CLOUD CUCKOO LAND

Admire Main (JPN)
(Photo : Greig Muir)

“It’s difficult to comprehend, but the prize money generated by runners
bred at Northern Farm is very nearly R800million.”

We just received the year end breeding statistics from our friends and fellow investors in Admire Main, Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm. It’s difficult to comprehend, but the prize money generated by runners bred at Northern Farm is very nearly R800million, while Katsumi’s brother Teruya’s Shadai Farm lies second, with earnings not far short of R700million. The family’s Shiraoi Farm ranks third, with almost a quarter of a billion in stakes. Between them, they have generated close to R1.7billion in total stakes, and to put that into perspective, while they obviously have fewer runners, Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Japan Farm, has earnings of “only” R90million.

In the general sires log, all ten of the Top 10 stand at the Yoshida family’s Shadai Stallion Station (we thought Coolmore were dominant in Europe!), while eight of the Top 10 juvenile sires (all eight of the Top 8) are also Shadai inmates. Interestingly, 7 of the Top 10 sires in the nation are sons of the great Sunday Silence, and in the light of the success of Japanese runners across the world, that’s about the best alarm signal South Africans can get. There’s only one source in our country, and he’s right here at Summerhill.

2012 JRA Purse Rating / Breeder

#	Breeder	Total Purse (ZAR)
1	Northern Farm	781 162 767
2	Shadai Farm	663 784 970
3	Shiraoi Farm	223 144 321
4	Oiwake Farm	95 192 058
5	Darley Japan Farm	88 914 005
6	Chiyoda Farm	87 297 865
7	North Hills Management	83 426 473
8	Big Red Farm	81 058 753
9	Shimokobe Farm	80 628 779
10	Mishima Farm	56 901 110

2012 JRA Leading Sire

#	Stallion	Total Purse (ZAR)
1	Deep Impact	429 687 703
2	King Kamehameha	381 567 635
3	Stay Gold	208 642 186
4	Symbol Kris S	196 796 840
5	Kurofune	178 559 949
6	Fuji Kiseki	168 066 524
7	Daiwa Major	162 453 886
8	Agnes Tachyon	147 004 184
9	Heart’s Cry	140 103 160
10	Manhattan Café	136 895 559

2012 JRA Leading Sire of 2-Year-Olds

#	Stallion	Total Purse (ZAR)
1	Deep Impact	36 482 750
2	Daiwa Major	29 788 471
3	King Kamehameha	25 043 638
4	Heart’s Cry	23 502 306
5	Symbol Kris S	23 412 212
6	Neo Universe	22 929 291
7	Kurofune	21 864 646
8	Agnes Tachyon	20 442 015
9	Admire Moon	16 593 766
10	War Emblem	14 865 329

YOSHIDA'S LEGACY

“It just highlights how precious the genetic influence of Sunday Silence
has been in the elevation of Japan as a world power in the production of racehorses.”

We’ve just posted an ad for the Sporting Post updating the performances of Admire Main’s two-year-olds. It just highlights how precious the genetic influence of Sunday Silence has been in the elevation of Japan as a world power in the production of racehorses. But it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Have a look at the numbers in the tables below, and for a moment reflect not only on the Breeder’s log, but on the leading sires (general) and the two-year-old sires. The top farm belongs to Katsumi Yoshida, son of the legendary Zenya Yoshida, who founded the original Shadai Farm. Northern Farm is touching R800 million (yes, 800 million) in earnings, while brother Teruya’s Shadai Farm is in second with 670 million. The family’s conglomerate farm Shiraoi has accumulated close to R225,000 million, and their magnum opus is last year’s Horse Of The Year, Orfvere. Now have a look at the leading sires, which is remarkable for the fact that every one of the top ten is based at the Shadai Stallion Station, which the three Yoshida brothers own together. No fewer than seven of them are sons of Sunday Silence (names in bold), while once again the dominance of the Shadai Stallion Station is clear in the two-year-old sires log, the first 8 being based there.

Coolmore has long been the dominant stallion operation in Europe, and their numbers are staggering, but when it comes to total dominance of a nation’s breeding affairs, Shadai and the Yoshida family stand alone. Getting back to Admire Main, he is here courtesy of the generosity for which the Yoshidas are well known, but also as a product of their long term view of business. For them to have parted with a horse of his immense talent and of his impeccable breeding, tells you firstly how strong they are in other representative sons of the line at the Shadai Stallion Station, but also of their determination to ensure that the Sunday Silence legacy is spread around the world. And just as Galileo is doing by comparison with his own phenomenal sire, Sadler’s Wells in Europe, Deep Impact is having just that, a very deep impact on the affairs of Japanese racing. He looks at this stage, a serious threat to Sunday Silence’s own record.

2012 JRA Leading Breeders

2012 JRA Leading Sire

2012 JRA Leading Sire of 2-Year-Olds

THE RISING SUN

Manhattan Cafe (JPN)… a good case in point.
(Image : Oumanoshasin/Impereal)

JAPAN CUP (G1)
Tokyo, Turf, 2400m
25 November 2012

Mick Goss
Summerhill Stud CEOIf you think that the frequency with which we revisit the achievements of the Sunday Silence-line reflects an obsession, you’re right. But the truth is, it’s because members of the tribe keep thrusting themselves into the international limelight, and it was no different in Asia’s richest horserace, the $5million Japan Cup (Gr.1) on Sunday. Four of the first five home were grandsons of the great stallion, and toiling in their wake was last month’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr.1) heroine, Solemia, as well as the second and third in the recent Melbourne Cup (Gr.1).

The emergence of Japanese racing in recent decades owes just about everything to Sunday Silence, as well as to the Yoshida family who stood him at their Shadai Stallion Corporation headquarters, and whose Sunday Racing syndicate owned the first three past the post on the weekend. The winner by just a nose, was the Fillies’ Triple Crown ace, Gentildonna (by the all-conquering Deep Impact), ensuring a second consecutive defeat for the Japanese star, Orfevre, who had “winner” written all over him in the Arc when he was nabbed on the post by Solemia. The extent to which the “Arc” result distorted their merits, was reflected in Sunday’s outcome, when Orfevre was decidedly Solemia’s superior. Himself a Triple Crown hero a year before Gentildonna annexed the fillies’ version, Orfevre looks every inch the world class racehorse, and will doubtless find his way to the Shadai Stallion Station when his time comes.

The signs of Japan’s growing status as a source of genuine international racehorses have been evident for decades now, and it’s an arguable proposition that they are today, pound-for-pound, the bastion of the finest mile and a half performers in the world. I spoke personally with Teruya Yoshida on an aircraft one day between Hyderabad and Mumbai, about the policy behind their acquisition of the best European Derby and “Arc” winners. He explained that it was a formula that had served Europe and Britian so well for centuries, yet they’d reached a stage where they were discarding them in favour of the speedier American types like Sir Ivor and Nijinsky. This presented Japan with an outstanding opportunity to poach the best European horses at those distances for their own purposes, and to rewrite the Japanese racing programme to suit their progeny. These days, the Japanese revere their leading performers at those trips, and they are never short of a willingness to give their St Leger winners (at a mile and three quarters) and even further, a shot at stud. A good case in point is the excellent sire Manhattan Café (by Sunday Silence no less), who ranks perennially in their top five stallions. The Japanese have always been good at spotting a gap, and in this one, they’ve outplayed the world. They gave us Toyota, remember.

MAIN MAN STRIKING

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN SALE
TBA Sales Complex, Germiston
2nd and 4th November 2012

Timing is everything, no doubt about it. Who would have thought that a stallion of Admire Main’s pedigree and aptitude would be a sire of quality juveniles. It just goes to show, class counts.

While Admire Main ran off with his juvenile debut over 1400m by some seven lengths, it was late in the season, and everyone knew that his mission was the jewel in the Japanese racing crown, the next year’s Japan Derby (Gr.1). Never challenged in his first four racecourse visits, including a four length romp in the Japan Derby Trial (Gr.2), he went down just a neck to the seasonal champion in the big one, despite an injury, claiming his spot as the joint-second highest rated three-year-old of his year.

It was a long-cherished ambition of ours to find a worthy son of his phenomenal sire, Sunday Silence, for this continent, and it eventually came about in the early hours of a Sunday morning (very early!) over a diminishing bottle of Rupert and Rothschild Classique. The font of all Sunday Silence blood is the Shadai Stallion Station in Hokkaido, where the Yoshida family holds court, and our company that evening included Shunsuke Yoshida on a rare visit to South Africa. A consummate horseman and as affable a young man as you could wish for, Shunsuke said “we’ll fix it,” and he did.

The logistical complexities in getting a horse from Japan to South Africa are such that Admire Main had to cut short his covering season in Japan almost as soon as he had started it, as a consequence of which he left just a handful of foals behind. Surprisingly, for a horse who was very much at home over 2400m, these have counted eleven runners to date, including three winners already and seven who’ve made the money. The evidence tells us they’re as much at home over 800m as they are at 1700m, and while we’ve always maintained that nothing will suit them better than the punishing 2000m of the Summer Cup down Turffontein’s torturous straight, it’s reassuring that they appear competitive at the shorter trips as well.

Recent international events have reminded us (and for those who were still oblivious, of the enormous class of the lineage) how potent the Sunday Silence tribe can be. Just last Sunday, Orfevre (by Stay Gold by Sunday Silence) was pipped at the post in Europe’s greatest race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr.1), while on the same weekend, Hat Trick celebrated his second international Group One winner in the USA from his first crop. Yet, by some distance, Sunday Silence’s outstanding sire son is Deep Impact, who’s not only already outdoing his famous father, but whose daughter Gentildonna became the island nation’s fourth Triple Crown heroine on the self-same Sunday. South African’s will need little reminding of course, of the outstanding talents of Lionel Cohen’s Sun Classique (by Fuji Kiseki), not only a champion at home, but a stirring Group One ace at the Dubai World Cup meeting.

The message: those who are nearest to our Ready To Run entries, will tell you that you miss the Admire Mains at your personal cost!

Read more about the
2012 Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale

For more information please visit
www.tba.co.za

THE SUN HAS RISEN

Japan Racing Association Leading Breeder and Sire
(Courtesy of JRA - Correct as at 14 May 2012)

“JAPAN HORSERACING STATISTICS”

Heavens knows, Japan and its economy have had some bumpy rides in recent years. Earthquakes, tsunamis, deflation, you name it, the Japanese have known it, yet they’re an amazing nation. Devastated in the wake of the Second World War, flattened by the tragedy of a nuclear proliferation, they must rank with the most tenacious people on earth. Just a week ago, after all their reverses, Toyota Motor Corporation announced record profits, and were once again elevated to the status of Number One automobile manufacturer in the world.

Yet they’re not the only Japanese entity that’s best in the world: look at the earnings logs of their top breeders and their leading stallions, and you begin to understand why Japanese racing thrives, and thrives better than anywhere else in the world. The Yoshida family’s dominance of Japanese racing’s affairs is immediately apparent: Northern Farm, the guys that sent us Admire Main (let me reword that, the guys who could afford to send us Admire Main), have earnings already approaching R300 million this season, while their brother farm, Shadai ranks second on R264 million. The family conglomerate Shiraoi, with a fraction of the runners, sits on R78 million, and ranks third on the log. In order to put all of this into perspective, Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Japan Farm ranks ninth on R30million. Imagine that: the year is only four-and-a-half months old, and a single breeder has already totted up close to R300 million in earnings! At the rate we pay them, that would amount to R18 million in premiums!

Now turn to the stallion log, where every one of the top ten stands at the Yoshida family’s Shadai Stallion Station. Nowhere else in the world, not even in Ireland where Coolmore stands alone, is the dominance so complete. Reassuringly, for South African breeders who understand the line and who’ve patronised Admire Main, seven of the top ten sires are sons of Sunday Silence.