Grand Prix the Feature in Deauville Farewell

Deauville August comes to a close on Sunday, with the focus being the grand old monument of the meeting, the G2 Lucien Barriere Grand Prix de Deauville.

In keeping with much of the festival's feature races, there is a significant overseas presence in the 12 1/2-furlong contest with Shadai's Mar. 26 G2 Dubai Gold Cup winner Stay Foolish (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) looking to hold a class edge over the domestic runners. More importantly, the Arc entry will provide some kind of guide to the prospects of Japan's leading contender for the ParisLongchamp showcase Titleholder (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}), having been ninth behind his compatriot in the June 26 G1 Takarazuka Kinen.

With a record nine renewals under his name, Andre Fabre is the man here and his go-quietly approach to the career of Godolphin's Botanik (Ire) (Golden Horn {GB}) has already paid off with the homebred edging out last year's Grand Prix de Deauville winner Glycon (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) in the course-and-distance G3 Prix de Reux Aug. 7.

Of the day's four other pattern races, Baden-Baden stages the key one with the G3 Casino Baden-Baden Goldene Peitsche seeing 'TDN Rising Star' Dubawi Legend (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) take on the home-trained sprinters.

The post Grand Prix the Feature in Deauville Farewell appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

All-Star Cast For Takarazuka Kinen

Hanshin Racecourse is the site of Sunday's fan-voted G1 Takarazuka Kinen over the metric 11-furlong trip, with the winner earning a fees-paid berth in the GI Longines Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland Race Course the first weekend of November. And with scarcely an exception, 18 of Japan's best middle-distance horses–with formlines from all over the world–are set to face the starter.

A logical case can be made for perhaps as many as nine runners Sunday afternoon, including reigning Horse of the Year Efforia (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}), who looks to bounce back from a lacklustre ninth as the $1.50 (1-2) favourite when making his 4-year-old debut in the G1 Osaka Hai at this venue back in April. In finishing four lengths adrift of the upset-minded Potager (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), the Carrot Farm colourbearer was suffering the second defeat of his career, the first coming when pipped by this year's G1 Longines Dubai Sheema Classic hero Shahryar (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in the 2021 G1 Tokyo Yushun. Blinkers go on and his latest fast work–with the new equipment–made something of a statement.

“His preparation has gone well, and he's probably in better shape than he was for his last race,” said trainer Yuichi Shikato. “He has been more switched on wearing blinkers in training, and running in between two other horses. It was too bad about his last race, so I want to see the real Efforia this time, and hope that he can show what a talented horse he is and give his best showing in the race.”

 

 

 

Leaving votegetter Titleholder (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}) (by a shade less than 3000 votes over Efforia) made all when winning last year's G1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St Leger) by five lengths and, since finishing fifth to Efforia in the G1 Arima Kinen in December, led throughout to win the G2 Nikkei Sho (2500m) in March and the 3200-metre G1 Tenno Sho (Spring) May 1, where he had the talented G2 Qatar Prix Foy hero Deep Bond (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}) some seven lengths behind in second. Titleholder's pint-sized older half-sister Melody Lane (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) is one of three females in Sunday's test.

 

 

 

Two graduates of this year's Dubai World Cup program could make things tough up front for Titleholder. Authority (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) was one of four winners for Christophe Lemaire on Saudi Cup night when leading them a merry chase in the G3 Neom Turf Cup over an extended 10 furlongs and set the pace in the Sheema before being overhauled late by Shahryar and the fast-finishing Yibir (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}). Panthalassa (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) took his rivals past every pole to annex the G2 Nakayama Kinen (1800m) by 2 1/2 lengths Feb. 27 and most recently shared the spoils with Lord North (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the G1 Dubai Turf. The 5-year-old is a bit of a question mark at Hanshin and over this distance.

Stay Foolish (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) is another with imposing Middle East form, having accounted for Sonnyboyliston (Ire) (Power {GB}) in the G3 Longines Red Sea Cup in Riyadh in February before repeating the dose–albeit from slightly off the speed–in the G2 Dubai Gold Cup at Meydan Mar. 26.

Also not without a chance are the consistent Hishi Iguazu (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}), second to Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in December's G1 Longines Hong Kong Cup and a running-on fourth in the Osaka Hai; and 2020 Filly Triple Crown heroine Daring Tact (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}), who was a respectable sixth to multiple champion Sodashi (Jpn) (Kurofune) first off a 15-month absence in last month's G1 Victoria Mile.

The post All-Star Cast For Takarazuka Kinen appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Stay Foolish Snatches ‘Gold’ From Manobo

Responding generously to jockey Christophe Lemaire's urging, Stay Foolish (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) outfinished the formerly unbeaten Godolphin-owned Manobo (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) to seize the $1-million G2 Dubai Gold Cup. Rating kindly for Lemaire behind a pedestrian pace, Stay Foolish finished strongly to wear down Manobo from his inside. Winning by a half-length, Stay Foolish covered the Gold Cup's 3200 meters in 3:19.64 on Meydan's good turf course.

Manobo, who had won his previous five races with relative ease including the G3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy here on Feb. 18, did himself no favors throughout the contest by frequently throwing his head and pulling strongly on jockey William Buick's arms. Still, after Buick shifted Manobo out to make his run turning for home, he rallied to hit the front late but the advantage was short-lived as Stay Foolish unsurprisingly found more.

Third place finisher Al Madhar (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), an overlooked local hope, was two lengths further behind Manobo.

Stay Foolish, a 7-year-old in the form of his life after winning the G3 Longines Red Sea Handicap on Feb. 26, improved further for Lemaire and his trainer Yoshito Yahagi.

An exhilarated Yahagi said, “After Saudi, he enjoyed the atmosphere in Dubai. He loves Dubai I think! I did not give any orders to the jockey. Christophe Lemaire knows what to do.”    Yahagi claimed that the G1 Gold Cup during the Royal Ascot meeting was his dream target for Stay Foolish.

Pedigree Notes

Bred in Japan, Stay Foolish is a Shadai Farm homebred by Stay Gold, a multiple Group 1 winner who famously defeated Fantastic Light (Rahy) by a nose in the 2001 G2 Dubai Sheema Classic at Nad Al Sheba. His dam Kauai Lane (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) won five of her 18 starts in her native country and all seven of her foals to race are winners although none of those are in the same class as Stay Foolish.

Saturday, Meydan, Dubai
DUBAI GOLD CUP SPONSORED BY AL TAYER MOTORS-G2, $1,000,000, Meydan, 3-26, 3yo/up, 16fT, 3:19.64, gd.
1–STAY FOOLISH (JPN), 127, h, 7, by Stay Gold (Jpn)
1st Dam: Kauai Lane (Jpn) (SW & GSP-Jpn, $908,075),
                                by King Kamehameha (Jpn)
2nd Dam: Silver Lane, by Silver Hawk
3rd Dam: Strait Lane, by Chieftain
O-Shadai Race Horse Co Ltd; B-Shadai Farm (JPN); T-Yoshito
Yahagi; J-Christophe-Patrice Lemaire. $580,000. Lifetime
Record: GSW & G1SP-Jpn, GSW-Sau, 31-4-5-7, $4,921,647.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Werk Nick
Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*.
2–Manobo (Ire), 121, g, 4, Sea the Stars (Ire)–Tasaday, by
Nayef. O/B-Godolphin (IRE); T-Charlie Appleby. $200,000.
3–Al Madhar (Fr), 127, g, 5, Siyouni (Fr)–Phiz (Ger), by Galileo
(Ire). 1ST BLACK TYPE. 1ST GROUP BLACK TYPE. (200,000gns
Ylg '18 TATOCT; 32,000gns HRA '21 TATAUG). O-Tawfik A Saeid
Ali; B-Robin Geffen (FR); T-Musabbeh Al Mheiri. $100,000.
Margins: HF, 2, 3/4.
Also Ran: Alignak (GB), Passion and Glory (Ire), Volcanic Sky (GB), Veloce Oro (Jpn), Castlebar (Ire), Rodrigo Diaz (GB), East Asia (Ire), Mirinaque (Arg), Baron Samedi (GB). Also Ran (DNF): Emperor of the Sun (Ire).
Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

The post Stay Foolish Snatches ‘Gold’ From Manobo 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