Japanese champion Fuji Kiseki (Jpn) (Sunday Silence–Millracer, by Le Fabuleux {Fr}), a perfect four-for-four on the racetrack and a pensioned resident of Shadai Stallion Station, passed away in Japan from cervical stenosis, the Japanese Racing Association announced Monday. He was 23. Quick to prove the merits of his subsequent 12-time Japanese champion sire, the Watanabe Sakae-trained dark bay won his Niigata debut August of 1994 and quickly added Hanshin's Momiji S. in October of that year, racing in the colors of Takashi Saito. He landed the Asahi Hai Sansai S. (Jpn-G1) over 1600 meters at Nakayama (becoming his sire's first domestic top-level winner) en route to champion juvenile male honors in his native land, but started just once as a sophomore, taking the Hochi Hai Yayoi Sho (Jpn-G2) in March of 1995. A bowed tendon prior to the Japanese Triple Crown sent the first-crop son of Sunday Silence to the breeding shed, having earned $1,319,239.
The fifth foal from 1986 GI Beldame S. fourth Millracer and a half-brother to Japanese stakes winner Shinin' Racer (Jpn) (Northern Taste), Fuji Kiseki was bred by Shadai Farm and stood there from 1996-2010, also shuttling to Arrowfield Stud in Australia from 1998 to 2003. Among the leading sires in Japan in 2001, 2002, 2004 and 2007, Fuji Kiseki accounted for a total of four champions: Japanese 2010 sprinter/miler Kinshasa no Kiseki (Aus) and South African champion 3-year-old filly and G1 Dubai Sheema Classic winner Sun Classique (Aus), both from his tenure at Arrowfield, while Isla Bonita (Jpn), Japan's 2014 champion 3-year-old colt and Koiuta (Jpn), Japan's champion older mare in 2007, hailed from his Shadai crops. Fuji Kiseki has been represented by a total of 66 stakes winners including G1 Sprinters' S. heroine Straight Girl (Jpn) and the Dec. 26 G2 Hanshin Cup victor Rosa Gigantea (Jpn). His progeny have earned over $340 million to date.
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