and got his head down first at the line. It was only a half-length back to Group 1 winner Schnell Meister (Ger) (Kingman {GB}) in third to the inside of Danon Kingly, while only a neck separated him from fourth-place Indy Champ (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}), who'd won this affair in 2019, and was sandwiched between the second and third home.
“He felt a bit tense first entering the track but he had good rhythm during the trip and had plenty of horse left,” said jockey Yuga Kawada. “He responded just as I hoped turning the last corner and ran well after that. Although he hasn't been
able to put in the best results in the past, he has definitely demonstrated his true strength today and I'm happy to have been a part of it in my first time in the saddle.”
Unbeaten in two starts as a juvenile and in his 3-year-old bow, the 2019 G3 Kyodo News Hai, Danon Kingly ran third in the G1 Japanese 2000 Guineas and went one better in the G1 Japanese Derby in May of that year. Given some time off, he returned with a win in the G2 Mainichi Okan that October and, after an unplaced run in the G1 Mile Championship, returned at four to take the G2 Nakayama Kinen first up over 1800 metres last March. Third in the G1 Osaka Hai last April, he ran unplaced in both the 2020 Yasuda Kinen and in the Nov. 1 G1 Tenno Sho (Autumn). This was his first start at five.
Pedigree Notes
Danon Kingly is the 51st Group 1 winner for his late sire, who celebrated another Classic winner in the past few days with record 16-length G1 Cazoo Oaks heroine Snowfall (Jpn). Of the former Shadai stallion's 175 black-type winners and 142 group winners, 16 are out of Storm Cat mares. Group 1 winners A Shin Hikari (Jpn), Loves Only You (Jpn), Kizuna (Jpn), Satono Aladdin (Jpn), Real Steel (Jpn), Study Of Man (Ire), Lachesis (Jpn) and Ayusan (Jpn) are bred on this cross. Of these nine, four won Classics in Japan and France.
A winner at three, My Goodness's first foal is G3 Capella S. victor Danon Legend (Macho Uno), who was purchased for $385,000 out of the Barretts March sale in 2012 and sent to Japan. Her 2012 produce was the Japanese listed winner Danon Good (Jpn) (Elusive Quality). Danon Kingly is the most decorated of her nine offspring, while he is also a half-brother to the 3-year-old colt Danon Velocity (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}), a 2-year-old full-brother to Danon Velocity and a yearling filly by Heart's Cry (Jpn) yet to come. My Goodness, a half-sister to American Champion 3-Year-Old Colt West Coast (Flatter), a winner of the GI Travers S. and GI Pennsylvania Derby, visited the court of Epiphaneia (Jpn) last spring.
The duo are out of U.S. Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Caressing (Honour and Glory), whose biggest claim to fame was a win in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies, but who also struck twice at Grade III level Stateside. She, in turn, was a half-sister to Listed Natalma S. heroine Platinum Blonde (Silver Hawk). This is the extended family of GI Donn H., GI Meadowlands Cup H. and GI Gulfstream Park H. hero Sea Cadet (Bolger), as well as GII Del Mar Futurity victor and GI Champagne S. third On Target (Forty Niner), both later sires.
Sunday, Tokyo, Japan YASUDA KINEN-G1, ¥252,260,000, Tokyo, 6-6, 3yo & up, 1600mT, 1:31.70, firm
1–DANON KINGLY (JPN), 128, h, 5, Deep Impact (Jpn) 1st Dam: My Goodness, by Storm Cat 2nd Dam: Caressing, by Honour and Glory 3rd Dam: Lovin Touch, by Majestic Prince 1ST GROUP 1 WIN. O-Danox Inc.; B-Mishima Bokujo (Jpn);
T-Kiyoshi Hagiwara; J-Yuga Kawada. ¥132,982,000. Lifetime
Record: 12-6-1-2. *1/2 to Danon Legend (Macho Uno), GSW
-Jpn, $3,324,208; and Danon Good (Jpn) (Elusive Quality), SW-J
pn, $1,161,123. Werk Nick Rating: B+. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Gran Alegria (Jpn), 123, m, 5, Deep Impact (Jpn)–Tapitsfly, by Tapit. O-Sunday Racing; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); ¥52,876,000.
3–Schnell Meister (Ger), 119, c, 3, Kingman (GB)–Serienholde
(Ger), by Soldier Hollow (GB). O-Sunday Racing; B-Northern
Farm (Ger); ¥33,438,000.
Margins: HD, HF, NK. Odds: 46.60, 0.50, 9.20.
Also Ran: Indy Champ (Jpn), Taurus Gemini (Jpn), Cadenas (Jpn), Danon Premium (Jpn), Salios (Jpn), Gibeon (Jpn), Cadens Call (Jpn), Daiwa Cagney (Jpn), Catedral (Jpn), Karate (Jpn), Lauda Sion (Jpn). Click for the JRA chart & video or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
