Silence is Golden (for the West!)

By Jack Werk

We at Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc. track sire data from around the world, and it’s one of the edges we have in being able to anticipate developing trends. For example, earlier this year, in an April 23 post, I wrote: “It’s easy to get caught up in what’s going on here in the U.S., but these days, especially, it pays to follow global trends – and there’s something huge brewing in Europe that bears watching. One of the biggest sire-line developments of recent times is the growing influence of sons of Green Desert (by Danzig), highlighted recently by the Irish National Stud’s Invincible Spirit, who had three SWs this past week in Europe and Australia!”

Well, as you know by now, Green Desert sires have been on fire in Europe all year! Besides the mentioned Invincible Spirit, this group also includes Oasis Dream, who’s had an absolutely sensational year with 19 black type winners to date (17 of them first-time SWs), and the equally amazing Cape Cross – who we all know now as the sire of the great Sea the Stars! In fact, it was only a few weeks after that post that Sea the Stars “arrived” on the scene in the 2000 Guineas, and the rest, as they say, is now history!

I mention this only because I want to lead into another important development that’s taking place in the East – Japan!

SUNDAY SILENCE

This weekend there was an international Group 1 race – although there were no foreign runners in the race, only Japanese-breds – that featured the best 3-year-old filly in Japan, Buena Vista. She had won the Japanese 1000 Guineas and Oaks. The race was the G1 Shuka Sho at Kyoto Racecourse on Sunday at 2000 meters on turf (about 10f). In an amazing finish, the filly Red Desire held off Buena Vista by a nose, but Buena Vista was DQ’d to 3rd and Broad Street was brought up to 2nd from 3rd. Now, here’s the amazing part about this race: The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd were EACH sired by different sons of Sunday Silence – arguably the greatest stallion in Japanese racing history!

Red Desire is by Manhattan Café. Broad Street is by the deceased Agnes Tachyon. Buena Vista is by Special Week! (Click here for the pedigrees of the three.)

Now, take a look at the chart below, which WTC compiles and updates each week. It lists the leading sires in Japan by black type winners (3 or more) per International Cataloguing Standards. Now, this is borderline unbelievable. Eight of the 10 sires on this list are sons of Sunday Silence (Hail to Reason sire line). And, the two non-Sunday Silence stallions, Symboli Kris S. and Tanino Gimlet, are Hail to Reason-line stallions!

Sire of 2009 Black-Type Winners – Japan (thru 10/19/09)

SW
6 –Dance in the Dark (Sunday Silence)
6 –Manhattan Café (Sunday Silence)
5 –Agnes Tachyon (Sunday Silence)
5 –Stay Gold (Sunday Silence)
5 –Symboli Kris S. (Kris S.)
4–Admire Vega (Sunday Silence)
4 –Fuji Kiseki (Sunday Silence)
3 –Gold Allure (Sunday Silence)
3 –Special Week (Sunday Silence)
3 –Tanino Gimlet (Brian’s Time)

This, to me, is absolutely mind boggling for several reasons. First, there are already so many daughters of Sunday Silence entering the breeding shed in Japan that won’t be able to go to these stallions. And second, who are the daughters of these sons of Sunday Silence going to be bred to when they enter stud, fillies like Red Desire, Buena Vista, and Broad Street, to name three?

I believe that this natural concentration of Sunday Silence blood in Japan will create a situation for Japanese breeders to once again start shopping for stallions on the international marketplace, just as they did years ago when they searched for stallions that would cross with Japan’s then leading sire Northern Taste. They struck gold with Sunday Silence!

The time has come to begin the search for new breed-shaping stallions representing different sire lines, but with an emphasis on those that cross with Halo/Hail to Reason-line mares this time. And this explains why they’ve already purchased a major stallion from the US this year in Johannesburg! Not only is the Storm Cat line a favorable cross with Sunday Silence/Halo, but Johannesburg himself has a Werk Nick Rating of A+ with Halo-line mares. I don’t think this is a coincidence. (Note: Multiple G1 winner Tale of Ekati is by a son of Storm Cat out of a Sunday Silence mare)

Japanese demand for new outcross stallions should help our stagnant markets as well as stallion farms looking for cash infusions. It’s all part of the natural cycle of bloodstock markets, and I’m sure owners of legitimate stallions and stallion prospects in the West will soon find new opportunities to sell in the East – “Land of the Rising Sun!”

Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off