Another Winner in Japan for Oscar Performance

Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy) was an outstanding turf horse, winning four Grade I's on the grass. And he's been a quality stallion, with his progeny headlined by the likes of Grade I winner Trikari and four other graded winners.

Like most horses labeled `turf sires,' Oscar Performance, who stands at Mill Ridge Farm, was always going to be up against it in a country where breeders and buyers aren't necessarily looking for grass horses. European buyers don't need to buy horses by American turf stallions when they have so many top sires of their own.

Oscar Performance has done well enough that his stud fee has been raised to $45,000, but it was always going to take something special to happen for him to get into the upper tier of the stallion ranks.

Maybe that is going to happen after all. When Erika Endive won a Dec. 8 maiden race at Kyoto in Japan, she became the fourth Oscar Performance to win over there and kept her stallion's record perfect. Only four Oscar Performances have run in Japan and all four have won.

Very excited with this debut win for daughter of OSCAR PERFORMANCE named ERIKA ENDIVE..

The dam GOING DAY is a half sister to COVFEFE and she sold for $235k in Saratoga to agent NAOHIRO HOSADA..

MILL RIDGE/Nicoma https://t.co/LcdapSKXD7

— Headley Bell (@headleybell) December 8, 2024

“To have Oscar Performances at 4-for-4 in a country that has some of the best turf racing in the world is beyond any sort of dream,” said Mill Ridge's general manager Price Bell.

That doesn't mean that Japanese buyers are going to converge in large number at 2025 sales to buy sons or daughters of Oscar Performance, but it probably means they will at least take a second look at the catalogue page when coming across an Oscar Performance. That can only help.

“The game has become so international,” Bell said. “Especially in the stallion game that we're trying to play we need as many markets as possible ready to buy up these horses. The Japanese have had tremendous success with American horses. If Oscar Performance can get known there and prosper there our commercial breeders will have a significant opportunity. We need to have as many markets and outlets as possible for them.”

The other winners by Oscar Performance in in Japan are Your Destiny, a winner of five races, Oscar Brave, who also broke his maiden at first asking at Kyoto around this time last year, and Meiner Vision (Jpn), a two-time winner from 15 starts.

It's likely that Erika Endive will be the best of the bunch. Bell's father Headley bought her dam, Going Day (Daylami (Ire}) in 2004 for client George Strawbridge. Initially, she didn't have a lot of success as a broodmare and Strawbridge was ready to move on. He placed her in the 2014 Keeneland November sale and Headley Bell bought her for himself for $85,000.

“Dad knew the mare, loved her as a foal and always loved the family,” Bell said. “When she became available, he wanted to take a shot. The family just blossomed but until Erika Endive came along you can't say that Going Day was a very good investment.”

The Bell family, Headley, Price and Price's mother Nancy, bred the horse and sold her at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale for $235,000 . The buyer was George T. Racing. The filly is now owned by Masashiro Miki.

“We had another filly ready to go to Saratoga but she needed a little bit more time,” Bell said. “At the last minute we switched that filly with this filly and took her to Saratoga. We hoped to get $70,000 or $80,000 for her. People might ask why would you take a horse to Saratoga and just get $70,000 or $80,000?”

They got quite a bit more, but the bigger surprise was that she was bought by Japanese interests.

“The Japanese are huge supporters of Keeneland and huge supporters of OBS, but hadn't really participated in the Saratoga sale,” Bell said. “Fasig-Tipton did a really big push to get a lot of Japanese to come. At this sale there were Japanese everywhere. Yet, this was the only horse they bought. It seems they like to experience something first and then participate more in follow-up years. I believe that will be the case.”

None of which means that the Mill Ridge team is content with Oscar Performance being labeled a turf sire. Red Carpet Ready (Oscar Performance) won three graded stakes on the dirt. Tumbarumba (Oscar Performance) was fourth in the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and won the GIII Fred Hooper S. this year on the dirt for Wathnan Racing.

“I thought Tumbarumba's run in the Dirt Mile was out of sight,” Bell said. “He was fourth in the Dirt Mile and not by a lot. He ran really well from an outside draw. He was bought by Wathnan Racing to win big races and I thought he justified that acquisition. If he goes on to win a big race that could be really interesting.”

They'd like nothing more than for an Oscar Performance to win a Grade I race on the dirt. In the meantime, it's encouraging to see his horses do well on the turf. And the success in Japan has certainly raised his profile internationally.

“The American turf sire is still an underdog,” Bell said. “It's not like Oscar Performance monopolizes the turf sire rankings because U.S. buyers have the opportunity to go buy European-sired horses and win turf races over here. But to have Oscar Performance punching in at the global turf sire level, that's a whole new opportunity and a new market for commercial breeders breeding to Oscar Performance. To be 4-for-4 in Japan is incredible.”