Sunday Silence

HOKKAIDO, Japan--Expectation rather than trepidation. Pre-JRHA Select Sale nerves are different to the ones we go through back in Europe, that's for sure.  A quick scan through the over 500-strong catalogue of foals and yearlings will remind you just how small the world is with many familiar names cropping up on any given page.  However, a morning spent in the company of JRHA chairman and Shadai Farm boss Teruya Yoshida followed by a trip to Northern Farm, which will consign a massive 180 lots at the sale, pegs into light...

"The Breeders' Cup is always very special and to see a young sire like Justify get two Grade I-winning juveniles was fantastic but for me it had to be Auguste Rodin winning the Breeders' Cup Turf. He was in a hopeless position along the rail and had to be exceptional to get up for the victory. He's a colt that could stand anywhere in the world and physically he's quite similar to his grandsire Sunday Silence. It would be great to see him back at the Breeders' Cup this year...

He's 61, hasn't ridden since 2016 and recently had a knee replaced. For most, this would be the time to enjoy retirement and look back on a career that carried him to the heights of his profession. But Pat Valenzuela doesn't see it that way. He's been working horses at Del Mar and Santa Anita, says he feels good and is seriously contemplating making a comeback. "I'm a little heavy now, so I don't know if I'll be able to do the weight," he said. "But I'm sure going to...

ARCADIA, USA -- In case you're wondering, Aidan O'Brien had scrambled eggs for breakfast. That was just after he had watched his squad of ten take a stronger turn around Santa Anita's dirt track and before he had a chance to consider a second course at the lavish buffet by politely stepping outside to answer questions from a few annoying hacks, this one included. Ryan Moore has been aboard Friday's GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint contender Cherry Blossom (Ire) (No Nay Never) these last two mornings. "Is that a...

HOKKAIDO, Japan--In the bloodstock world, the battle for succession does not come down to unseemly squabbles in the boardroom. What matters first is what happens on the track, and even when all goes right there, success in the breeding shed is far from guaranteed. Smallish in stature but a Goliath in influence and reputation, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Northern Dancer gave the European breeding industry many stars including, crucially, Sadler's Wells, whose line holds strong predominantly through Galileo (Ire) and his heir apparent, Frankel (GB). Northern Dancer also...

Wild Again's inaugural Classic thriller was among the top 20 moments as Breeders' Cup Limited released the top vote-getters from its 40th running campaign fan poll, an opportunity for fans to choose their favorites from 40 pre-selected moments in Breeders' Cup history. The 40th running campaign--a multi-month celebration that will culminate in the Breeders' Cup World Championships Nov. 3-4 at Santa Anita Park--kicked off June 6 with the poll. Fans chose their top three moments from the 40 presented, spanning from the first running at Hollywood Park to last year's...

How to ride your way into the Hall of Fame? Impossible question. Nobody could reduce such a journey, the decades of endeavor and experience, to a single explanation, a single concept. In the case of Chris McCarron, however, you can actually reduce the answer to a single word, simply by asking a different question. That question is: why did you make seven trips to Washington to lobby for the HISA bill? And the single word, answering both questions? Cooperation. That's what he always sought from his mounts; and that's also...

One way or another, plenty of people in our industry seem to think that it has reached a crossroads. But if a shutdown at the home of the Kentucky Derby makes us feel as though we can't get a break in the traffic, maybe we're just looking the wrong way. Because there's a chance that the real game-changing moment was happening 4,000 miles away, where the 244th running of the original Derby was last Saturday won by a horse excitingly equipped to open a new chapter in the story of...

In this continuing series, we examine the past winners of significant filly/mare races by the lasting influence they've had on the breed. Up today is Santa Anita's GI Gamely S., the first Grade I of the year for fillies and mares on the turf out west. Although the great Hall of Famer Gamely split her time between coasts, it was California that got to name what has become a major race after her. The daughter of Bold Ruler won some of the sport's biggest contests for fillies and mares, was...

It felt like a literal solstice, a moment marking our transition to a different phase in the alignment of the Thoroughbred firmament. Because the meteoric performance of Equinox (Jpn) in Dubai on Saturday night, as highlight of another momentous evening for Japan, left rival breeders everywhere speechless. Perhaps, they wondered next morning, this was what was meant by a Sunday silence. There are so many lessons in Japan's accession as a dominant influence on the 21st Century Thoroughbred, a trend that even the most obtuse and parochial of us cannot...

A World Cup meeting needs world-class runners plus a global spread of results. This much and more was delivered by the 27th Dubai World Cup and supporting races at Meydan on Saturday. With 26 runners on the night, it was always a given that Japan would feature prominently and, in an exhibition of excellence that we are now becoming accustomed to, they led all comers, just as they had in Riyadh last month. The performance of Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) alone was pretty dramatic, coming from tailed off to...

The ever-growing depth and caliber of the Japanese breeding and racing industry was on full display at last year's Breeders' Cup World Championships when Japan captured its first two Breeders' Cup victories in a span of just a few hours. One year before future champions Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and Marche Lorraine (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) were both foaled, WinStar Farm's Elliott Walden and SF Bloodstock's Tom Ryan attended the 2015 Japan Racing Horse Association's yearling and weanling sale. They came home with a group that included Yoshida...