The post What Was Your Favorite Moment of 2023?: Charlie O’Connor appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

“I'm a little heavy now, so I don't know if I'll be able to do the weight,” he said. “But I'm sure going to try. I'll ride somewhere, whether it's in New Mexico, Louisiana, wherever. I'll give it my best shot.”

Valenzuela last rode on Dec. 8, 2016 at Fair Grounds. He then tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and after surgery he still didn't feel right.

“The surgery came out ok, but there was still a lot of pain and it kept bothering me over the last four, five years,” he said.

He would try to get back on horses but the pain kept resurfacing.

“Last year, I was getting on horses for Neil Drysdale and I couldn't take the pain anymore. I couldn't tolerate it,” he said.

Knowing that he had to try something different to combat the pain, he decided to have his knee replaced, which took place in May.

He returned to the track after the operation and worked as a hotwalker for trainer Antonio Saavedra. Each day, his knee started to feel a little better.

“It feels really good. I can't believe how good it feels,” he said. “There's no pain. Before it was painful to get on any horses. It's not like I have a brand-new knee, but it's a lot better than it was.”

He took the next step and started galloping horses at Santa Anita and Del Mar. In addition to Saavedra, he said he has been working horses for several trainers, including Peter Eurton and Peter Miller.

“I'm getting a good response,” Valenzuela said. “I'm just grateful to be able to get on any horses. Most everybody has been encouraging. I'm not hearing anything negative from anybody. I'm just trying to keep it simple and moving forward. As far as the physical fitness part of it, I think it'll will take me another month to 45 days to get ready. The weight is the most important thing. When you get older it's harder to lose weight. I weigh 128 now. I am working hard and eating light meals. Usually one meal a day. Just trying to stay away from fats and saturated fats.”

Valenzuela, whose career was repeatedly interrupted by substance abuse issues, said those problems are a thing of the past and have had nothing to do with his prolonged absence from the track.

Should he make it back, he'll have to answer a lot of questions, namely can a 61-year-old who hasn't ridden in more than seven years overcome all those obstacles and be successful?

“We'll have to see,” he said. “I will give it my best shot. I feel really good. I feel like I'm in a La-Z-Boy with a remote control when I'm on a horse. I feel like I'm at home. Who knows? I might be better. Gary Stevens came back after having a knee replacement and look how good he did. I don't think the age will matter that much. I think it will be more about physical fitness and the horses I get to ride.”

While eager to ride again, Valenzuela is not taking anything for granted. Considering his age, his lengthy absence and his checkered past, he understands that some racing commissions may have reservations about re-licensing him. He said his preference is to ride in California, but if that opportunity isn't available to him he will look elsewhere.

“I've ridden all over the country but I'd love to start back in my home state in California,” he said. “That would be the ultimate. But if I can't ride in California I'll ride anywhere I can. Maybe Louisiana or New Mexico. I know I can still get a horse to the wire.”

The post P. Val Eyeing Comeback appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Ryan Moore has been aboard Friday's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint contender Cherry Blossom (Ire) (No Nay Never) these last two mornings. “Is that a tip?” we enquired. “No, someone asked me that already. I'll show you,” replied O'Brien, digging his phone from his pocket and flicking past his selfies (just kidding) to find a photo of said filly throwing shapes worthy of the rodeo.

“She's not for kids,” said the trainer with a grin. “You need a parachute to ride her.”

Moore, evoking thoughts of the Man from Snowy River, never shifted in his seat, his kid gloves deployed with aplomb to ensure that there were no repeat antics from Cherry Blossom. She whipped them in as the dependable Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}) led them all around the cambered turn of the main track, pretty much in age-descending order. 

As ever, the Ballydoyle horses on tour have been one of the highlights of a morning at the track. No other visitors have as many to go out together, and horses trained at Santa Anita tend to appear for exercise solo or in pairs. It is an arresting sight then, with the sun fully up as if to light the group to full effect, to witness this spectacle of almost synchronised breezing.

“They might have got a bit of a shock this morning,” said O'Brien, referring to the kickback for those in behind Broome, which included his fellow Longines Breeders' Cup Turf runners Bolshoi Ballet (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Auguste Rodin (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). “We didn't want to go on the grass today as it's plenty quick and [the dirt] opens up their mind anyway.”

Five of the pack, the youngsters at the back, will face the starter on Friday; the other half take their chances come Saturday.

With Cherry Blossom finding what O'Brien believes could be her optimum conditions in the Turf Sprint, she reverts to five furlongs for the first time since her debut, and is the first of the team to jump into action, hopefully not literally.

“She's a fast filly and wasn't really getting six at home, and this flat track should suit her, as well as the ground,” he said.

Content (Ire) is out of a fast filly in Mecca's Angel (Ire) but as her sire is Galileo (Ire), the mile of the Juvenile Fillies Turf seems more her go.

“She'll definitely get the trip, the fast ground will suit her better and she has a nice draw,” the trainer added. Tick, tick, tick for the last-start winner of the G3 Staffordstown Stud S. “Ryan will probably take his time on her and ride her for a little bit of luck. She needs to relax a little bit early and then she should run well.”

Ballydoyle is mob-handed in the final race of Friday's card, the Juvenile Turf, with the first two favourites, both by Wootton Bassett (GB), being River Tiber (Ire) and Unquestionable (Fr), ridden by Moore and Frankie Dettori. They are joined by Mountain Bear (Ire) (No Nay Never), the imposing mount of Dylan Browne McMonagle.

Of River Tiber, O'Brien said, “We think he's come right since Newmarket and he's rated 3lbs below the other horse but he was always a very classy horse. He should get a mile around here; it's a nice draw and a flat track and I'm looking forward to seeing what he does.”

There's something for everyone in Saturday's team. The three-year-old Aesop's Fables (Ire) (No Nay Never), who was just a length off Highfield Princess (Fr) when third in the Prix de l'Abbaye, is perhaps a little overlooked in the Turf Sprint, especially since the defection of Bradsell on Wednesday evening. 

“Ryan felt in France that if he had challenged the winner a little earlier he might have been even closer but it was a huge run from him,” said his trainer. 

Before that there's the intriguing puzzle of Cheveley Park Stud's Inspiral (GB) (Frankel {GB}) stepping up in trip while O'Brien's Warm Heart (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) comes back in distance for the Filly & Mare Turf after her victories in the Yorkshire Oaks and Prix Vermeille.

And it must be said, having been lucky to see her at close quarters over the last few days, it's hard not to fall in love with Warm Heart. Her demure demeanour clearly masks her warrior instincts, however, as O'Brien said of the three-year-old, “She doesn't lie down, she does fight. She has a nice draw and I imagine that Ryan will probably go forward on her. She has tactical speed and will get the trip very well.”

There's no doubting that the race most of the huge European contingent now camped out at Santa Anita is looking forward to the most is the Breeders' Cup Turf.

Shadwell's stud plans for Mostahdaf (GB) (Frankel {GB}) were confirmed on Thursday morning, while we already know that Onesto (Ire), also by Frankel, is joining Haras d'Etreham and King Of Steel (Wootton Bassett {GB}) will remain in training next year. What then for Auguste Rodin? If he knows, O'Brien ain't telling, but it is a safe bet that plans are to an extent contingent on what happens this weekend. 

Would American breeders appreciate another chance at the sire-line of the Kentucky Derby and Breeders' Cup Classic winner who got away, Sunday Silence? Or is Ireland the natural home for a dual Derby and Irish Champion S. winner? Could we even see Auguste Rodin race on next year? Time will tell, maybe as soon as Saturday night, but in the meantime, there is the prospect of an almighty tussle between four of the best horses in Europe and some smart Japanese and American runners. 

“Obviously we'd love to have him but it will be whatever the boss decides,” said O'Brien, ever the diplomat, on the subject of Auguste Rodin's post-Breeders' Cup future.

Of the immediate matter in hand, he said, “Rachel [Richardson] rode him this morning and was very happy with him. He cruised around on the dirt; he's a lovely long-striding horse. The plan was always for him to go to Leopardstown and then to come here. This is what we've been looking forward to all year. He's won two Derbys and a Champion Stakes and he's only a three-year-old. He really has done well since Leopardstown.”

O'Brien added, “Did you see him on the dirt this morning? He looks like a dirt horse. If you look at Sunday Silence and look at him they are almost identical.”

It certainly was a sight to behold, as Auguste Rodin stretched out over the track where Sunday Silence was trained more than 30 years ago. The colt, who can appear on the small side in the company of burlier sprinters, looks an entirely different animal unleashed at full stretch. The image of him extending past King Of Steel down the hill at Epsom is still vivid in the mind but there have been good days and head-scratching days since then in the career of Auguste Rodin. 

With no disrespect to his stable-mates Bolshoi Ballet and Broome, he's the one on whose near-black shoulders the hopes are resting. Maybe we'll get the chance to see if Auguste Rodin really is a dirt horse in next year's Classic, but for now his sole aim is to emulate another Ballydoyle star, High Chaparral (Ire), in taking the Derby, Irish Derby and Breeders' Cup Turf in the same season. Game on.

The post Auguste in November as O’Brien Team Goes Sunny Side Up appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Smallish in stature but a Goliath in influence and reputation, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Northern Dancer gave the European breeding industry many stars including, crucially, Sadler's Wells, whose line holds strong predominantly through Galileo (Ire) and his heir apparent, Frankel (GB). Northern Dancer also blessed Japan with an important influence in Northern Taste, bought as a yearling at Saratoga in 1972 by Zenya Yoshida before winning the G1 Prix de la Foret and then establishing a formidable stud career as the most successful stallion Japan had ever seen. Until Sunday Silence came along.

The latter, who inherited the feisty temperament of his sire Halo and was handed far-from-perfect conformation, had a storyline that was as chequered as it is fabled. Sunday Silence famously found little favour with American breeders when he retired from racing, despite having won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness S. and Breeders' Cup Classic, all the while engaging in a gripping two-season battle with Easy Goer. His part-owner Arthur Hancock III decided, wisely at the time, to quit while he was ahead with the near-black horse who had played a significant part in saving his Stone Farm from bankruptcy. With Sunday Silence already part-owned by Zenya Yoshida, who had bought into him at the end of his three-year-old season, the rest of the stallion was offered for sale to stand in Japan without ever covering a mare in Kentucky. It was very much America's loss.

Yoshida, whose sons Teruya, Katsumi and Haruya now dominate Japanese racing and breeding, died when members of Sunday Silence's first crop were still yearlings. Little could he have envisaged the influence the horse would have 30 years later, not just within the Shadai Stallion Station, where 14 of the 32 resident stallions are his male-line descendants, but across Japan and beyond. This year, on the Epsom Downs and the Curragh, his grandson Auguste Rodin (Ire) has given a mighty last shake of the rattle to Sunday Silence's most powerful son, Deep Impact (Jpn), who died woefully early at just 17, in 2019. Who now will pick up the baton for this line of succession?

Kizuna (Jpn), the second of Deep Impact's seven winners of the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), started well by becoming the champion first-season sire of 2019, and he is currently sitting in third place in the Japanese sires' table behind Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) and the late Duramente (Jpn), both of whom are sons of King Kamehameha (Jpn), who himself died just a fortnight after Deep Impact. It is quite clear, however, which horse Teruya Yoshida, head of Shadai Farm, wishes to see take up the mantle. 

“Contrail (Jpn) is coming this year and my first impression is that he could be a very good stallion–maybe Coolmore will start to send their mares again,” he says of the horse who emulated Deep Impact when winning the Japanese Triple Crown in 2020 and was a champion in each of his three seasons on the track, culminating in victory in the Japan Cup. Contrail's first foals will be on display this Tuesday during the JRHA Select Sale in Hokkaido's Northern Horse Park. 

His 21 youngsters catalogued include a son of the Argentinean Grade I winner Conviction (Arg) (City Banker {Arg}). The February-born colt, who is lot 360 in the Northern Farm draft, has been issued a reserve price of ¥50,000,000 (approximately £274,000 or €320,000) in a system which is unique to Japan, and which would knock hours off sales in other jurisdictions, whereby the auctioneer opens the bidding at the published reserve. 

Much is made of the turf/dirt debate, but the divide can be slim when it comes to horses acting on the respective surfaces. The 'dirt horse' Sunday Silence begat Deep Impact, who raced solely on turf, but rarely on anything easier than firm, and whose dam was the Irish-bred Wind In Her Hair (Alzao), herself only three generations down from Northern Dancer. American influences have long been strong in Japan, and the current flavour of the month, maybe more, is the dirt sprinter Mind Your Biscuits (Posse), who waltzed off with leading freshman honours last year. He is the sire of the wide-margin winner of the G2 UAE Derby, Derma Sotogake (Jpn), who went on to finish sixth in the Kentucky Derby.

“Mind Your Biscuits covered more than 200 mares this year,” says Yoshida. “The really good mares are still going to turf stallions but most of the breeders in Japan with more ordinary mares have a tendency to go to stallions who run on dirt. Most of the races in Japan are performed on dirt, so that's what the buyers want, and they have a dream to go to Dubai or to the Kentucky Derby.”

He adds, “We keep trying to buy good stallion prospects, not only from America, and sometimes they turn out to be good, but not every time. It's the same with yearlings.”

A slower burner among the younger stallion brigade in Japan has been Kitasan Black (Jpn). The winner of seven Grade 1 races, from 10 furlongs to two miles, he is a son of Deep Impact's brother Black Tide (Jpn), who plies his trade at the Breeders Stallion Station. Kitasan Black moved in to the Shadai Stallion Station on his retirement in 2018 and, though not under-subscribed, he wouldn't have been among the busiest on the roster. However, from his first batch of 84 foals emerged the horse now being ascribed superstar status, Equinox (Jpn), while his second crop contained this year's Japanese 2,000 Guineas winner and Derby second Sol Oriens (Jpn). His numbers, unsurprisingly, are on the up.

“People are very keen on Kitasan Black,” says Yoshida. “He produces very tough horses, but he wasn't so popular at the start. Now, from this year, people have started to breed their best mares to him, and he's a very fertile horse.”

While we already knew that Equinox, currently the top-rated horse in the world, would not be appearing in Europe this season, it is now almost certain that he won't leave his home nation again, even for the Breeders' Cup, with the Japan Cup on November 26 his key target before retirement.

Equinox is not alone in avoiding Britain this season. There were no Japanese runners at Royal Ascot, and nor will there be at York and Goodwood. And it's not just the lower level of prize-money in the UK that is an issue.

European classification of the racing is very correct. If we buy Group 2 or Group 3 mares in Europe, that is their true level.

Yoshida says, “English racing is not easy for us. If Japanese horses go to Europe during the summer when it's dry then maybe we have a better chance of success, but we have many races in Japan too, so it is not easy to send a horse to Europe to race.”

The expanding racing programme and huge sums of money on offer in the Gulf nations through the winter are already having an effect on the horse population in Europe, and it may well mean that we will see fewer Japanese horses contesting races on the more irregular and often undulating tracks of Britain, Ireland and France. 

“We are racing [on the Flat] all year round, so it is easier for us to send horses to race in the Middle East in February and March,” Yoshida explains. “For European horses it is not so easy as there are not the big races through the winter. Japanese horses like fast ground and level ground. In England, the courses are more natural and it's not so easy for Japanese horses. In Dubai or Saudi it is more similar to racing in Japan. If we go to Europe we can encounter soft ground or a different way of running.”

One thing that is unlikely to change is the frequency with which Japanese buyers appear at the European sales.

“We are looking for good horses from anywhere in the world and buying the good-quality mares from Europe is very important,” says Yoshida. “European classification of the racing is very correct. If we buy Group 2 or Group 3 mares in Europe, that is their true level. In some other countries we can't believe in it, but if we buy them in Europe we know that they are good-class horses.”

And it is not only in America that the Yoshida family goes shopping for stallions. Jim and Jackie Bolger's 2,000 Guineas winner Poetic Flare (Ire) joined the Shadai roster last year and is another with first foals at the forthcoming JRHA Sale. While Harbinger (GB) remains at Shadai, his fellow King George winner Novellist (Ger) has moved to Lex Stud.

Yoshida says, “We had very good success with Tony Bin (Ire), an Italian winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Everybody said at the start that he was so-so but he became a very good stallion. We don't know until we try. That happens with horses. Nobody knows what will happen. Like Wootton Bassett (GB), at the start people didn't care so much but now that has changed.”

He continues, “Sunday Silence became so good and now he is grandsire of the English Derby winner. It was great for Coolmore to send their best mare to breed to Deep Impact, and then for [Auguste Rodin] to turn out to be so good, and now a stallion prospect.

“I was a bit apprehensive when I saw him walking from the parade ring to the starting gate because he was dancing, and you want mile-and-a-half horses to be relaxed, but he always does it and still he runs well.”

If my father hadn't bought the farm in Kentucky, this wouldn't have happened. Economy-wise, it was a big mistake because we lost a lot of money in having that farm, but in the end we got the best investment ever.

Sunday Silence himself did a little more than just dance when he was in training but, still, he ran well. So too did many of his offspring.

“Most of our good runners in Japan now have Sunday Silence blood somewhere,” Yoshida says, and casts his mind back to his own days in the Bluegrass.

“My father bought a farm in Kentucky, and it was very near to Arthur Hancock's farm. I was there for four or five years and during that time I became a good friend of Arthur. When Sunday Silence appeared I congratulated Arthur and he suggested to me that we should own some of the horse. 

“After that he found that not many people were interested in him as a stallion in America and he asked me to buy the horse. I bought the horse without any hesitation. At the time, $11 million was very expensive, but the Japanese economy was very good and we were able to say yes. It was the luckiest moment in my life.”

He adds, “If my father hadn't bought the farm in Kentucky, this wouldn't have happened. Economy-wise, it was a big mistake because we lost a lot of money in having that farm, but in the end we got the best investment ever. Sunday Silence changed Japanese racing.”

And let's not forget, he arrived just before the end of Northern Taste's reign in the sires' championship in Japan, that ran from 1982 to 1992.

“If you look at the history of Kentucky Derby winners, not that many become really good stallions, so I understand why American breeders were cautious,” Yoshida notes. “But at that time we were very innocent in American racing so when they asked us if we wanted to buy the horse, we did it without hesitation. Lucky! Knowing too much is not always good.”

In the quest to continue a line that has become so dominant, Yoshida knows that despite having a number of sons of Deep Impact in the pipeline, not all will light the spark that could ignite a successful second career. 

“Look at Northern Dancer: as stallions, not all of his good sons became successful,” he says. “When I went to Saratoga to buy Northern Taste I didn't know he would become a Group 1 winner in Europe and that he would become the leading sire in Japan 11 years straight. He was a very inbred horse and I was a little bit worried about that. But he lived a long time, he died when he was almost 30 years old, and he was always a very healthy horse.”

Yoshida adds, “It was just lucky, and that happened in the beginning. Then Sunday Silence came. Then Deep Impact. Maybe Contrail will come next.”

The post ‘The Luckiest Moment In My Life’: Yoshida on Sunday Silence appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Each Wednesday, the Breeders' Cup, in cooperation with FanDuel TV, will release videos online and on social media platforms as several of racing's most prominent participants and Breeders' Cup ambassadors relive the top 20 moments.

The countdown continues to the top three moments, which will be unveiled during the first week of November as the World Championships loom.

Included among the Top 20 moments:
1984: Wild Again's Inaugural Classic Thriller
1988: Personal Ensign Nips Winning Colors in Distaff, Retires Undefeated
1989: Sunday Silence Bests Easy Goer in Horse of the Year Showdown
1991: Arazi's Mind-Blowing Juvenile Rally
1993: The 133-1 Classic Upset of Arcangues
1995: Cigar Wraps Perfect Season With Classic Score

For the complete Top 40 moments, click here.

The post Wild Again’s Classic Win Among Top BC Moments in Fan Poll appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

That question is: why did you make seven trips to Washington to lobby for the HISA bill? And the single word, answering both questions? Cooperation.

That's what he always sought from his mounts; and that's also the premise he commends for all our dealings, as an industry, with the Thoroughbred.

McCarron rode professionally for 28 years. If you combine 34,000 race rides with all those he breezed in the morning, you get past 50,000 mounts.

“And what a learning playground that was!” McCarron exclaims. “If I just showed up every day and my boss says, 'I want you to go five-eighths in a minute…' Well, yeah, that sounds simple enough. But I'd be paying attention to every little thing that horse was telling me. And then I would know what to tell it. And I developed a skill, an ability to communicate with Thoroughbreds, in such a fashion that I would get what I'm looking for. And that was cooperation. The most important thing I ever wanted was cooperation.”

McCarron has welcomed TDN to his Lexington home, the exemplary professionalism of that long riding career (along, no doubt, with all the golf he plays nowadays) plainly legible, at 68, in his spry posture and animated engagement. It was 21 years ago this week that McCarron quit the saddle, aptly concluding at Hollywood Park with Came Home (Gone West), his final Derby horse, as his 7,141st winner. His mounts had earned an unprecedented $264 million. But McCarron didn't just ride off into the sunset.

Rewind to another day at the same track, 12 years previously. McCarron is supposed to ride Sunday Silence on his 4-year-old debut. Earlier on the card, however, there's a pile-up. So while Pat

Valenzuela resumes a partnership sundered by a ban the previous year, McCarron is in hospital with a broken femur, fibula and ulna.

And he gets to asking: “What if this had been worse? What if I broke my back, my neck? I better start laying the groundwork for a second career.”

Having always tried to get inside a horse's head, he was intrigued by the idea of training. Methodical as ever, then, he started studying for a possible next vocation. After breezing, he would stick around the barn and see how things were done.

But then the people he was shadowing all started to say the same thing.

“Chris, I hope you're not thinking about getting your trainer's license?”

Why ever not?

“Well, we don't think you can do to a horse what's necessary to win races.”

“This is way before all our new medication changes,” McCarron emphasizes now. “Every barn has a horse that has a problem. Every barn has horses that turn up lame at any given time. I did it for a week and I couldn't stomach it.”

What he had seen was not his idea of working with the horse, of cooperation. That experience doubtless stayed with him, years later, when joining a team knocking one congressman's door after another. He testified. It took eight years to get the bill signed. But this is a man whose dedication to welfare of horse and rider has been unstinting. Indeed, during a stint as general manager at Santa Anita, he banned shockwave therapy.

McCarron in retirement with his grandson Griffin | Katie Ritz

How did that go down on the backside? “Some of the trainers wanted to hang me.”

And that takes us back to this whole business of co-operation. Because just as a jockey can misuse the whip, the pharmaceutical trainers aren't asking a horse, but forcing it.

“Right,” McCarron says. “But I'm optimistic, I really am. There's a plethora of smart, dedicated, persevering individuals who are going to be enforcing these rules; a great group of people that have gotten together for one cause, for one end, and that's the safety of the horses. Being a jockey, that's paramount for me. Because if the horses are safer, automatically jockeys are safer.”

Significant to hear McCarron still describe himself as a jockey. Evidently the born rider never “stops,” any more than he ever really “starts.” Somewhere along the line, he just discovers what he is. Certainly there was nothing in McCarron's Massachusetts upbringing to explain his intuition for the horse. As a kid, his dream was to play for the Boston Bruins. But then his older brother Gregg, simply because he had a jockey's build, had the fortune to be introduced to Suffolk Downs trainer Odie Clelland.

“Turns out he was like our second dad,” McCarron recalls. “Just a class act. Odie was well known for bringing out young boys and girls to learn how to be jockeys, and he was an outstanding horseman as well. So Gregg started playing hooky from school. And a couple of months later during dinner he said, 'Mom, dad, I think I'm going to quit school and get a job on the racetrack.' Mom slams her fork down and says, 'Over my dead body! No son of mine's ever going to be involved with a bunch of derelicts and gamblers and degenerates.'”

She owed this image of the track to a couple of visits a year with the Knights of Columbus.

“And they'd see what we called the 'stoopers',” McCarron recalls. “These old guys with the stogie in their mouth, the hat, binoculars around their neck and an armful of racing information. And they'd walk around stooping down, 'Is this ticket any good? This ticket?' In the filth.”

Mrs. McCarron's opinion can scarcely have been improved after Gregg was given a leg-up for the first time.

“The colt took one step forward and Gregg landed behind the saddle,” McCarron recalls. “The colt bucked him off and then kicked him right in the face. Shattered the orbital bone, broke his nose, broke some teeth. Mom said, 'I'm praying that this will remove any desire Gregg might have to become a jockey.' But as soon as he was healed, he was back on the track. And he stayed there 25 years.”

If that wasn't enough to stop Gregg, who rode 2,403 winners, it certainly wasn't going to stop his brother. McCarron made his own start in 1971, before his senior year in high school, and was instantly besotted. And, actually, when the rest of the family saw the work ethic instilled by the brothers' hardboot mentor, they understood.

“Even when I was still an exercise boy, Odie taught us to pay really close attention to every horse we threw a leg over,” McCarron says. “Not just once, twice, but every time I scale a horse, I should be learning something. So that evolved into learning what makes a horse tick. The more familiar with a horse's desires and dislikes, the more successful I became-and the more part of that horse's performance I became.”

Hence this vital search for a wavelength, “whether it's a filly bouncing all over the place and I get her to settle down, or a big old lazy gelding that needs to be woken up.”

Obviously across 50,000 horses, there were plenty of recurring responses. But you could never make assumptions.

“John Henry was mean as a horse could be, in the stall,” McCarron recalls. “Even though he was a gelding, even at the ripe old age of nine, if you're not careful he'll hurt you. But in the afternoon, he was as straightforward as he could be. Seventeen different jockeys rode him and just about everybody won on him. So he was a very generous horse with his ability.

Tiznow training for the Breeders' Cup | Horsephotos

“Tiznow, the opposite. You could put your hand in his mouth, he wouldn't bite down. But you tell him to do something he doesn't want to do, morning or afternoon, he's going to flip you the bird. So I had to be really studious, on his back, to determine what exactly will end up in cooperation.”

Some horses were like bicycles. Alphabet Soup: keep asking, he'd keep giving. Hard work, but for predictable reward. Tiznow, you sense, was more satisfying precisely because more challenging.
McCarron largely resisted using the stick on the big horse.

“I could use it for encouragement,” he recalls. “But if he wasn't ready, he would let me know by pinning his ears. I actually learned that by watching his other riders, Alex Solis and then Victor Espinoza. I watched them and thought, 'I wonder if he's really okay with being hit.'”

Then came a notorious morning, a week before his second Breeders' Cup. The instructions were to backtrack to the half-mile pole, turn with the pony, canter to the wire and breeze a circuit. The first bit goes to plan. Once turned, however, Tiznow plants himself.

“Okay, well, I'll just wait,” McCarron says. “I wait five minutes. Still doesn't want to go. Backtracked some more. Same result. Backtracked again. Now I'm over at the six-and-a-half pole and it's 30 minutes into this exercise.”

With trainer Jay Robbins way off in the grandstand, McCarron calls an audible: he hollers to the starting gate for some blinkers. But no, Tiznow, doesn't take to that suggestion either. Then, suddenly, with McCarron's feet out of the irons, he starts to jog. Quickly McCarron squeezes his toes back in-and Tiznow takes off. And, hell, now he's too strong.

Another audible: he'd break off at the half-mile pole. That's the kind of confidence that comes with the Hall of Fame. But one of the other things that got McCarron there was timing his own works. And, at the quarter pole, he glances at his wrist: 23-and-one. Too fast. But the more he tries restraint, the harder the horse goes. Another glimpse at his watch, passing the wire: 47 flat. Tiznow keeps rolling, works the mile in 1:36 3/5-and gallops out strong, too.

Everyone's asking what can be bugging the horse: he must be sore, in body or mind. But McCarron feels that Tiznow just wanted to show that he wouldn't be rushed. He loved to stand out on the track watching the other horses; and his usual work rider (good as he was) was a freelance with a living to earn, with other horses waiting. Besides, Tiznow actually put in a beautiful breeze.
Come the race, even so, McCarron can't know which Tiznow will come out of the gate.

“He broke running, check that box,” he recalls. “He's got a hold of me, check that box. Going down the backside, he's relaxed, check that box. I told Jay in the paddock, 'Don't be surprised if I don't hit him, because I don't want the Tiznow of today to be the Tiznow of last Saturday.' [But] Sakhee was full of run, and at the 16th pole he's a neck in front. Well, I got nothing to lose at this point. So I tapped him left-handed. Now, when a horse re-breaks at that stage of a mile-and-a-quarter race, it's not like the acceleration you get from a turf horse, when they drop down and come home in 23. But I felt the acceleration. And all of a sudden I was full of hope. And then Tom [Durkin] yelled, 'Tiznow wins it for America.' I was like, wow, this is big.”

Just one snapshot, this, of how a great rider ekes the best from a horse; and, yes, gets them to co-operate.

“I firmly believe that the horses most desirous to win carry that with them all the time,” McCarron says. “They definitely know when they win. I think that the breed has demonstrated a superiority-inferiority segregation, if you will, in the wild. And the Thoroughbred brings that to the table as well. There is a hierarchy. The ones that are followers, they're probably a bunch of losers. And the leaders are those that bring their game every time.”

Who does that remind you of? Because surely that's true of jockeys, too?

“I think so,” McCarron accepts. “No question, most of the jockeys I had the pleasure of riding with and against, they're multi-time champions because of their tremendous desire to do the very best they possibly can. I look back and have to pinch myself: what a classroom I had.”

Through the 1980s, in that Californian colony, he was riding against nine Hall of Famers.

“And I was always seeking answers,” McCarron says. “I see Laffit do something, I'll just watch and figure that out. A lot of times I could ask him. But when you get to the point where you're as competitive as they are, you didn't want to impose. I didn't want to go to Shoe and say, 'How did you get that filly to change leads like that? I couldn't when I rode her.'”

Instead he would listen intently as they all came in and stood watching the replay. Nonetheless McCarron is adamant. “I didn't fear any of them,” he says. “I had to go to work every day with the attitude that I'm better than anybody out there. It's a question of me getting on the right horse.”

He had powerful evidence behind him. “I rode my first race on January 24, 1974,” he recalls. “I broke my maiden on February 9, my 10th ride. By the end of March, riding at Bowie, I'm going to say I had 30 winners. Which is crazy. From April 1 to December 31, I rode another 510.

“How in the world could I have done this? There's only one answer. I am blessed with God-given talent to communicate with Thoroughbreds, bottom line. Then I have to go ahead and take that, capitalize on it, put it to good use every single time I throw my leg over a horse's back.”

After 1,011 winners in his first two years, McCarron was invited to Hollywood Park for an all-star race.

“My agent wouldn't let me go, because he was fearful that if I see those swinging palm trees out there, I may not want to come home,” McCarron says. “He was right!”

McCarron did go when invited again the following year and, forget the palm trees, he knew he had to measure himself against the best. Every now and then, in the Bowie racing office, he had overheard the agents: “Yeah, he might be able to ride around here, but if he thinks he can go out to California and do the same, he's mistaken.”

So that desire, the same desire that set the best horses apart, where had that come from?

“My family,” McCarron says. “My mom and dad were incredibly hard workers. They raised nine of us. My mom had a little one in diapers for 20 years straight, between my eldest brother Joe and my youngest sister Colette. And we were all athletic, all competitive.”

Between nature and nurture, then, he had something special to work with. And he tried to share that by starting the first jockey school in America. Invited to address one in Japan, in 1988, he had been blown away. Why weren't American kids offered that kind of opportunity, when they'd had a school in South Africa as long ago as 1960 and others had meanwhile opened in Latin America, Europe, Australia? Having been dismayed by the way horses were trained, he resolved to train people instead.

To this day, then, he retains a vigilant interest in the role models available to young jockeys.

“The rider of today doesn't look anywhere near as good on a horse as the riders of yesteryear,” he says candidly. “I can't for the life of me figure out why jockeys across the pond, most notably England and Ireland, didn't emulate Frankie. They look terrible on a horse. Frankie learned his trade here. That's why he looks so good. And it's not the American style, it's the Panamanian style.”
He hates to see jockeys standing up down the back stretch, their butts way above the saddle.

“Where the heck's that coming from?” he asks. “Laziness. It's more strenuous to get down and stay down for a long period. Harder on your legs, quads, hamstrings. These guys that get way up off a horse's back have no idea how much drag they're increasing.”

He remembers Joe Allen's wife Rhonda taking a set of aerodynamic silks to NYU, back in the 1980s. The lab computed a gain, over a mile, of around 15 feet.

“Go down the road with the window down, at 40 miles an hour, and then just turn your hand,” he says. “Cyclists, runners, skiers, swimmers shave their bodies because the hair follicles have bubbles. If that creates drag, what is [riding] up here doing?”

His students could never shake McCarron off balance, when he modeled the equicizer for them. But there was always more than one kind of equilibrium involved in the fulfilment of his own talent. Getting onto Sunday Silence, after all, was just the result of one guy being the ultimate professional-and another, well, not so much.

Really all the key ingredients were already in place, the day he rode his first winner: not just the innate connection with the horse, but the seriousness of mind, the diligence of heart.

All that said, is there anything he would tell his younger self, that snowy day at Bowie?

“Boy,” he says, and pauses to think. “I'd say that you're getting ready to jump into a career that can be quite hazardous, and that you must always keep your wits about you.” But it's the next bit that's key. “And that if you learn to love the horse, and you're passionate about what you do, you'll be successful.”

The post McCarron: Connect With The Horse and the Rest Will Follow appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

In Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), we have a Derby winner with the wares to help reconcile a debilitating modern division between the gene pools that produced his grandsire Sunday Silence, and his damsire Galileo (Ire).

If Americans have not yet granted this horse adequate attention, then his owner-breeders have an obvious solution later in the year. For if all remains well with Auguste Rodin, then the GI Breeders' Cup Classic would surely be a bet to nothing. Should he handle dirt as befits a grandson of Sunday Silence, then his exceptionally cosmopolitan pedigree really could be said to have brought together the best of all possible worlds. Should he fail to adjust, however, his stud value would barely lose a cent. (In fact, given the current morbidity about the future of dirt racing, the disclosure of an incompetence on dirt might even be said to enhance that value!)

The fact is that a stallion's career never depends purely on the inherent potency of his genes. If it did, true, Auguste Rodin would be in a very strong place, with the diversity of his pedigree standardized only by its seamless quality. But other things need to fall right-in terms of credibility and sheer narrative momentum-to maximize his opportunity. And that is what sets Auguste Rodin apart even from Saxon Warrior (Jpn), a promising stallion already at Coolmore, who shares as many as 13 of the 16 names behind Auguste Rodin in their respective fourth generations.

Because Auguste Rodin, besides being favored by some startling endorsements by his record-breaking trainer, raises an extra frisson of destiny as one of just a dozen sophomores in the final crop of Deep Impact. With even the most parochial and short-sighted breeders elsewhere now obliged to acknowledge Japan's increasing hegemony in the 21st Century Thoroughbred, the transatlantic market should be primed to embrace Auguste Rodin with a grateful fervor.

Deep Impact | J Fukuda

No doubt John Magnier and his partners at Coolmore first and foremost viewed recourse to Deep Impact in practical terms, having required a top-class outcross for all their Galileo mares. But just as when Scat Daddy proved a sire of sires, it also brought a latent opportunity to turn the dial.

While Coolmore has several effective heirs to Galileo, none can quite match the one that got away, Frankel (GB). But that will matter less with each pass of the baton. Say that down the line you sent Auguste Rodin a mare by Frankel's son Cracksman (GB), who had his breakout winner in the G1 Prix du Jockey-Club on Sunday: the resulting foal would be inbred 3 x 4 to Galileo. That's going to be a familiar scenario in Europe. But what compels interest in Auguste Rodin far beyond that theatre is the way such an international pedigree has coalesced to produce such a consummate athlete.

Very often, a horse's ancestors can only be credited with elite stature because of the sons or daughters that tie them into the pedigree in front of us. But just work your way down the fourth-generation mares behind Auguste Rodin, and you'll see that the potency of their genes has been corroborated by collateral distinctions.

Besides producing Halo, for instance, Cosmah was of course half-sister to the most important broodmare of her time, Natalma. Lady Rebecca, dam of Deep Impact's damsire Alzao, was a half-sister to Chieftain and Tom Rolfe. Fairy Bridge, here as dam of Sadler's Wells, was also half-sister to Nureyev. Allegretta (Ger), here as dam of the legendary Urban Sea, was also dam of one Classic winner King's Best and second dam of another in Anabaa Blue (GB). Highclere, herself a Classic winner, features because her daughter became granddam of Deep Impact, but another daughter is one of Europe's great modern broodmares, Height Of Fashion (Fr). And Rahaam also produced the Royal Ascot winner and stallion Verglas (Ire), as well as Auguste Rodin's third dam.

Okay, so a lot of people won't trouble themselves with that kind of underlying structure. They'll reduce a pedigree to blocks behind sire brands, and duly decide that they know what to expect when both Deep Impact and Galileo both displayed abundant stamina. The further seeding of Auguste Rodin's maternal line, meanwhile, may discourage international confidence, with second and third dams by European turf sires Pivotal (GB) and Indian Ridge (Ire).

But everyone should know Pivotal as an outstanding broodmare sire. And Indian Ridge's maternal family channels such old-fashioned, indigenous British sprint speed that you could hardly find a more vivid foil to other European elements in this page: the sturdy German family behind Galileo, for instance; or the profound stamina source Busted (GB), who sired Deep Impact's second dam. Unnerving stuff for American breeders, no doubt, but remember that Busted is by no means the only bottomless turf influence lurking behind sophomore champion Epicenter (Not This Time).

Auguste Rodin's third dam Cassandra Go certainly inherited the dash of Indian Ridge, winning over five furlongs at Royal Ascot, and she has also produced a dual Group-winning sprinter in Tickled Pink (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire})-who came to American attention last autumn through the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf success of her daughter Victoria Road (Ire), significantly from the first crop of Saxon Warrior.

Another of Cassandra Go's daughters, Theann (GB) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), was also a Group winner at six furlongs before producing not just Photo Call (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) to be a dual Grade I scorer on grass in the U.S. (later purchased by Katsumi Yoshida for $2.7 million); but also Land Force (Ire) (No Nay Never) to fly down the Goodwood hill in the G2 Richmond S. as a juvenile.

Cassandra Go's daughter by Pivotal, Halfway To Heaven (Ire), has proved well named as it turns out that her racetrack career only represented a beginning, despite winning three Group 1s. She had stretched her maternal speed to win one of those at 10 furlongs, albeit only just holding out, before then dropping back to a mile.

Certainly she had shown enough speed to remain monogamous with Galileo in her next career. Among their foals was the splendid campaigner Magical (Ire), who won 12 of 28 (seven Group 1s) between 7 and 12 furlongs, often proving too tough for colts; and also Rhododendron (Ire), who proved similarly classy, versatile and hardy, beating males in one of her three Group 1s and dropping back in distance after running second in the G1 Oaks. For her first cover, Rhododendron fortunately ducked under the wire to become one of the final mates of Deep Impact-and Auguste Rodin is the result.

Sunday Silence | Patricia McQueen

Perhaps some American breeders might hesitate about delving through this avowedly turf seam to retrieve the lost genetic gold of Sunday Silence. But it starts with a mare, Cassandra Go's dam Rahaam, who shows us precisely the kind of crossover that has been culpably abandoned since.

She was by an Epsom Derby winner in Secreto, albeit don't forget that he was by Northern Dancer out of a Secretariat mare from the family of Majestic Prince and Real Quiet. Rahaam's dam, meanwhile, was by Mr. Prospector out of a Dr. Fager mare-whose own mother was Kentucky Oaks winner Native Street. The latter, when herself covered by Mr. Prospector, produced the dam of both Dowsing (Riverman), winner of the G1 Haydock Sprint Cup; and Fire The Groom (Blushing Groom {Fr}), a GI Beverly D. winner who herself produced another top-class European sprinter in Stravinsky (Nureyev).

Rahaam had been co-bred by Calumet Farm and Stephen Peskoff before her purchase by Sheikh Mohammed, for whom she won a Newmarket maiden in a light career with Henry Cecil. Both Rahaam and her second foal Verglas (whose subsequent success we noted above) were soon culled from the Sheikh's operation, which did however retain her first foal Persian Secret (Fr) (Persian Heights {GB}) to become the stakes-placed dam of 11 winners. She has also consoled her mother's vendors as third dam of their G1 Melbourne Cup winner Cross Counter (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}).

Nor, equally, will even Japan's stunning recent success on the international stage convince every Bluegrass breeder, based as it is in the patient development of bloodlines discarded by America and Europe alike. We can confidently state that Deep Impact himself would never have received commercial support in those environments, having never raced below 10 furlongs and won over as far as two miles.

By this stage, however, you would like to think that people might not be so obtuse as to deny a stallion's capacity to impart speed simply because of his own ability, in his first career, to keep going. Deep Impact has sired plenty of brilliant milers and we really do need to overcome this childish literalism about “stamina” being the opposite of speed. Very often, it is sooner about having the class to carry it.

Magnier clearly understands that, having shown no compunction about choosing Deep Impact for mares by the undeniably doughty genes of Galileo. Saxon Warrior duly had the pace to win a Classic over a mile, and indeed arguably didn't quite get home at Epsom.
Bearing in mind that Deep Impact only covered a handful of Coolmore mares, for a handful of seasons, the results have been staggering. Just a few days ago Saxon Warrior's brother, again from Deep Impact's final crop, won a Group race on only his third start. Between Saxon Warrior, Snowfall (Jpn) (G1 Oaks winner in 2021, by 16 lengths!) and now Auguste Rodin, from very limited chances the Deep Impact-Galileo cross has given Ballydoyle winners of three of the five British Classics.

Sadly the mysterious misfiring of Auguste Rodin as hot favorite for the G1 2,000 Guineas derailed Coolmore's hopes of winning the first British Triple Crown since 1970. Nowadays there seems to be a depressing reluctance for Guineas winners to try even the Derby and, at 14 furlongs, the St Leger is a commercial bridge too far for nearly everyone. It's a real shame, then, that his connections should have been lucklessly denied the incentive to buck that trend by Auguste Rodin's Guineas flop. Nobody, clearly, would now expect the horse to proceed to the St Leger regardless.

So let's hope that another great sporting adventure might be embraced instead, at Santa Anita this fall. Because it's going to take something that bold, and that special, to persuade modern breeders to renew the kind of transatlantic transfusions that once underpinned Classic pedigrees.

Remember that Deep Impact himself was one such cocktail: by a dirt champion out of an Epsom Oaks runner-up. Remember, also, how Japan has tested the mettle of his stock, with its program predicated on soundness and longevity. For that makes the legacy of Deep Impact still more precious, as we strive ever more conscientiously for a Thoroughbred physically equal to its tasks.

To be fair, he made such remarkable use of limited opportunity with mares from outside Japan that there are already one or two attractive conduits to Deep Impact elsewhere. At Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, Study Of Man (Ire) certainly represents quite a package at just £12,500, as a Classic winner out of a daughter of Storm Cat and Miesque. Only his second starter (out of a Galileo mare, of course!) impressed on debut at Leopardstown a few days ago.

And it's a curious coincidence, given how much genetic material they already share, that the third dams of both Saxon Warrior and Auguste Rodin should have resulted from visits to Indian Ridge in consecutive seasons back in the 1990s. Who knows how their respective futures will play out? But there would be no better way for Auguste Rodin to match his billing, as the anointed final bequest of Deep Impact, than to redeem his stable's agonizing near-misses with Giant's Causeway and Declaration Of War in a race won by his grandsire.

The Thinker, the most celebrated work of the sculptor for whom the Derby winner is named, actually started out as a small figure in another of his masterpieces, The Gates Of Hell. At the moment, everyone seems to think that we are parked right outside the latter. But if we can all be thinkers for a minute, then here's a horse with the potential to help put out the flames.

For it is precisely those virtues now so prized in Japan-an ability to carry speed, and the robustness to keep doing so-that formerly united Classic bloodlines either side of the Atlantic. Auguste Rodin could now just jump through the familiar hoops, banking low-risk dividends through the rest of his track career and equally at stud. Or he could become the horse to close the circle.

The post Could Sunday Silence’s Grandson Close the Circle? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Although the great Hall of Famer Gamely split her time between coasts, it was California that got to name what has become a major race after her. The daughter of Bold Ruler won some of the sport's biggest contests for fillies and mares, was a success on both surfaces, carried weight, and wasn't afraid to tackle the boys (including Dr. Fager!). Despite dying at just 11 and leaving only two foals, Gamely produced an English Group 1 winner, so perhaps it's fitting that this race, with just over 50 individual winners, has provided some exceptional broodmares.

Following are highlights of some of the most important Gamely winners by what impact they've had on the sport through their sons and daughters.

Tranquility Lake (1995, Rahy–Winters' Love, by Danzig), bred by North Central Bloodstock: This lovely mare's first four foals–all by Storm Cat–resulted in MGISW After Market, GISW Courageous Cat, and $9.7-million Keeneland September yearling (and later U.A.E. GSW) Jalil. One reportedly went to Turkey and another to China, but Courageous Cat still stands in New York.

Hollywood Wildcat (1990, Kris S.–Miss Wildcatter, by Mr. Prospector), bred by Irving and Marjorie Cowan: Her crown jewel was undoubtedly son and GI Breeders' Cup Mile winner War Chant (Danzig), but she also produced English GSW and three-country G1/GI-placed Ivan Denisovich (Ire) (Danehill). Her grandsons include Japanese G1SW Danon Smash (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) and Canadian Classic winner Danish Dynaformer (Dynaformer).

Toussaud (1989, El Gran Senor–Image of Reality, by In Reality), bred by Juddmonte Farms, Inc.: Named Broodmare of the Year in 2002, this Juddmonte great produced GI Belmont S. winner Empire Maker (Unbridled), as well as additional GISWs Honest Lady (Seattle Slew), Chester House (Mr. Prospector), and Chiselling (Woodman). She also produced GSW & GISP Decarchy (Distant View) and is granddam to GISW First Defence (Unbridled's Song), as well as to MGSW & MGISP Honorable Duty (Distorted Humor).

Wishing Well (1975, Understanding–Mountain Flower, by Montparnasse II {Arg}), bred by George A. Pope, Jr.: She is the dam of Horse of the Year and GI Kentucky Derby winner Sunday Silence (Halo), whose rich revolutionizing of the breed in Japan is quickly spilling over into the rest of the world. His runaway success as a sire and the legacy he has left borders on the obscene.

Foggy Note (1965, The Axe II–Silver Song, by Royal Note), bred by Frank D. Turner and James D. Drymon: Four of her first five foals were stakes winners and a goodly number of black-type winners, including the likes of MGISW Life At Ten (Malibu Moon), trace to her. However, it's the trio of sires–champion and MGISW Rubiano (Fappiano), MGSW & MGISP Relaunch (In Reality), and perennial leading sire and GISW Tapit (Pulpit)–tracing directly to her that have more than secured her place in history.

The post Background Check: Gamely appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

There are so many lessons in Japan's accession as a dominant influence on the 21st Century Thoroughbred, a trend that even the most obtuse and parochial of us cannot fail to observe, that it's difficult to know where to start.

When, for instance, will those industries clinging to a historic presumption of superiority–either side of the Atlantic–acknowledge what's happening sufficiently to reverse the traffic and start importing Japanese racehorses to stand on their own farms? Not for a while yet, you suspect, given that you would need to be confident of commercial demand to make the necessary investment viable. And for now it seems an adequate challenge to get traction even for those few representatives of Japanese bloodlines to have at least showcased their wares before a domestic audience.

But it's not as though this latest tour de force–featuring winners of the biggest prize on both surfaces at Meydan, as well as the first four in the G2 UAE Derby–was founded simply in stallion trade. The Japanese have certainly embraced many sires renounced as uncommercial by breeders in Kentucky and Europe. But that investment has been consistent with a holistic strategy, embracing the right mares, the right land, the right horsemanship.

Obviously the Japanese have enjoyed advantages, in terms of colossal gambling and government engagement. But all these unmissable moments of vindication, as in Riyadh last month or at the 2021 Breeders' Cup, have completed patient years of groundwork, during which Japan was sometimes viewed as a convenient, nearly gullible receptacle for the cashing out of unwanted genetic goods.

As commercial breeding elsewhere has become ever more focused on the sales ring, the Japanese meanwhile persevered with a longer game. Selection was predicated on the kind of assets, like stamina and durability, that are treated with something between dread and derision in other markets. But now we see the results.

Certainly nobody can remain deceived that this has all happened because of a single, game-changing roll of the dice on Sunday Silence. And if Japan did not get here overnight, nor can those industries now being challenged expect to retrieve the situation other than by patient increments.

Let's take G1 Dubai World Cup winner Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) as a snapshot. He is, admittedly, by a grandson of Sunday Silence. But the dam of Orfevre (Jpn) is by a sire, Mejiro McQueen (Jpn), who not only represents the fourth generation of a sire-line transplanted by the arrival from Europe of Partholon (Ire) in 1963, but also extends an indigenous maternal line through eight generations of Japanese mares to one foaled as long ago as 1909.

Partholon, by the way, ended up as Japan's champion sire on three occasions, having won the Ebor H. at York, over 14 furlongs as a 3-year-old. The die was cast. Because if we're going to give due credit to the bottom line, then here's a question that I should like to ask any American breeder mating a mare this spring.

Say the resulting foal becomes champion sophomore or maybe, instead, he could win the second richest race on the planet. Either would sound pretty good, right? Well, what do the last two horses to reach this pinnacle of dirt racing, Epicenter (Not This Time) and Ushba Tesoro, have in common?

The answer is that the third dam of both is a daughter of Ela-Mana-Mou (Ire), one of the most redoubtable stamina influences in the recent history of European grass racing. Ela-Mana-Mou's two best-known sons were Double Trigger (Ire), who swept the Cup races in Britain including the G1 Ascot Gold Cup at 20 furlongs, and Snurge (Ire), whose Classic success came over 14 in the G1 St Leger.

Now, I'm not suggesting for a moment that this single, attenuating strand specifically accounts for the excellence of Epicenter and Ushba Tesoro over two turns of dirt. But what I do believe is that this forgotten horse–virtually unknown in Kentucky, presumably, beyond its substantial community of emigre horsemen of a certain age–is typical of the overall “branding” today enabling Japanese runners to carry their speed so unanswerably.

Look at Panthalassa (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}), who switched from turf to win the world's richest prize in Riyadh last month. Hardly anything in his pedigree indicated a likely proficiency on dirt, but it is saturated (sprinting sire notwithstanding) with toughness and stamina. His first two dams are by Montjeu (Ire) and High Estate (Ire). One has had a record impact at Epsom, the other was by a Derby winner and sired one himself. The next dam was admittedly by a sprinter, but out of a mare by another undiluted source of staying power in dual Arc winner Alleged.

This kind of thing is not confined to the Japanese, of course. The World Cup runner-up Algiers (Ire) (Shamardal) admittedly represents a versatile sire-line, but there are deep wells of stamina in his pedigree. His dam is by Platini (Ger) (Sumuru {Ger}), a horse that once outstayed even Ela-Mana-Mou's son Snurge. (And Shamardal himself requires us to reflect how his dam's half-brother Street Cry {Ire} became a Classic influence on dirt, as they are out of an G1 Irish Oaks (12f) winner by the ardent stayer Troy {GB}).

Certainly Ushba Tesoro himself is laden with staying influences. His sire Orfevre is a Japanese St Leger winner (15f) by Stay Gold–another son of Sunday Silence who majored in soundness (still showing top-class form at seven) and stamina (stayed two miles). And his dam is by King Kamehameha (Jpn), whose fertility as a source of brilliance was hardly impaired by his Classic success over 12 furlongs. She was out of one of the more accomplished runners (couple of graded stakes wins on turf after export to Bobby Frankel) by Septieme Ciel, a generally disappointing stallion by Seattle Slew. Ela-Mana-Mou then enters the picture as a mate for a daughter of the imported Argentinian sire Pronto (Arg).

We should not be surprised, then, if the Ela-Mana-Mou mare who features as Epicenter's third dam should be out of a daughter of Busted (GB), whose two best sons Bustino (GB) and Mtoto (GB) both sired winners of the G1 Ascot Gold Cup over 2 1/2 miles. (Nor, if anyone is inclined to complacency in a commercial industry that can produce Flightline, should we neglect that the champion's second dam is by Roberto's son Dynaformer, while his sire's granddam is by Nijinsky).

More predictably, perhaps, similar motifs occur just as prominently behind Equinox, sensational winner of the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic. His sire Kitasan Black (Jpn), a grandson of Sunday Silence, twice won a Grade 1 over two miles; while his damsire King Halo (Jpn) (out of a mare by Sunday Silence's sire Halo) is by Dancing Brave, one of the all-time European greats yet soon written off to Japan as a stallion. Equinox's granddam is herself by a rejected Arc winner in Tony Bin (Ire), while the next dam is by a dual winner of the race in Alleged.

We just found Alleged, remember, lurking behind Panthalassa as well. And while his own background–by Hoist The Flag/inbred 3×4 to War Admiral–may take us into the mists of time, it also takes us right to the crux of the matter. Because dirt racing is about carrying speed, and that is itself a form of stamina.

Interestingly Tony Bin also provides the second dam of UAE Derby winner Derma Sotogake, who must be getting his stamina from the bottom side as a son of the imported American sprinter Mind Your Biscuits. Derma Sotogake's damsire is Sunday Silence's son Neo Universe, a Japanese Derby winner beaten a length in the 15-furlong St Leger. The way he destroyed his pursuers last Saturday permits no doubt that Derma Sotogake has the maternal wherewithal to carry his sire's speed and–setting aside last year's farcical tactics from the two UAE Derby graduates–nobody should be complacent that the GI Kentucky Derby itself can be secure from Japan's expanding hegemony.

Evidently there is no guarantee that Equinox will be given the chance to slake a rather longer thirst in the Arc, which is a pity given the Longchamp winners seeding his family, not to mention the fact that his own sire contributed two of Japan's serial near-misses in the race.

But just imagine what would happen if the Japanese suddenly felt sorry for the industries they compete with, and donated Equinox to Kentucky or Britain. Would the commercial breeders of the Bluegrass, anxious to catch the eye of an Ocala pinhooker, come flocking? With his background, I doubt it. What, equally, would Nathaniel (Ire) tell Equinox about the kind of harem a proven Classic influence can expect in Britain? (That's the same Nathaniel who added the latest Epsom Derby winner to a resume already including Enable (GB), yet is still only charging £15,000 and increasingly relying on jumps mares).

And there's your answer, really. If we want to recover the ground lost to Japan, then we need to understand just what these rampant Japanese racehorses are digging into: seam after seam of soundness and stamina. Of course they need brilliance too. That's where the whole skill of breeding comes in, maintaining that cutting edge of speed. Yet one after another of these horses have been sired, not by recent imports, but by horses that have been developed in the Japanese program, many of them holding their form year after year, generally on turf and over what many would consider appalling distances.

Yes, we must reiterate the shrewd selection of mare imports over the years. The $750,000 paid for Ushba Tesoro's granddam, for instance, doubtless owed little to her sire Septieme Ciel and rather more to the fact that had managed to add more black-type to the famous Claiborne clan of her fourth dam Bourtai.

But what kind of reception, honestly, would Deep Impact (Jpn) himself have had in Lexington, as a winner over two miles? American breeders didn't want his sire, but did they ever learn that lesson?

At least commercial breeding in Kentucky still aspires to a second turn on the first Saturday in May. But while I'm always recommending dirt sires as a way–and a proven way–to transfer a speed-carrying capacity to European Classic racing, the Japanese are meanwhile reminding us that the reverse also applies: that there's nothing like grass stamina to help keep up the gallop on dirt.

As I acknowledged at the outset, it would be commercially difficult to export an elite runner from Japan to stand in Europe or America. But now that they are taking their excellence onto a global stage, perhaps that kind of gamble may gradually start to inch a little closer.

In the meantime, only a few horses have had the chance to introduce Japanese blood to domestic racing theaters elsewhere. Unsurprisingly, the most promising experiment to date is the work of John Magnier and his partners in Coolmore, who outcrossed one of their many top-class daughters of Galileo (Ire) to Deep Impact (Jpn) and produced Classic winner Saxon Warrior (Ire)–whose debut crop includes GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf scorer Victoria Road (Ire). Saxon Warrior's fee this spring is up to €35,000 from €20,000, and the same operation is now hoping to repeat the process with Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). The strong favorite for the Epsom Derby is similarly out of a high-class Galileo (Ire) mare, and actually won the same juvenile Group 1 as Saxon Warrior last fall.

Not many people, however, have either the resources or the imagination to emulate this kind of thing. As things stand, a Japanese sire-line entered the North American general sires' list in 2022 only at No. 92 through Silent Name (Jpn), who offers Ontario a direct conduit to Sunday Silence. And we do also have Yoshida (Jpn), a grandson of Sunday Silence, about to launch his first juveniles. His Grade I wins on both turf and dirt were due reward for the rare enterprise shown by WinStar in importing a Japanese yearling to race in the U.S.

Sunday Silence's son Hat Trick (Jpn) was a noble earlier experiment, and Gainesway bought into the project after he pulled Group 1-winning juvenile Dabirsim (Fr) out of his hat as a freshman. (The same farm, to its credit, evidently also liked the fact that Karakontie (Jpn) is out of a Sunday Silence mare.)

Unfortunately Hat Trick dwindled to 19 mares at $5,000 in his final spring in Kentucky, before ending his days in Brazil. Dabirsim did meanwhile produce Royal Ascot winner Different League (Fr), an €8,000 weanling who advanced her value two years later to 1,500,000gns. That sum, incidentally, was ventured by another far-sighted Coolmore partnership, co-signed by M.V. Magnier and White Birch Farm.

Obviously it was always unlikely that such rare samples of Japanese blood should happen to prove as potent as the best of their gene pool. But who knows? Perhaps we will gradually learn a little humility. Perhaps we can admit to ourselves that, where Japan has strengthened over the past couple of generations, is precisely where we have allowed things to slide.

As always, there's an ultimate consolation to the way this business functions. But eventually the people with the daring and the imagination to take a harder path, and heeding Japan's example, will be waiting for your horse on the racetrack.

We're all being taught a pretty deafening lesson here. That doesn't mean many people are necessarily going to pay attention, even if the Japanese now plunder the Kentucky Derby itself. But it'll be pretty obvious, in a few years' time, just who was listening, and taking notes, before going away to complete their homework.

The post The Land of the Setting Sun? appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

With 26 runners on the night, it was always a given that Japan would feature prominently and, in an exhibition of excellence that we are now becoming accustomed to, they led all comers, just as they had in Riyadh last month. The performance of Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) alone was pretty dramatic, coming from tailed off to a rallying victory in the big race itself, but all else pales when compared to the extraordinary Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}).

There have been some classy winners of the Dubai Sheema Classic over the years but none has cruised over the line with such imperious ease as the 4-year-old, who was Japan's Horse of the Year in 2022. 

We may be only three months into 2023, but Equinox has quickly become almost everybody's horse of this year. His connections appear to have ruled out a bid for the Arc, with the Breeders' Cup Turf a more likely international option for later in the year. Those of us on this side of the pond can only hope they change their mind and consider Ascot in July for the King George and Queen Elizabeth S.

Once again it was a major meeting which showcased the rewards to be reaped when keeping horses in training beyond their 2- or 3-year-old seasons. Leaving aside the  UAE Derby, Equinox was the youngest winner of the night, with horses aged five, six and seven claiming two victories apiece. 

Lord North (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}) were born a day apart in February 2016, and have mustered 52 runs and 19 wins between them. Both may be a little under-appreciated, though surely not by their connections, considering that the former has triumphed in exactly half of his 20 starts and accumulated almost £6.5 million in prize-money, largely through his historic hat-trick in the Dubai Turf. The well-named Broome (out of Sweepstake) has taken his connections on a merry dance from Ireland to England, France, America, Japan, Hong Kong, Qatar, and now Dubai. He has also overcome a fractured shin from  a kick by another horse after running in the Japan Cup of November 2021. Quick thinking and treatment by vet Kanichi Kusano, who is now the Japan Racing Association's representative in London, meant that Broome was able to resume racing the following May, winning the G2 Hardwicke S. on his second run back after the break, and now the G2 Dubai Gold Cup.

A chance outing on Sunday took this correspondent to the ancestral home of the original Lord North. Kirtling Tower, not far from Newmarket, is the remaining part of what was once Kirtling Hall and its vast estate across Suffolk and Cambridgeshire. A financial advisor and treasurer of sorts to Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell when it came to the dissolution of the monasteries, Lord North, who died in 1564, is entombed at Kirtling Church. Some 14 years later, his son Roger, the second Lord North, entertained Elizabeth I at Kirtling Hall.

Legend has it that the among the long list of food served to the Queen and fellow guests during their three-day stay were 2,316 pigeons, 446 quails, 221 cows' tongues, feet and udders, 110 bitterns, 99 dottrells, 96 rabbits, 67 sheep, 34 pigs, 32 swans, 28 plovers, four stags, and one crane. This was all washed down with 74 hogsheads of beer, six hogsheads of claret and six gallons of spiced wine known as hippocras. It makes the Federation of Bloodstock Agents' annual lunch seem positively abstemious. 

Saudi, Dubai, Next Stop Kentucky

It is hard to get away from Sunday Silence in the Japanese sire lists, and he featured as the paternal great grandsire of both Ushba Tesoro and Equinox. The 1989 Kentucky Derby winner also pops up on the dam's side in the third generation of the G2 UAE Derby winner Derma Sotogake (Jpn), who will now try to emulate his notable ancestor by heading to Churchill Downs on the first weekend of May.

The Shadai-bred Derma Sotogake, who was also third in the G2 Saudi Derby, is the first major international winner from the debut crop of Mind your Biscuits, who ended 2022 as the leading first-season sire in Japan. In his racing days, the 10-year-old son of Posse landed back-to-back runnings of the G1 Golden Shaheen as well as winning the GI Malibu S. at three, and he looks an inspired purchase for the Shadai Stallion Station. His pedigree appears to be a natural fit for mares from the Sunday Silence/Deep Impact line and, as a great grandson of Deputy Minister, his is a sire-line which has succeeded in Japan through French Deputy and his son Kurofune. The latter, himself a grey, features most notably as the sire of the pure white Sodashi (Jpn), winner of the 2021 G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1,000 Guineas).

Amo Racing's Season Off to a Flyer

The 2023 Tattersalls Craven Breeze-up was represented by its first winner on Saturday before the sale had even taken place. Formerly known as Lot 153 but now racing as Bucanero Fuerte (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), the full-brother to G1 Prix de l'Abbaye winner and Haras de Bouquetot sire Wooded (Ire) won Ireland's first juvenile contest of the year at the Curragh.

Bought as a yearling last August at Arqana for €165,000, he was signed for by breeze-up consignor Robson Aguiar, who presumably had plenty of involvement in the colt's preparation for his debut for owners Amo Racing and Giselle de Aguiar and trainer Adrian Murray. The same triumvirate is also involved in Lightening Army (GB), a juvenile from the first crop of Soldier's Call (GB) who has an entry at Dundalk on Friday.

By Saturday evening, Amo Racing had notched its first stakes winner in America when Crispy Cat (GB) (Ardad {Ire}), who had also been selected by Aguiar as a yearling, won the Texas Glitter S. at Gulfstream Park. A decent juvenile last term for Michael O'Callaghan, Crispy Cat won on debut and notched several black-type places, including an unlucky third in the G2 Norfolk S. He later filled the same position in the G2 Flying Childers, and he could well have a fruitful year ahead of him in the States, where is one of a team of around 30 horses for Amo Racing.

The Amo colours could also be seen in Classic action this year as among the entries for the Irish 2,000 Guineas is the G2 Beresford S. winner Crypto Force (GB) (Time Test {GB}), who has moved from O'Callaghan to the Gosdens.

Murphy Skilled in Both Spheres

Amy Murphy has made a habit of targeting French races in recent years and her approach paid dividends across the codes last week with two markedly different winners.

At Saint-Cloud on Thursday, the versatile trainer saddled the first winner for Coolmore's freshman sire Magna Grecia (Ire) when Myconian (Ire) won the Prix de Debut for Daniel Macauliffe and Anoj Don. Murphy's husband Lemos de Souza has been a key part of her training establishment from the outset and he had selected the colt for €27,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale.

For sheer emotion, however, nothing could top the trainer's second French victory of the week. Now 10, Kalashnikov (Ire) (Kalanisi {Ire}) had been an early star for Murphy and headed into the 2018 Cheltenham Festival with four wins to his credit. He was beaten just a neck when second in the G1 Supreme Novices' Hurdle and went on to become the trainer's first Grade 1 winner the following year in the Manifesto Novices' Chase at Aintree. 

Having had almost two years away from the track while recovering from a tendon injury, Kalashnikov, who races in the colours of Murphy's father Paul, returned to action on Boxing Day. On Sunday, he recorded his eighth victory in the Prix Hubert de Navailles at Auteuil, reducing his trainer, who also rides him every day, to tears.

Globetrotting Murzabayev Off the Mark for Fabre

We may struggle to spell his name correctly but be prepared to hear and see plenty more of Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, the Kazakhstan-born, four-time German champion jockey, who rode his first winner for his new boss Andre Fabre at Fontainebleau on Monday. 

Having race-ridden in both in his native country and the Czech Republic, Murzabayev was initially connected to Andreas Wohler following his move to Germany in 2017. He later joined Peter Schiergen, for whom he won last year's G1 Deutsches Derby on Sammarco (Ire) and G1 Grosser Preis von Bayern aboard Tunnes (Ger). A further breakthrough came during this winter's stint in Japan, where he partnered Dura Erede (Jpn) to land the G1 Hopeful S. among his 21 winners in the country.

Fabre initially called him up ride Mare Australis (Ire) in last year's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, and the 30-year-old was announced as the French trainer's retained jockey earlier this month. On Monday, Palais Du Louvre (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) became the duo's first winner. He is unlikely to be the last.

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

Source of original post