Tag: Orfevre

Seven Days: A St Leger Fit For a King

With a royal audience, Continuous (Jpn) became the seventh winner of the St Leger for Aidan O'Brien, relegating the King and Queen's runner Desert Hero (GB) to third, just as Pour Moi (Ire) had done in the Derby with Carlton House back in 2011 in front of the late Queen.

There were plenty of strands to an enthralling St Leger that would have made for good storylines: two of those, victory for Desert Hero with his owners present on Town Moor, or a final British Classic for Frankie Dettori, may well have propelled the dear old Classic to the front pages on Sunday. As it was, and for less obviously mainstream reasons, the win of Continuous was extremely satisfying. 

His success completed a full set of British Classics for Sunday Silence as paternal grandsire, with three of his sons having provided this quintet. The most significant contributor was of course Deep Impact (Jpn), Sunday Silence's most influential offspring, but Saturday provided the chance for Heart's Cry to have a posthumous moment in the limelight, some six months after his death at the age of 22, which came two years after he was pensioned at Shadai Stallion Station in Japan.

Heart's Cry, out of the dual Grade 3 winner Irish Dance (Jpn), herself a daughter of the Arc winner Tony Bin (Ire), has lived in the shadow of his more famous stud-mate Deep Impact. This is despite Heart's Cry having been the only horse to have beaten him on Japanese soil, in the G1 Arima Kinen in the year of Deep Impact's Triple Crown success. Heart's Cry was a year older, and after winning the G2 Shimbun Hai went on to run second in the Japanese Derby to another legend of the Shadai stallion ranks, King Kamehameha (Jpn). Campaigned at three, four and five, he will doubtless be best remembered as a racehorse for his defeat of Deep Impact, but he was beaten only a nose by the English-trained raider Alkaased in the Japan Cup a month before that, and after his Christmas Day triumph went on to Nad Al Sheba, where he was the easy winner of the Dubai Sheema Classic, with Ouija Board (GB) and Alexander Goldrun (Ire) among those to have finished behind him that day.

In 2007, both he and Deep Impact retired to Shadai's imposing stallion roster, and three years later they were first and second on the first-season sires' table. By 2012, Deep Impact was champion sire, a position he is only likely to relinquish this year, four seasons after his death. Heart's Cry worked his way up the table and has never been out of the top five stallions in Japan in the last decade, with his highest placing coming in 2019 when he was once again runner-up to his old rival.

In the 2,000 Guineas winner Saxon Warrior (Jpn), Oaks victrix Snowfall (Jpn) and this season's Derby, Irish Derby and Irish Champion S. winner Auguste Rodin (Jpn), we have seen Deep Impact blend well with mares by Galileo (Ire). It is fair to assume that that is where Fluff (Ire), the full-sister to Saxon Warrior's dam Maybe (Ire), was heading in 2019 in the season in which Deep Impact became incapacitated before his death in the August of that year. Heart's Cry stepped in and on Saturday, as Continuous unleashed a lethal injection of pace to cruise to make the front-running Gregory (GB) look as if he was standing still, it was easy to spot the thick silver lining to what may have once felt like a black cloud. 

Natagora (Fr), the 1,000 Guineas winner of 2008 after her previous season's victory in the G1 Cheveley Park S., is the only outlier to the group. Conceived during the three seasons in which her sire Divine Light (Jpn) stood in France, she is out of the Lagardere-bred Reinamixa (Fr) (Linamix {Fr}).

Deep Impact has also been represented by three French Classic winners in Study Of Man (Ire) and Beauty Parlour (GB), both out of Storm Cat-line mares, and Fancy Blue (Ire), whose dam is a full-sister to High Chaparral (Ire) (Sadler's Wells).

Heart's Cry can't match him in the depth of his haul of Group 1 winners but he has been no slouch himself. In Australia, he has sired the Cox Plate winner Lys Gracieux (Jpn) and the Caulfield Cup winner Admire Rakti (Jpn). The latter was another to have been out of a mare by an Arc winner, this one being Helissio (Fr), who also started his stud career at Shadai.

A nice postscript in the year of Heart's Cry's demise is that his son Suave Richard (Jpn), one of his two winners of the Japan Cup, is currently leading the freshman sires' table in Japan. 

What will arguably be most important to Japan on the reputational front, however, is if Heart's Cry appears as the sire of an Arc winner himself. It's a tall order to turn out a relatively lightly-raced colt again just 15 days after his St Leger triumph but it is hard not to feel that Continuous, who will need to be supplemented, has much in his favour to make an impact at Longchamp on the first Sunday of October. 

The only thing that would make the Japanese fans happier on Arc day than a win for Continuous would be if the spoils went instead to Through Seven Seas (Jpn). The five-year-old mare is by Dream Journey (Jpn), a grandson of Sunday Silence, and she was last seen running the mighty Equinox (Jpn) to a neck in the G1 Takarazuka Kinen in June. Trained by Tomohito Ozeki, Through Seven Seas arrived in Chantilly on Friday and is boarding at Nicolas Clement's stable in the build-up to the Arc.

A Valued Test

While there is plenty of head-shaking at the shuffling off to National Hunt studs of St Leger winners in this part of the world (NB: this doesn't prevent Flat breeders from using their services), the picture is entirely different in Japan.

As Triple Crown winners, Deep Impact and his immensely popular young stallion son Contrail (Jpn) of course both won Japan's St Leger equivalent, the Kikuka Sho. So did Kitasan Black (Jpn), the sire of Equinox and the busiest stallion in Japan this year with 242 mares covered. So too did Orfevre (Jpn), who was beaten a neck into second in the following year's Arc, and also Epipheneaia (Jpn), who went on to win the Japan Cup and sired the Fillies' Triple Crown winner Daring Tact (Jpn) in his first crop. They too remain popular members of the Shadai roster. 

Another For the Late Adlerflug

Doncaster's was not the only St Leger to be run over the weekend, as the German equivalent was also staged at Dortmund on Sunday, though this, like the Irish St Leger, has in recent years been opened up to older horses. 

This year's winner, the Gestut Hof Ittlingen homebred Lordano (Ger), is a four-year-old, and the son of Adlerflug (Ger) went one better than his full-brother Loft (Ger), who was second in the same race two years ago.

The most famous member of this family that has served Ittlingen so well, in international terms at least, is Lando (Ger) (Acetanango {Ger}), a full-brother to their grand-dam, Laurella (GB). At home, Lando took the scalp of Monsun (Ger) in the Deutsches Derby and in the following season's Grosser Preis von Baden. Twice named German Horse of the Year, he spread his wings to win two Group 1 races in Italy and, finally, the Japan Cup of 1995. He makes an appearance in modern-day pedigrees most usually as the damsire of the talented but subfertile Farhh (GB), who already has four young sons at stud: Far Above (Ire), King Of Change (GB), Wells Farhh Go (Ire) and Dee Ex Bee (GB).

Despite twice beating Monsun (Ger), Lando could not be held in the same regard as him as an influence at stud. In reflecting on Monsun's reign it is worth remembering that his sire Konigsstuhl (Ger) won the German Triple Crown, while his damsire, the Deutsches Derby winner Surumu (Ger), also features as the paternal grandsire of Lando.

Class will out, if only we give it a chance.

Hotter Still

As the two-year-old racing steps up a notch in Europe, it is hard not to be impressed with the start Too Darn Hot (GB) has made to his stud career. 

After the previous weekend's victory for his daughter Fallen Angel (GB), whose owner-breeder Steve Parkin outlined plans for his own stallion operation in Monday's TDN, Too Darn Hot was represented by another eye-catching success in the facile winner of the G2 May Hill S., Darnation (Ire), for owner-bredeer Newtown Anner Stud.

Karl Burke is the trainer behind both of these fillies and he's pretty darn hot himself at the moment with a 30% strike-rate. Burke also provided Ballyhane Stud's Soldier's Call (GB) with his first group winner over the weekend in the G3 Prix Eclipse scorer Dawn Charger (Ire), as well as winning the Listed Stand Cup S. at Chester with Al Qareem (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}). At Ireland's Champions Festival, Burke had also saddled G2 Dullingham Park S. winner Flight Plan (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}).

Another highly impressive juvenile performance at Doncaster came from Iberian (Ire), winner of the G2 Champagne S. for Charlie Hills. The son of Lope De Vega (Ire) was bred by Ballylinch Stud, who retained a share in him when he was bought by Johnny McKeever on his trainer's behalf, and Ballylinch now races him in partnership with Teme Valley Racing. With luck we will see this progressive colt next in the Dewhurst.

Lope De Vega, whose first-crop son Belardo (Ire) won the Dewhurst in 2014 and was also bred by Ballylinch, has sired more winners (138) in Europe than any other stallion so far this year, and that haul includes 14 black-type winners. 

Iberian's success capped a good 36 hours for bloodstock agent Johnny McKeever, who saw two of his in-training selections for the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott stable land group wins in Australia. Just Fine (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) won Saturday's G3 Kingston Town S. at Randwick after being bought from from last year's Horses-in-Training Sale, while Goffs London Sale purchase Military Mission (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) landed the G3 Newcastle Gold Cup.

 

The post Seven Days: A St Leger Fit For a King appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Ushba Tesoro Completes Japanese Desert Double in Dubai World Cup

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — The pyrotechnics display following the conclusion of Saturday's Dubai World Cup program nearly matched those on the racetrack about 30 minutes earlier when Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) raced past a weakening Algiers (Ire) (Shamardal) in the final furlong to give Japan a first victory in a dirt renewal of the G1 Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline.

Not only was it the third victory on the night for the nation who took home five trophies 12 months ago, but it also gave Japan a sweep of the world's two richest races, following on Panthalassa (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn})'s stunning all-the-way success in the G1 Saudi Cup in Riyadh four weeks ago. Emblem Road (Quality Road)), upset winner of the Saudi Cup in 2022 and sixth this time around, flashed home for third ahead of the winner's compatriots T O Keynes (Jpn) (Sinister Minister) and Crown Pride (Jpn) (Reach the Crown {Jpn}), last year's G2 UAE Derby winner, in fourth and fifth, respectively. Defending champion Country Grammer (Tonalist) never landed a serious blow from his high draw and finished midfield.

“Everything went as planned,” said winning trainer Noboru Takagi. “Actually, when he first got here he was actually quite nervous and a bit toey ,but that was expected and as the days went by, he gradually got used to his environment and ran a great race. This is by far the greatest honour of my career.”

In No R-'Ush'

Whereas Panthalassa did not fare well at Wednesday's barrier draw, Ushba Tesoro landed a far softer barrier in gate eight, but he was clearly last to leave the stalls and Yuga Kawada–who has developed a reputation as a big-race rider with international wins over the last couple of seasons at meetings like the Breeders' Cup and the Longines Hong Kong International Races–was content to trail as they raced under the wire with a circuit to travel.

With Panthalassa expected to burn whatever fuel was necessary to come across the field and be a forward factor, the World Cup pace was a nickel on the dollar to be well above par, and so it proved. Under a hustling ride from Yutaka Yoshida, the Saudi Cup winner was indeed up to force the early issue, but the rail-drawn Remorse (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) was ridden in a surprisingly positive manner by Tadhg O'Shea and consigned his Japanese rival to a two-wide run rounding the first turn. The imposing Bendoog (Gun Runner) took back a bit and raced in the company of G1 Al Maktoum Challenge R3 winner Salute the Soldier (Ger) (Sepoy {Aus}), while Algiers allowed the speed to clear and was able to slot neatly into about the three path after departing stall 13.

Drone camera footage captured 14 of the 15 runners as they turned down the back straight, and it wasn't until the six-furlong pole that the shadow of Ushba Tesoro began to creep into view, still unhurried, as Remorse continued to materially impact the race shape underneath Panthalassa, who began to toss out distress signals with just under 800 metres to race. Bendoog, very much a questionable stayer at the mile and a quarter, was the first to come after his stablemate Remorse, but Algiers had traveled sweetly through the race under letter-perfect handling from James Doyle and came to win the race three deep three furlongs from home as a cheer went up from those longing for a home-based World Cup winner.

Algiers took command a quarter mile from home and appeared well on his way to a famous victory, but Kawada had steered Ushba Tesoro out and around a scuffling Saudi Cup third Cafe Pharoah (American Pharoah) and into the clear at the 500 metres and was steaming home down the centre. After looking an inevitable winner not 15 seconds earlier, Algiers was soon running on empty, and Ushba Tesoro carried his momentum all the way to the wire for a win that was reasonably easy in the end.

“It was his first time running overseas and there were queries on whether he'd travel as well as the fact it was his first time on the surface,” said Kawada, lovingly referred to at home as the 'King'. “He was training quite well over here this week and I knew the horse was in good condition, so it was just a matter of the horse keeping his head in the race and he did that very well today.

“There were eight Japanese horses in the field and aside from myself the only other Japanese jockey on a Japanese horse was Yutaka Yoshida on Panthalassa. I was on the horse for the first time today, but it was a tremendous honour to ride him and there was a lot of pressure as the leading Japanese jockey heading into the race.

“Thanks to the effort of the horse, he fought on very well and I'm very proud of myself as the leading Japanese jockey by winning the leading race in the world today.”

Takagi indicated that Ushba Tesoro could be considered for the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, but with a record of five-from-six on the dirt, it would be no surprise to see connections stay the current course.

Goodbye Turf, Hello Dirt

Ushba Tesoro made the first 22 starts of his career on the turf–no surprise there–but had only spotty success, with just three victories and five minor placings. He belied odds of 14-1 in winning a 2100-metre allowance in his dirt debut at Tokyo last April, and since returning from about five months on the shelf last September, had won his last four, including the G1 Tokyo Daishoten at Ohi Dec. 29 and a defeat of T O Keynes in the Listed Kawasaki Kinen over 10 1/2 testing furlongs Feb. 1. His success mirrors that of Jun Light Bolt (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}), who struggled on turf before winning last year's G1 Champions Cup. Jun Light Bolt was among Saturday's eight Japanese runners, but finished tailed off.

Not To Be For Country G

Frankie Dettori managed to salute aboard the remarkable three-peater Lord North (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the G1 Dubai Turf, but there was no fairytale ending to his Meydan career, as defending World Cup champion Country Grammer was a listless seventh.

“He ran so big in Saudi Arabia and I was never going today,” the Italian said. “I pushed him but he felt lethargic. When they run so big, sometimes they take longer to recover than you think.”

Pedigree Notes:

On an afternoon where Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) stamped himself as one of the most worthy candidates for the race nearly every horse owner in Japan wants to win–the Arc–it seems only fitting that the winner of the world's second-richest horse race would be by the horse that broke the hearts of nearly every Japanese racing fan by snatching defeat from the jaws of victory on the Bois de Boulogne in 2012.

That Orfevre would go on to be a useful stallion is hardly surprising. What is more confounding is the fact that of his 25 black-type winners from six crops of racing age, nearly a third of them have earned their black-type victories on the dirt. Until Saturday, the 2021 GI Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff won by the Yoshito Yahagi-trained Marche Lorraine (Jpn) was the sire's most important dirt success, while Orfevre is also responsible for Group 3-winning sprinter Justin (Jpn), down the field in Saturday's G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, and the recently retired Group 3-winning and Group 1-placed racemare Gilded Mirror (Jpn). He is also the sire of four winners at the listed stakes level. Ushba Tesoro is one of three Orfevre stakes winners out of mares by the late King Kamehameha (Jpn).

Ushba Tesoro's second dam Sixieme Sens was ridden by Freddy Head to victory in the 1995 Listed Prix Bagatelle for trainer David Smaga and Mme Marc de Chambure and went on to continue her career in the US under the tutelage of the late Bobby Frankel for whom she won the GIII Athenia S. in New York and the GII Dahlia H. in 1996 and the GII San Gorgonio H. the following season. Dr Masatake Iida purchased Sixieme Sens for $750,000 when offered in foal to Gone West at the 1997 Keeneland November Sale and exported her to Japan. Her second foal for Iida's Chiyoda Farm Shizunai became the stakes-winning Bold Brian (Jpn) (Brian's Time), while Millefeui Attach, a three-time winner of better than $450,000, was Sixieme Sens's eighth produce and one of her nine winners from 12 to the races.

Ushba Tesoro races for the Ryotokuji Kenji Holdings Co., which has also campaigned the likes of US-bred listed winner Aurora Tesoro (Malibu Moon) and the multiple stakes winner and Group 1-placed Rieno Tesoro (Speightstown) to name but a few. Ushba Tesoro cost the operation ¥25 million ($219,250) as a foal when consigned by Chiyoda Farm to the 2017 JRHA Select Sales.

Millefeui Attach is also the dam of a 2-year-old colt by Asia Express (Henny Hughes) and a yearling filly from the first crop of 2019 G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen hero Mr Melody (Scat Daddy). The mare was most recently bred to Matera Sky (Speightstown), a Group 3-winning dirt sprinter at home and second in the 2019 G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen.

Saturday, Meydan, Dubai
DUBAI WORLD CUP SPONSORED BY EMIRATES AIRLINE-G1, $12,000,000, Meydan, 3-25, NH 4yo/up & SH 3yo/up, 10f, 2:03.25, ft.
1–USHBA TESORO (JPN), 126, h, 6, by Orfevre (Jpn)
                1st Dam: Millefeui Attach (Jpn),
                                  by King Kamehameha (Jpn)
                2nd Dam: Sixieme Sens, by Septieme Ciel
                3rd Dam: Samalex (GB), by Ela-Mana-Mou (Ire)
(¥25,000,000 Wlg '17 JRHJUL). O-Ryotokuji Kenji Holdings Co
Ltd; B-Chiyoda Farm Shizunai (Jpn); T-Noboru Takagi; J-Yuga
Kawada. $6,960,000. Lifetime Record: G1SW-Jpn, 29-9-1-5,
$9,286,384. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for
   the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free
   Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Algiers (Ire), 126, g, 6, Shamardal–Antara (Ger), by Platini
(Ger). 1ST GROUP 1 BLACK TYPE. O-Hamdan Sultan Ali
Alsabousi; B-Godolphin (Ire); T-Simon & Ed Crisford.
$2,400,000.
3–Emblem Road, 126, h, 5, Quality Road–Venturini, by
Bernardini. ($230,000 Ylg '19 KEESEP; $80,000 2yo '20
OBSJUN). O-HRH Prince Saud bin Salman; B-Brushy Hill, LLC
(Ky); T-Ahmad Abdulwahid. $1,200,000.
Margins: 2 3/4, SHD, 3/4.
Also Ran: T O Keynes (Jpn), Crown Pride (Jpn), Bendoog, Country Grammar, Salute The Soldier (Ger), Remorse (Ire), Panthalassa (Jpn), Geoglyph (Jpn), Cafe Pharoah, Vela Azul (Jpn), Super Corinto (Arg), Jun Light Bolt (Jpn). VIDEO.

 

The post Ushba Tesoro Completes Japanese Desert Double in Dubai World Cup appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Eleventh Japanese Title for Deep Impact

To a degree, when it comes to the Japanese sires' championship of 2022, one could resort to that old saying 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'. It holds good for now, as in the last three years the names filling the top three spots in the list have remained the same, in an unchanged order: Deep Impact (Jpn), Lord Kanaloa (Jpn), and Heart's Cry (Jpn).

But all things change eventually and, as we know, two of those stallions are no longer active, with Deep Impact gaining his last three championships posthumously. With his legend now fully appreciated worldwide, he was quick to make his mark in his home country after his retirement to the Shadai Stallion Station in 2007. The son of the hugely dominant Sunday Silence was Japan's champion first-season sire of 2010. He made his debut in the top 10 of the country's general sires' list the following year by finishing in fourth position when King Kamehameha (Jpn) was champion, but Deep Impact then wrested that title from his stud-mate in 2012 and has held it on an annual basis ever since.

The members of his final small crop of 14, conceived after covering 24 mares before his premature demise at the age of 17  in August 2019, are 3-year-olds this year. In Japan, where it is still considered desirable for the elite gallopers to race on as older horses, Deep Impact could maintain his supremacy for another year, but sooner or later his reign will come to an end. His stars of 2022 in Japan were the G1 Osaka Hai winner Potager (Jpn) and Ask Victor More (Jpn), who won the G1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St Leger). He also featured as the broodmare sire of G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup victrix Geraldina (Jpn), a daughter of Maurice (Jpn) and perhaps Deep Impact's crowning glory, Gentildonna (Jpn), the Fillies' Triple Crown, Japan Cup and Arima Kinen winner who was Japan's Horse of the Year in 2012 and 2014.

Farther afield, he was represented by G1 Australasian Oaks winner Glint Of Hope (Jpn), while the G1 Vertem Futurity Trophy winner Auguste Rodin (Ire) gives Deep Impact a great chance of further European Classic success this year.

The top-class sprinter/miler Lord Kanaloa, a son of the late King Kamehameha, looks a champion sire in the making with a growing international reputation. He was the approximate equivalent of only £163,000 shy of Deep Impact in progeny earnings from 276 winners last year, the best of them being G1 NHK Mile Cup winner Danon Scorpion (Jpn) and G1 Dubai Turf dead-heater Panthalassa (Jpn). Not too many of his offspring have made it to Europe yet, but a notable winner in Ireland last season was 'TDN Rising Star' Beginnings, a daughter of dual Guineas heroine Winter (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) who now has Classic aspirations of her own.

Heart's Cry was absent from the covering shed in 2022, having been pensioned at Shadai the previous June at the age of 20. A contemporary of Deep Impact, he finished runner-up to him in the freshman championship of 2010 and, despite always being in his shadow, has enjoyed a sterling career of his own.

Heart's Cry sired the 2022 Japanese Derby winner Do Deuce (Jpn) and his previous best performers around the world include Japan Cup winner Suave Richard (Jpn), Cox Plate winner Lys Gracieux (Jpn) and dual Grade 1 winner Yoshida (Jpn), who is now at WinStar Farm in Kentucky. In France this year, he was represented by the Aidan O'Brien-trained G3 Prix Thomas Bryon winner Continuous (Jpn), who is out of a full-sister to Maybe (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and thus bred on similar lines to Saxon Warrior (Jpn).

For the second year running Deep Impact's son Kizuna (Jpn), the second of his sire's Derby winners in 2013, was fourth in the general sires' table having been the leading first-season sire of 2019.

His highlight of the year came when Songline (Jpn) won the G1 Yasuda Kinen, having started 2022 with victory in the G3 1351 Turf Sprint at a Saudi Cup meeting which was dominated by Japanese runners. Kizuna's son Bathrat Leon (Jpn) won the G2 Godolphin Mile at Meydan the following month.

Duramente (Jpn), who sadly died after a bout of colitis in August 2021 at the age of just nine, looks an increasingly big loss to the Japanese ranks, having finished fifth in the table for 2022. Another son of King Kamehameha, and out of the dual Group 1 winner Admire Groove (Jpn) (Sunday Silence, Duramente was represented by the G1 Hopeful S. winner Dura Erede (Jpn) between Christmas and New Year, and his son Titleholder (Jpn) took last season's G1 Takarazuka Kinen having become a Classic winner the previous year in the Kikuka Sho. Another Classic winner came his way in 2022 in the form of the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) winner Stars On Earth (Jpn).

Having covered for just five seasons, Duramente leaves 725 registered offspring. His sire King Kamehameha was just behind him in sixth, and the influence of the former champion, who died in 2019, will start to wane in this table, though he will likely remain dominant through his daughters for a good while, and he was champion broodmare sire for 2022, ahead of Deep Impact, Kurofune (Jpn), and Sunday Silence.

The brilliant Triple Crown and dual Arima Kinen winner Orfevre (Jpn) managed a top-10 finish for the third year running from a personal best of fourth in 2020. On the international stage, he is best known for his 2021 GI Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Marche Lorraine (Jpn), one of his four Group/Grade 1 winners, including recent Tokyo Daishoten winner Ushba Tesoro (Jpn). That latest top-level winner came a day after he had notched a first Group I winner as a broodmare sire through the aforementioned Dura Ede.

Rulership (Jpn), too, is a perennial top-10 dweller and is the third of King Kamehameha's sons towards the top of the list. He appears to work well with mares by Sunday Silence and his sons–though they are not exactly in short supply–with all three of his Group 1 winners and 12 of his 16 group stakes winners having been bred on variations of this cross.

Maurice (Jpn), who spilt his six Group 1 wins equally between Japan and Hong Kong, has a similar record with his best runners. Having shuttled to Australia, he had two Group 1 winners there in 2022–Australian Derby winner Hitotsu (Aus) and Doomben 10,000 winner Mazu (Aus), along with two Group 1 winners in Japan. Arguably the most significant of these is Geraldina, the aforementioned daughter of Gentildonna.

Completing the top 10 is the veteran Daiwa Major (Jpn). The big success of 2022 for the 22-year-old son of Sunday Silence came through G1 Mile Championship winner Serifos (Jpn), giving Le Havre (Ire) a second top-level victory as broodmare sire, following his European strike in that category via Pyledriver (GB) (Harbour Watch {Ire}).

 

Biscuits Best Of The Youngsters

Three of the four leading first-season sires in Japan in 2022 were bred in America, though two of them, Shanghai Bobby in third and Declaration Of War in fourth, are only freshmen in Japanese terms, having started their careers in the US and Ireland before being exported.

Leading the group was Mind Your Biscuits, the dual G1 Golden Shaheen winner who also landed the GI Malibu S. and joined the Shadai Stallion Station upon retirement. From 76 runners last year, the son of Posse was represented by 28 winners, including the listed scorer Dermo Sotogake (Jpn) and the Group 2-placed Shomon (Jpn). Mind Your Biscuits is a great grandson of Deputy Minister, whose line has been ably represented in Japan, particularly by his son French Deputy and grandson Kurofune.

Of the homegrown young stallions in Japan, the G1 Dubai Turf winner Real Steel (Jpn) was best, finishing second behind Mind Your Biscuits with 21 winners from 67 starters but with an important Group 2 winner to his credit in All Parfait (Jpn). By Deep Impact, Real Steel owns a pedigree that will be all too familiar to breeders beyond Japan: his Niarchos-bred dam Loves Only Me (Storm Cat) has also produced Real Steel's treble Group/Grade 1-winning full-sister Loves Only You (Jpn). Their dam was unraced, but as a granddaughter of Miesque and half-sister to Group 1 winner Rumpelstiltskin (Ire) (Danehill), she was always going to be a valuable broodmare prospect and has already more than proved her worth at stud. Though the Niarchos family sold her for $900,000 to Katsumi Yoshida, their own support of Deep Impact through the same brilliant equine family was rewarded with a Classic winner in Study Of Man (Ire), who is out of Miesque's Storm Cat daughter Second Happiness and has his first-crop runners in Europe this year.

With this family also boasting Kingmambo, whose international influence stretches to Japan, largely through King Kamehameha, it is fair to expect to hear more of Real Steel and Study Of Man as the years progress.

The post Eleventh Japanese Title for Deep Impact appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Japan Success Generations In The Making

The main event on Saudi Cup Day two weeks ago was all about the host nation, with the locally owned and trained Emblem Road (Quality Road) posting a remarkable upset in the world's richest horse race. Saudi Arabia has announced its presence on the global horse racing scene loud and clear, and the country-with its ever-increasing investment in racehorses and breeding stock globally–will continue to be heard from for years to come.

When the layers are peeled back on the third running of the Saudi Cup card, however, it was another nation who made the biggest statement. Japan swept the first four international races on the card and finished second and third in the G3 Saudi Derby. In other words, the only race in which Japan did not hit the board was the Saudi Cup.

While Saudi Cup Day marked a breakout performance for Japan on the world stage, it was far from its first-the dust had still barely settled on Japan's two-win days at both the Breeders' Cup and Hong Kong International Meeting last year-and in fact, the crescendo has been rising for years. Japan's increasing frequency of success on racing's biggest days have gone hand-in-hand with the internationalization of its industry in recent decades, and indeed each of the nation's winners and placegetters on Saudi Cup Day boast pedigrees that have criss-crossed the continents for generations.

Undoubtedly the most major turning point in the history of Japanese breeding came when Zenya Yoshida–the father of current-day Japanese breeding doyens Teruya, Katsumi and Haruya Yoshida-purchased American Classic winner Sunday Silence to stand at stud at Shadai Stallion Station in Hokkaido, reportedly paying $7.5-million for 75% of the horse in 1991 (Yoshida had purchased 25% of Sunday Silence in training so was buying out his partners on the remainder). Sunday Silence, the 10-time champion sire in Japan, had his presence felt on Saudi Cup day not only through his best-known son Deep Impact (Jpn), whose son Kizuna (Jpn) sired the G3 1351 Turf Sprint winner Songline (Jpn), but also through another son, Stay Gold (Jpn), and his own son in turn Orfevre (Jpn).

Stay Gold (Jpn) was a member of Sunday Silence's third crop and was his sire's first major international winner, traveling to take the Dubai Sheema Classic and Hong Kong Vase. Stay Gold has sired 56 stakes winners and 10 Group 1 winners and Stay Foolish (Jpn), a member of Stay Gold's last full crop, joined his sire as an international winner with a victory in the 3000-metre G3 Red Sea Turf H., defeating the G1 Irish St Leger scorer Sonnyboyliston (Ire) (Power {GB}).

Another of Stay Gold's international winners-and, in fact, the second-richest racehorse in history-was Orfevre (Jpn), the Japanese Triple Crown and two-time G1 Arima Kinen scorer who is probably best known internationally for twice finishing second in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, including when he famously snatched defeat from the jaws of victory when hanging badly inside the final furlong while on the lead in 2012, once again dashing Japan's still unfulfilled Arc dreams.

Orfevre's Authority (Jpn) was already a triple group-race winner in Japan but he landed on the public radar in November when finishing second to Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in the Japan Cup, and he kicked off Japan's four-timer on Saudi Cup Day when justifying favouritism in the 2100-metre G3 Neom Turf Cup. Orfevre is also the sire of last year's GI Breeders' Cup Distaff winner Marche Lorraine (Jpn), who was sixth in her final start in the Saudi Cup.

Authority and Stay Foolish's victories bookended the filly Songline in the 1351 Turf Sprint, and she became the first stakes winner over 1200 metres for her exciting young sire Kizuna, a Japanese Derby-winning son of Deep Impact. Kizuna is another to have represented Japan admirably on the world stage: racing for the Maeda family, which regularly supplements its stock with American bloodlines, Kizuna traveled to France to beat the Derby winner Ruler Of The World (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G2 Prix Niel and was fourth behind Treve (Fr) and Orfevre (Jpn) in the 2014 Arc.

Another sire story of the day belonged to Symboli Kris S, broodmare sire of both Authority and Songline. Symboli Kris S was bred in Kentucky by Takahiro Wada and like Sunday Silence descends from the Hail To Reason line, he through Roberto and Kris S. Symboli Kris S was exported to Japan for his racing career and was highly successful, winning two renewals each of the G1 Arima Kinen and G1 Tenno Sho Autumn before retiring to Shadai. The best of Symboli Kris S's five Group 1 winners thus far has been the G1 Japan Cup and Classic-winning Epiphaneia (Jpn) and he, incidentally, is a full-brother to Authority's dam Rosalind (Jpn). Epiphaneia and Rosalind are out of Cesario (Jpn) (Special Week {Jpn}) who, like Stay Gold, was a pioneering Japanese shipper, traveling to California to win the GI American Oaks by four lengths in 2005 after taking the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks). Cesario has become an excellent producer; in addition to Epiphaneia and Rosalind, she is the dam of the 2015 champion 2-year-old colt Leontes (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}); Saturnalia (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}), a Group 1 winner at two and a Classic winner, and two other Group 2-placed winners. Songline is a descendant of European champion filly Sonic Lady (Nureyev), and it is also the family of Deirdre (Jpn) (Harbinger {GB}), who scored a hugely popular victory when winning the G1 Nassau S. at Glorious Goodwood in 2019 before staying on to train in Newmarket and traveling the world to run in Group 1s.

Dancing Prince (Jpn) (Pas De Trois {Jpn}), Japan's fourth winner on Saudi Cup Day in the G3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint, brings together influences of Mr. Prospector, Halo and Northern Dancer through their Japanese imported sons End Sweep, Sunday Silence and Northern Taste, respectively. The 7-year-old Dancing Prince, who won the G3 Capella S. on Dec. 12, is the most successful horse sired by the multiple Group 3-winning turf sprinter Pas de Trois, whose sire Swept Overboard won the GI Ancient Title S. in 2001 and the GI Met Mile in 2002. Swept Overboard was sold to stand in Japan upon the conclusion of his racing career and his best runner is Omega Perfume (Jpn), who won four straight renewals of the Tokyo Daishoten, a local Group 1, including the most recent renewal in December. Swept Overboard's sire and grandsire, End Sweep and Forty Niner, were both champion first-season sires in America before being sold to stand in Japan.

Dancing Prince is out of a mare by Bubble Gum Fellow (Jpn), a champion 2-year-old from Sunday Silence's first crop. His second dam, Sawayaka Princess (Northern Taste), produced the G1 Mile Championship winner Durandal (Jpn) (Sunday Silence). Japan was also third and fourth in the Dirt Sprint with Chain Of Love (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) and defending winner Copano Kicking (Spring At Last).

When it comes to passion for horse racing, it would be tough to top the Japanese. There is an incredible betting culture and fandom surrounding the sport in Japan, and international success seems to directly fuel not only increased global participation, but also the spend on bloodstock: just days removed from the nation's Breeders' Cup double with Marche Lorraine and Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), Japanese breeders headed to the Kentucky breeding stock sales and purchased 13 seven-figure mares, including the Classic-winning filly Swiss Skydiver (Daredevil) for $4.7-million and four additional mares that topped $3-million.

Now, Japan is poised to bring an unprecedented squad to Dubai World Cup night that currently numbers 24. Authority and Stay Foolish are on the lists, respectively, for the G1 Sheema Classic and G2 Gold Cup. Sekifu (Jpn) (Henny Hughes), who was runner-up in the G3 Saudi Derby, is pencilled in for the G2 UAE Derby. Among those set to join Authority in the Sheema Classic are Glory Vase (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), the back-to-back winner of the G1 Hong Kong Vase, and last year's G1 Tokyo Yushun and G1 Yushun Himba scorers Shahryar (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and Uberleben (Jpn) (Gold Ship {Jpn}). Schnell Meister (Ger) (Kingman {GB}), who was bred in Germany but is campaigned in Japan by Sunday Racing and beat Songline in last year's G1 NHK Mile Cup, is among those earmarked for the G1 Dubai Turf, while Vin De Garde (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who was runner-up in the 1800 metre event last year, is set to return. Copano Kicking and Chain Of Love lead the Japanese squad for the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen. Japanese dirt star Chuwa Wizard (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) will line up for the $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup.

Those are just a handful of the runners that could give Japan another night to remember in Dubai later this month. And regardless of the outcomes at Meydan, it is an odds-on bet that the global racing community will continue to see the effects of Japan's incredible investment in and commitment to its racing and breeding programme.

The post Japan Success Generations In The Making appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights