Arrowfield Stud Delighted with Connection to Japanese Gr1 1600m Trifecta Result

05 Jun 19

There is no longer any surprise, or any doubt about Japan's pre-eminence in global thoroughbred breeding and racing and Arrowfield Stud's connections with the first three horses home in Sunday's Tokyo Yasuda Kinen 1600m Gr1 are cause for celebration.

INDY CHAMP centre wins Gr1

It's not long ago that any inclusion of news about an Australian stud in a story about a Japanese Group 1 trifecta would have been considered as unlikely as the Japanese rugby team beating the Springboks – (which by the way, they did at the 2015 Rugby World Cup!).

The Gr1 Yasuda Kinen, was first run in 1951 and was elevated to international Group 1 status in 1993.

It’s a fixture on the list of the world's top-rated Group 1 races and Arrowfield Stud knowing the importance of both the race and the Japanese bloodstock industry along with the quality of their breed shaping racehorses, stands two distinguished past winners.

Real Impact

Real Impact became the first 3YO to win the race in 2011 and

Maurice

Japanese Horse of the Year Maurice won the race in 2015.

This year's contest generated more-than-usual excitement and attracted a 74,000-strong crowd keen to see 2018 Horse of the Year Almond Eye (herself by 2013 Yasuda Kinen winner Lord Kanaloa) take on a high quality field headed by Danon Premium (Deep Impact), Aerolithe (Kurofune), Indy Champ (Stay Gold) and Stelvio (by Lord Kanaloa).

Almond Eye

Lord Kanaloa

The race certainly lived up to the hype.

Japanese racing fans were in shocked silence when their champion Almond Eye got flattened after the jump, because Logi Cry sharply moved sideways from a wide gate. Whilst that earned his champion jockey Yutake Take a suspension, it denied the big crowd what they had come to see, which was the widely expected sixth consecutive Group 1 victory for Almond Eye.

In this event, they set unbelievably quick sectionals. , Aerolithe (5YO mare) established a strong pace in front and then stuck on bravely to finish in second place in a new race record time of 1:30.9, a time she created as she battled a thrilling finish with winner Indy Champ, (who only caught her in the shadow of the post) and third-placed went to the absolutely amazing Almond Eye, who sprinted her last 600 metres in 32.4 and missed victory by a neck and a nose.

The result is a notable triumph for Katsumi Yoshida’s Japanese juggernaut Northern Racing and the Yoshida-managed Syndicates Sunday Racing (Aerolithe) & Silk Racing (Indy Champ & Almond Eye) which bred all three placegetters.

Fifth-placed Sungrazer was the closest of Deep Impact's runners in the race, due in part to the early scrimmage, however Deep Impact, the 7-time Champion Sire is once again way out in front in Japan's General Sires' Premiership, with prizemoney of almost $A50 million – more than double the earnings of his nearest challenger Stay Gold.

As for the Arrowfield Stud’s connections with this race:

Winner Indy Champ, her Dam Will Power is by King Kamehemeha (Sire of Lord Kanaloa).

Indy Champ is a half-sister to Deep Impact's dual Group 1-winning son Real Impact, whose first Arrowfield Stud conceived youngsters are current crop yearlings.

Runner-up Aerolithe's dam Asterix (by Neo Universe) is a half-sister to the dam of dual Group 1 winner and Arrowfield Stud sire Mikki Isle whose first Australian progeny sell as yearlings next year.

Asterix herself has had four foals in Australia for Arrowfield Stud's joint venture with Japanese powerhouse Northern Farm: city-class, Winning 3YO filly Achondrite (by Lord Kanaloa), stakes-placed 2YO filly Akari (by Snitzel), a Redoute's Choice yearling colt bought by Katsumi Yoshida for $400,000 at Inglis Easter and a current weanling filly by Snitzel.

The astute Arrowfield Stud Team know what it takes to breed champions and the fact that John Messara and his team at Arrowfield have invested heavily into the Japanese market in recent years is ready to pay big dividends in the future years.

We congratulate Arrowfield Stud on the foresight and convictions to back their judgement and introduce to Australia world class bloodlines not previously available to our participants.

Matched by the announcement from Racing NSW of the massive injection of prizemoney making Sydney the new pinnacle of Australian racing in the Spring, the timing of Arrowfield with their relationships with the Japanese breeding industry is ideal.