DEEP IMPACT SERVES NOTICE

World Ace (JPN) - The Kisaragi Sho (G3)
(Photo : Japan Racing Association)

THE KISARAGI SHO (Group 3)
Kyoto, Turf, 1800m
5 February 2012

The naming of racehorses is quite an involved process, because no two horses in the same country, are allowed the same name. It’s further complicated by the fact that the names of previous greats are reserved in perpetuity (including the greats from abroad), so that no horse can aspire to being a “Sea Cottage” again, for example.

It’s an arguable proposition that the most appropriately named horse in the world right now is Deep Impact, multiple Horse Of The Year in Japan, and now looking the likely stallion successor to his own great sire, Sunday Silence. There are parallels in what Deep Impact is doing in emulating his father in the European version of Galileo and Sadler’s Wells, yet it was a brave man who bet on either of Sadler’s Wells or Sunday Silence having anything remotely resembling themselves in any one of their sire sons.

Galileo has already surpassed the achievements at the same stage of Sadler’s Wells (and let’s not forget, Sadler’s Wells won a record 14 premierships in Europe), and while Deep Impact has a long furrow to plough yet before we can call him the “second coming”, he couldn’t have gotten off to a better start. The Champion Sire of Juveniles with his first crop in his native Japan, and threatening his barnmate King Kamehameha, with usurping his mantle at the head of their stallion log as his sophomores turn three, Deep Impact served notice again this weekend that his first runners were no fluke.

At Kyoto on Sunday, the first of the three-year-old classic trials, the Kisaragi Sho (G3) was a warning not only to his colleagues in Japan, but to the world at large, that Deep Impact has arrived, and he is here to stay. The race was “trifected” by his three sons, World Ace, Historical and Veiled Impact, the first two bred by Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm, and the third by Teruya Yoshida’s Shadai Farm. In the case of the winner, World Ace, his victory by 2,5 lengths was a compliment to his breeding. He’s out of a mare called “Mandela”, and he ran like he knew it.

The other Group race on the card was another endorsement of Sunday Silence. First and third past the post were both grandsons, and reminded us again how lucky we are in our international friends. The best son of Sunday Silence of his generation in Japan, Admire Main is here courtesy of the Yoshida family.

ALI VS FRAZIER : KATSUMI VS TERUYA

JAPANESE BREEDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

Time was when the late Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali met in what was dubbed in the “thrilla in Manila” and when George Foreman took on Ali the “rumble in the jungle”, we all thought we’d never see the likes of it again.

Yet, students of the Japanese breeding scene will know that the struggle for local supremacy is a straight-out slugfest between the brothers Yoshida, with Katsumi on our left, and Teruya on our right. Sandwiched in-between is the third umpire, the family-owned Shiraoi Farm, a co-operative venture which suggests that despite their internecine rivalry, the Yoshidas share a mutual admiration, manifested again in their famous Shadai Stallion Station.

The battle for top dog has raged as furiously as ever in 2011, but here it’s not a case of running with the big boys, and having to play dead. The heat is on from the word go, and while there’s some R70 million separating Katsumi’s Northern Farm from Teruya’s Shadai Farm this year, it’s a “mere” R70 million in almost R750 million.

What clinched it for Katsumi’s operation this year was his Northern Farm exacta in Japan’s most celebrated event, the Japan Cup (Gr1), which returned the championship to his operation again after an interlude of a year for Shadai; prior to that there were Summerhill parallels in six consecutive championships for Northern Farm. The extent of the Yoshida domination on Japanese breeding affairs is clear from the table above. Sitting where we are (or anywhere else in the world for that matter) it’s difficult to conceive of the prize money involved, let alone the massive premiums these achievements attract; the second last column expresses the total earnings in Rands; almost three-quarters of a billion to the top farm!

Turning to the sires’ logs, the striking item is the presence of six sons of Sunday Silence in the first ten on the General Sires’ List, while the Juvenile Sires’ Log tells us it’s by no means the end of the story. The first three in that list are all young sons of the greatest stallion Asia has ever known, and arguably one of the best the world has known. All of Daiwa Major, Deep Impact and Agnes Tachyon are by Sunday Silence, and they’ve only just kicked off their careers. It’s entirely conceivable that Japanese breeding can look forward to a rivalry between the top two, of proportions hitherto unwitnessed since the era of Frazier and Ali.

SUNDAY SILENCE : THE RISEN SUN

Click above to watch comprehensive coverage of the Japan Cup…
(Image : Herald Sun - Footage : German Racing Course)

JAPAN CUP (G1)
Tokyo Racecourse, 2400m, Turf
27 November 2011

For some decades now, the Japan Cup has ranked amongst the world’s most wanted prizes, yet it’s a strange quirk of the way things work, that back in their homeland, despite the great horses which have come to conquer from around the globe, the Japanese have maintained a vice-like hold on the outcomes. Yes, there have been the exceptions, but by and large, the Japanese racehorse has made his statement, and the world has finally acknowledged it.

The best in Japan are up there with the best in the world, and this week was no different. The run-away winner in record time of Europe’s most prestigious mile-and-a-half event, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and her runner-up were there, Danedream and Sharita, and both went off at short odds. Both were denied as Buena Vista, who lost the race in the steward’s room last year, got her revenge with a neck victory in the dying strides. Last season’s Japanese Horse of the Year (and a worthy aspirant for the same title again this year), Buena Vista, is another descendant of the all-conquering Sunday Silence, being a daughter of the accomplished racehorse, Special Week.

The race was a triumph for our friends at Northern Farm, who emulated Summerhill’s Vodacom Durban July exacta this year, with the first and second past the post. Readers of these columns will know that Africa’s only son of Sunday Silence, Admire Main, the joint second top-rated three-year-old of this year, is here courtesy of our relationship with Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm. Was this a “jingle” for those breeders who still have mares to cover and may it be looking for a dimension few others already have? Admire Main’s busy, but he’s not overwhelmed to the degree that he can’t find room for you!

Enquiries :
Linda Norval 27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

A FORCE FOR RECKONING

Click above to watch the 2010 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe
(Image : Zimbio - Footage : Dubai Racing)

“WORKFORCE HEADING TO JAPAN”

I first met Teruya Yoshida, the present master of his family’s famous Shadai Farm, when we were fellow speakers at an Asian Racing Conference in India in 1995. As we embarked on our aeroplane, he asked me about several aspects of my speech relating to South Africa. In the course of the conversation, we got onto the topic. Starting with his father, of how Zenya had so influenced breeding affairs in Japan to the degree that it had become a world force. I probed him on the subject of what instigated their purchases of the mile and a half winners of the English Derby, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, which were fundamental elements in the Shadai stallion band. Teruya was quick to respond. For centuries, these races were the proving grounds for the great stallions of Europe, but since the advent of the likes of Sir Ivor and Nijinsky from America, the emphasis among European breeders was on speed. These “Derby” types, whose metier was a mile and a half, and which had served as the foundations of the breed for so long, became surplus to their requirements.

In other words, the Japanese simply stepped into the space so long occupied by the best breeders in Britain, Ireland and continental Europe. However, the Japanese needed as a result to re-write a race programme which would suit the progeny of these horses, and so they came to revere the 2400m plus event as the testing ground for the best horses in Japan. At a time when the third leg of the British Triple Crown, the St Leger (contested at 2800m or a mile and three quarters) had so lost its lustre that few horses which had completed the Guineas / Derby double, even bothered to subscribe for it, the Japanese developed a new and healthy respect for the winner of their St Leger, and even for those horses that excelled in their Group Ones at 3000m, such as the excellent Sunday Silence stallion, Manhattan Café. The key is class, and most good horses, whatever their stamina attributes, have the speed that goes with it. Witness Americain, last year’s winner of the Melbourne Cup, who despite being beaten in this year’s event, still posted the best speed figures in the race.

That the strategy worked, is evident in the many fine Japanese horses which grace the racetracks of the world today, and which are undoubtedly, by any measure, world-class.

No surprise then, that the highest rated horse in Europe last year, the runaway hero of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Harbinger, was bought by Shadai when his career came to a sad and abrupt end after the King George. And now we have the news that the English Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe ace, Workforce, is the next excellent horse to leave British shores for Japan. Yoshida commented “the sire line of Kingmambo is enjoying success in Japan, as seen in the favourable results by King Kamehameha. The maternal line of King’s Best is also very good (that of Galileo and Sea The Stars). His performance as a racehorse was extraordinary. Not only the record breaking victory in the Derby, but also the fact that he drew clear of his field, these were keys in deciding the purchase”.

That the moment Teruya and I alighted the aircraft in India has turned out to be fortuitous, is evident in the relationship we have forged with his brother, Katsumi and his Northern Farm. The only son in Africa of Japan’s greatest-ever stallion, Sunday Silence, (great by the standards of any country anywhere), Admire Main is here courtesy of that meeting.

GYPSY ISSUES WARNING

Click above to watch the sale of Hip 427 Royal Delta…
(Image : Racehorsetoshowhorse - Footage : Keeneland)

“Our bleat about Broodmares”

Followers of these columns and those who receive our newsletters, will know our bleat about broodmares, and that this is the most opportune time to invest. Prices have been on the floor, numbers are down, and when the market corrects itself, there will be a shortage of stock. Looking at the results of the annual Keeneland November Sale, it seems the Americans are reading our propaganda more attentively than South Africans. Prices have literally gone mad, with the recent Breeder’s Cup Ladies Classic winner, Royal Delta making $8,5 million, and mares from the dispersal of the late Ned Evans’ Spring Hill Farm making as much as $4,2 million. Benjamin Leon from Florida has been the biggest investor, Coolmore have got their feet wet, and Thursday, Seth Hancock from the legendary Claiborne Farm got his “hands dirty”.

“I’ve wanted something from that family for a long time” Hancock admitted “and I tried, but Mr Leon got most of them on Monday, so I tried again, and Ned’s brother Shel, got me on that one. This was the last gasp. Our backs were to the wall if we wanted something from that family”. He added, “Ned Evans would do it like I would like to try and do it. He kept his broodmare band culled down, and he bred his mares to the right kind of stallions. He raced them and he loved them. I thought he was a lot like us, and I’m happy to have something from his best family”.

In a significant tribute to South African breeding, Rathmor-bred Gypsy’s Warning, a Group One winner at home and abroad, broke the million dollar barrier when the hammer came down for the Niarchos family’s Flaxman Holdings, who preside over some of the finest bloodlines in the world.

The man behind Admire Main’s presence at Summerhill, Katsumi Yoshida, has been especially active in the upper half of the market in recent months, and he got his hands on Ticker Tape at $950,000.

TOP BROODMARES PRICES

Horse	Price ($)	Price (ZAR)	Purchaser
Royal Delta	8,500,000	68,000,000	Besilu Stables (Benjamin Leon)
Christmas Kid	4,200,000	33,600,000	Aisling Duignan (Coolmore)
Quiet Giant	3,000,000	24,000,000	Besilu Stables (Benjamin Leon)
Unrivaled Belle	2,800,000	22,400,000	Brushwood Stable
Delta Princess	2,600,000	20,800,000	Adena Springs
Blind Luck	2,500,000	20,000,000	Mike Puhich (Mark Dedomenico)
Buster’s Ready	2,400,000	19,200,000	Wertheimer et Frere
Cat Moves	2,400,000	19,200,000	Adena Springs
Weekend Strike	2,300,000	18,400,000	Barronstown Stud
Love Me Only	2,100,000	16,800,000	Summerwind Farm
Dance Quietly	2,000,000	16,000,000	Besilu Stables (Benjamin Leon)
Malibu Prayer	2,000,000	16,000,000	Besilu Stables (Benjamin Leon)
Life At Ten	1,950,000	15,600,000	Adena Springs
Quiet Now	1,850,000	14,800,000	Claiborne Farm
Camargue	1,650,000	13,200,000	Adena Springs
Porte Bonheur	1,600,000	12,800,000	Waratah Thoroughbreds
Dark Sky	1,500,000	12,000,000	Summerwind Farm
Gypsy’s Warning	1,050,000	8,400,000	Flaxman Holdings
Grand Prayer	1,000,000	8,000,000	Besilu Stables (Benjamin Leon)
Ticker Tape	950,000	7,600,000	Katsumi Yoshida
Rhumb Line	850,000	6,800,000	Bowden Global Equine
Le Relais	800,000	6,400,000	Stonestreet Throughbred Holdings

TOP WEANLING PRICES

Sire	Sex	Price ($)	Price (ZAR)	Purchaser
Medaglia d’Oro	Filly	2,600,000	20,800,000	Besilu Stables (Benjamin Leon)
Smart Strike	Filly	1,600,000	12,800,000	Besilu Stables (Benjamin Leon)
Henrythenavigator	Filly	1,500,000	12,000,000	Adena Springs
Smart Strike	Filly	1,000,000	8,000,000	Stonestreet Stables & George Bolton
Smoke Glacken	Filly	900,000	7,200,000	Besilu Stables (Benjamin Leon)
Quiet American	Filly	510,000	4,080,000	Bluegrass Hall
Street Sense	Filly	295,000	2,360,000	Longitude Farm
Tapit	Colt	240,000	1,920,000	Ben Glass
Stormy Atlantic	Colt	225,000	1,800,000	Steve Shahinian
More Than Ready	Colt	195,000	1,560,000	Rocco Bloodstock
Malibu Moon	Filly	195,000	1,560,000	Clearsky Farm
US Ranger	Colt	190,000	1,520,000	Blanford Bloodstock