Japan’s international investment to the fore after domination in Dubai
The headline act of the recent racing carnivals in the Middle East was indisputably Japan, and we should no longer be surprised.
Of the 14 races open to international participation spread across the feature race meetings in Saudi Arabia and Dubai, nine went to Japanese-trained runners.
At Riyadh they were dominant, before making an international-assembled cast look silly and by the time of the Riyadh Dirt Sprint (Gr 3, 1200m) they were leading them a merry dance.
But if the rest of the world had not learned from victories for Authority (Orfevre), Songline (Kizuna), Stay Foolish (Stay Gold) and Dancing Prince (Pas De Trois) in Saudi, they allowed the Yoshito Yahagi-trained Bathrat Leon (Kizuna) to go off a 66-1 winner in the opening Godolphin Mile (Gr 2, 1600m) in Dubai.
Stay Foolish then backed up in the Dubai Gold Cup (Gr 2, 3200m), and he was followed by victories for Crown Pride (Reach The Crown) in the UAE Derby (Gr 2, 1900m), Pantalassa (Lord Kanaloa) in a thrilling dead heat to the Dubai Turf (Gr 1, 1800m) and Shahryar (Deep Impact) in the Dubai Sheema Classic (Gr 1, 2400m).
Of their haul of nine winners, just two were sent off as race favourites to salute.
This latest sweep of dominance for the Japanese breed is an accumulation of successes on the international stage – Hong Kong will attest to that, and since 2001 when a triple header smash and grab for the Japanese at Sha Tin announced the eastern island as a jurisdiction to be reckoned with.
But it took until just last year for a Japanese-trained runner to win at the Breeders’ Cup (Marche Lorraine), America’s pinnacle of thoroughbred racing, while in Australia, where Japanese blood now has an indelible influence seeping into its bloodstock ranks, victories include in the 2006 Melbourne Cup for Delta Blues (Dance In The Dark) – a one-two finish with Pop Rock (Helissio) for trainer Katsuhiko Sumii – as well as Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) wins for Admire Rakti (Heart’s Cry) and Mer De Glace (Rulership) in 2019, which was followed by a Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) victory for Lys Gracieux (Heart’s Cry) a week later.
Deirdre’s (Harbinger) Nassau Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 2f) victory at Goodwood was just the second, and first for 19 years, at the elite-level in Britain. The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr 1, 2400m) in France, so often considered the holy grail for Japanese raiders, remains elusive.
But to understand this latest emergence to global prominence much is owed to the investment in Japanese bloodstock tracing back to the acquisition by Zenya Yoshida of Sunday Silence (Halo) in 1991 and then the investment of his sons, Teruya, Katsumi and Haruya, in support of his all-conquering sire-son Deep Impact from 2007.
“Before, Japanese horses were not good enough to compete with foreign horses but we invested huge amounts to buy broodmares and stallions,” said Teruya Yoshida on Saturday, whose silks were worn to victory by Crown Pride in the UAE Derby. “Since Sunday Silence – this horse [Crown Pride] traces into his line – things have changed. The trainers’ skills have also improved the last five, ten years, so that’s why this has happened.
“It’s more than we expected anyway. But it’s happening.”
In 2007, Katsumi purchased his first elite-level-winning mare – the Del Mar Oaks (Gr 1, 9f) winner Singhalese (Singspiel) for US$1.9 million at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale.
Singhalese, a British-bred daughter of Singspiel (In The Wings), produced four stakes winners in Japan, including Group 1 winner Sinhalate (Deep Impact). Yoshida purchased five mares at that sale, at a combined cost of US$4.575 million. Between them, they have produced four elite-level winners and a further seven stakes winners.
While in 2009 Yoshida returned to Kentucky to purchase the unraced Loves Only Me (Storm Cat) – dam of Grade 1 winners Loves Only You (Deep Impact) and Real Steel (Deep Impact), it was a year later he bought Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (Gr 1, 7f) winner Dubai Majesty (Essence Of Dubai) for US$1.1 million – dam to Saturday’s Sheema Classic winner Shahryar as well dual Grade 1 winner Al Ain (Deep Impact).
The international influence of Japanese-trained winners in Saudi Arabia and Dubai extends further, and relates to the accumulation of the very best mares from Europe and America.
Saudi Arabia’s Turf Sprint (Gr 3m 7f) winner Songline, who wore the silks of Katsumi’s Northern Farm – traces back to astute purchases that have shaped the Japanese breeding landscape.
A son of Kizuna, who is by Deep Impact, Songline’s third dam is the imported British Soninke (Machiavellian), herself a daughter of Irish 1,000 Guineas (Gr 1, 1m) winner Sonic Lady (Nureyev) and a producer of three stakes winners, including Reizend (Special Week), the dam of Deirdre.
And then there’s the Northern Farm-bred Authority, whose American Oaks (Gr 1, 10f) winning second dam Cesario (Special Week) is borne from the British-bred mare Kirov Premiere (Sadler’s Wells), while she is also the dam of Grade 1 winners Epiphaneia (Symboli Kris S), Leontes (King Kamehameha) and Saturnalia (Lord Kanoloa).
Stay Foolish’s dam, Kauai Lane (King Kamehameha), a stakes winner in Japan, was bred in Britain by Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Watership Down Stud. They boarded her dam, the 1988 Irish Oaks (Gr 1, 1m 4f) third Silver Lane, with Kauai Lane to the Yoshidas for Y35,000,000 at the JRHA Foal Sale in 2006.
International investment off the track has sowed the seeds of the international success on it, and the Japanese might not be done there.
Stay Foolish has been touted for a trip to Australia for the Melbourne Cup and the Gold Cup (Gr 1, 2m 4f) at Royal Ascot in June, while the world’s biggest stages could beckon for Shahryar.
“He’s a Japanese Derby winner and a Deep Impact colt, so we would like to go for big international races,” Shahryar’s trainer Hideaki Fujiwara said. “There’s the Breeders’ Cup, the Arc and the Japan Cup, so maybe one or two of those.”