Shadai Stallion Station

Aidan O'Brien trainee Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}--Fluff {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}) notched a landmark score for his sire (by Sunday Silence) when snagging an Aug. 20 maiden over seven furlongs at the Curragh and maintained his perfect record with a battling success in a controversial renewal of Friday's one-mile G3 Prix Thomas Bryon Jockey Club du Turquie at Saint-Cloud. The eventual winner occupied a slot behind the leaders in third and was safely clear of trouble to his outer when British challenger Captain Wierzba (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire})...

2nd-Curragh, €16,500, Mdn, 8-20, 2yo, 7fT, 1:24.70, gd. CONTINUOUS (JPN) (c, 2, Heart's Cry {Jpn}--Fluff {Ire}, by Galileo {Ire}) broke well and led after the initial strides of this first go. Rowed along with three furlongs remaining, the 10-3 pick came under sterner urging inside the final quarter mile and was driven out in the closing stages to hold King Of Scotia (Ire) (Kessaar {Ire}) by an ultimately snug 1 1/2 lengths, becoming the first winner in Ireland for his sire (by Sunday Silence). "Ryan [Moore] was very happy with...

The death of Deep Impact (Jpn) in July 2019 may have robbed Japan, and the wider breeding industry, of a phenomenally successful stallion but his dominance persists for now, with a tenth Japanese sires' championship going his way in 2021.  The most prolific son of Sunday Silence, who was just 17 when he died a few months after covering a final book of 24 mares, has held the title consecutively since 2012, the year in which his eldest runners were 4-year-olds. He had hit the ground running as the champion...

Japanese Triple Crown hero Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}-Rhodochrosite, by Unbridled's Song) will stand for ¥12,000,000 (£79,790/€93,636/$106,518) at Shadai Stallion Station in 2022. The price is equal to another son of Deep Impact at the Hokkaido nursery, Kizuna (Jpn), who already has a Group 1 winner to his name among his 16 black-type winners with his eldest foals just four. The North Hills-bred 4-year-old was named the 2019  Champion 2-Year-Old Colt and 2020 Champion 3-Year-Old Colt in his native land with seven straight victories before running second to Japanese Horse...

Generational leader and 2020 Japanese Triple Crown winner Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) was bet down to heavy favouritism for his swansong in Sunday's G1 Japan Cup despite having met with defeat in his last three outings, and he justified the betting public's faith with a straightforward score on his way to the stallion barn at Shadai Stallion Station. After losing his unbeaten record in this race last year when he found only the champion filly Almond Eye (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) too tough, Contrail was third over yielding ground...

Following more Classic success, this time with his son Efforia (Jpn) in 2021, Epiphaneia (Jpn) (Symboli Kris S)'s fee has increased to ¥18,000,000 (£117,174/€139,172/$156,021), tops of the Shadai Stallion Station 2022 roster. The 11-year-old also celebrated group winners Aristoteles (Jpn) and Circle of Life (Jpn). Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}), the sire of Japanese Horse of the Year Almond Eye (Jpn), remains at ¥15,000,000. Kizuna (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn})'s fee has been raised to ¥12,000,000 on the back of 11 2021 black-type winners including G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup...

Last year's Japanese Triple Crown winner and dual champion Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}--Rhodochrosite, by Unbridled's Song) will retire to Shadai Stallion Station in Japan after making his final start in the G1 Japan Cup on Nov. 28. The news was first reported by BloodHorse. A fee for the 4-year-old North Hills Co., Ltd-bred will be announced later. The Shinji Maeda colourbearer, who is trained by Yoshito Yahagi, was named the Japanese Champion 2-Year-Old Colt of 2019 on the back of a flawless campaign that culminated in a 1 1/2-length...

Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}--Maria Lee {Ire}, by Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}), the top-rated 3-year-old miler of 2021, has been retired from racing and will stand at Shadai Stallion Station in Japan from next year. Winner of the G1 2000 Guineas and G1 St James's Palace S., the colt has provided his master trainer Jim Bolger with perhaps the pinnacle of his parallel career as a breeder, for he not only bred, owned and trained Poetic Flare's sire and fellow Classic winner Dawn Approach, but he also trained his...

Duramente (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}--Admire Groove {Jpn}, by Sunday Silence), Japan's champion 3-year-old colt of 2015 and the country's leading first-crop sire in 2020, passed away Tuesday after being struck by a case of acute colitis. He was just nine years old. Duramente, whose dam was Japan's champion older mare of 2004 and whose granddam Air Groove (Jpn) (Tony Bin {Ire}) took home Horse of the Year honours in 1997, never finished outside the top two in nine career starts, winning five of those, including the 2015 G1 Satsuki Sho...

Japanese champion and successful sire Heart's Cry (Jpn) (Sunday Silence--Irish Dance {Jpn}, by Tony Bin {Ire}) has been pensioned from stallion duty, according to multiple reports. The Shadai Farm-bred bay is 20 and stood for a private fee this year. A winner of a 2000-metre maiden at first asking as a 3-year-old, the Kojiro Hashiguchi trainee had won a pair of listed stakes from 10 outings by the end of 2004 and he was also second in the then-listed Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) and third in two more black-type races...

Danon Smash (Jpn) finally broke through at the highest level in Japan with a neck defeat of boom mare Resistencia (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) in Chukyo's G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen on Sunday.  The Danox Inc. colourbearer followed in his sire's hoofprints, who captured the 1200-metre grass feature in 2013. Sent off at 5-1, the Takayuki Yasuda trainee assumed position off the fence near the back of the field as the 2020 Takamatsunomiya Kinen winner Mozu Superflare (Speightstown) rocketed straight to the front. That rival remained glued to the fence and set...

Japanese Horse of the Year Jungle Pocket (Jpn) (Tony Bin {Ire}-Dance Charmer, by Nureyev) passed away at Breeders' Stallion Station in Japan, Tokyo-Sports reported on Tuesday. The grandson of GII Del Mar Debutante S. heroine Skillful Joy (Nodouble) was 23. Bred by Northern Farm and campaigned by Katsumi Yoshida, the May foal won two of three starts at two including the Sapporo Sansai S. in September of 2000 before a second-place finish in the Radio Tampa Hai Sansai S. Back in the winner's circle in the Kyodo News Service Hai,...