Caulfield on Epiphaneia

JAPAN CUP-G1, ¥481,460,000, Tokyo, 11-30, 3yo/up, 2400mT, 2:23.10, fm. 
1–EPIPHANEIA (JPN), 126, c, 4, by Symboli Kris S 
     1st Dam: Cesario (Jpn) (Ch. 3yo Filly-Jpn, G1SW-Jpn, GISW-US, $2,578,631), 
by Special Week (Jpn) 
     2nd Dam: Kirov Premiere (GB), by Sadler’s Wells 
     3rd Dam: Querida (Ire), by Habitat 
O-Carrot Farm; B-Northern Farm; T-Katsuhiko Sumii; 
J-Christophe Soumillon; ¥253,822,000. Lifetime 
Record: 12-6-2-1. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple 
Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. 
Click for the JRA chart and video. Click for the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. 
On the latest Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings, covering the period from Jan. 1 to Nov. 9, top place went to the Japanese star Just A Way. Not only that, but the 5-year-old topped the list by a margin of fully four pounds, even though his nearest pursuers included the Classic-winning European colts Australia, Kingman and The Grey Gatsby, winners between them of nine Group 1 races this year. 

So what should we make of Epiphaneia, who handed out a four-length drubbing to Just A Way in winning the G1 Japan Cup two days ago? My reaction is that it is perhaps time the handicappers took another look at the very high rating they awarded Just A Way following his impressive victory in the G1 Dubai Duty Free all the way back in March. He hasn’t come close to replicating that performance in three subsequent starts, but two of them were over a mile and a half and all his best form has been at up to a mile and a quarter. 

But it wasn’t only Just A Way that Epiphaneia made look ordinary at Tokyo. He was also chased home by Spielburg (winner of the G1 Tenno Sho earlier in November), Gentildonna (the Japan Cup winner of 2012 and 2013), Harp Star (who this year went close to adding the Japanese Oaks to her victory in the Japanese 1,000 Guineas), Ivanhowe (twice a Group 1 winner in Germany this year) and One And Only (Japanese Derby). 

Although Epiphaneia hadn’t been at his best in three earlier starts this year, he had acquitted himself very well in last year’s Japanese Triple Crown events. Following half-length defeats in the 2,000 Guineas and Derby, he was an impressive winner of the St Leger equivalent over 1 7/8 miles. Stamina clearly isn’t an issue for this grandson of Kris S., as he had shown from the start of his career. He had compiled his unbeaten record in three juvenile starts over a mile and an eighth and a mile and a quarter. 

I was interested by several aspects of Lucas Marquardt’s excellent Japanese report for the TDN. Apparently Epiphaneia was sweating prior to the race and trainer Katsuhiko Sumii commented that, “He’s a powerful horse. Sometimes too much so, and it’s hard to keep him under control.” 

It therefore sounds as though Epiphaneia is a typical descendant of his great-grandsire, the quirky Roberto. His pedigree combines the two branches of the Hail To Reason line which have made such an enormous contribution to Japanese breeding and racing, his broodmare sire Special Week being by Halo’s unforgettable son Sunday Silence. 
It will be fascinating to see whether Epiphaneia’s connections decide to target next year’s Arc, in a bid to end the highly frustrating run of Japanese near-misses in Longchamp’s championship race. So far he has raced only once outside Japan, when he appeared to race too keenly in Hong Kong, but he has won racing right handed and his impressive win in the Japanese St Leger came on soft ground. He therefore seems ideally equipped for a venture to France next fall. 
His sire Symboli Kris S was foaled in Kentucky, but never raced outside Japan. His second in the 2002 Japanese Derby proved to be a prelude to even better things later in his career, which featured two victories in the autumn Tenno Sho over a mile and a quarter and another two in the G1 Arima Kinen over 1 9/16 miles. These victories earned him consecutive titles of Japanese Horse of the Year. As a 4-year-old, he was allotted 124 pounds on the International Classifications, which placed him only three pounds below America’s top-ranked older horses, Candy Ride, Johar and Mineshaft. 

In compiling this impressive record, Symboli Kris S added his name to a lengthy list of high-class performers by Kris S. It was only after Kris S. had sired the likes of Prized, Stocks Up, Kissin Kris, Hollywood Wildcat, You And I and Brocco during his years in Florida that he finally made the move to Kentucky at the age of 16. 
Kris S. was an immediate success at his new base, Prestonwood Farm, siring a first Kentucky crop which featured the Grade I winners Arch, Dr Fong and Soaring Softly and he later came up with the Epsom Derby winner Kris Kin and the high-class Rock Hard Ten. When Action This Day won the 2003 GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, he conferred on his sire the considerable distinction of having sired five individual Breeders’ Cup winners. 

It would be nice to be able to say that Kris S. also shone as a sire of sires, but I am afraid that would be bending the truth. There have been a few disasters among his stallion sons and Arch is his only remaining son at a top Kentucky farm. However Symboli Kris S continues to fly the flag in Japan, where he currently holds fourth place on the leading sires’ list, having finished third in 2009, 2011 and 2013 and fourth in 2010 and 2012. That’s six consecutive years in the top four and he didn’t have his first runners until 2007. 

Epiphaneia’s dam Cesario also performed at the top level–and not just in Japan. Her only defeat in six starts came when she failed by only a head to catch Rhein Kraft in the Oka Sho (Japanese 1,000 Guineas). Having then won the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) over a mile and a half, Cesario earned an invitation to contest the GI American Oaks over a mile and a quarter on Hollywood Park’s turf course. She was highly impressive in defeating an international field by four lengths. Sadly her career was then ended by injury. 

Appropriately Cesario was sired by a winner of the Japan Cup, namely the 1999 winner Special Week who also sired the 2011 Japan Cup heroine Buena Vista. Special Week’s resume also featured a five-length victory in the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) in 1998 and successes in both the spring and autumn versions of the Tenno Sho the following year. This latter feat is noteworthy, as the spring version is over two miles, the other over a mile and a quarter. It is worth mentioning that the horses which filled third and fourth places behind Special Week in the Japan Cup were High-Rise, winner of the previous year’s Epsom Derby, and Montjeu, winner earlier in the year of the French and Irish Derbys and the Arc. Special Week clearly had great ability, coupled with toughness and versatility. 

There isn’t much Japanese blood in Epiphaneia’s pedigree, which combines those outstanding sires Roberto, Sunday Silence and Sadler’s Wells in the third generation. Sadler’s Wells appears courtesy of his daughter Kirov Premiere, who was purchased by Katsumi Yoshida for $280,000 at Keeneland’s 1994 November Sale. Kirov Premiere had won the GIII Rutgers H. over 1 3/8 miles on turf. 

Kirov Premiere was well bought, as she represented the excellent Sadler’s Wells/Habitat cross which also produced the Group 1 winners Barathea, Dance Design, Gossamer and King of Kings. 

She also represented a top-class European female line. Kirov Premiere’s dam Querida was a half-sister to Chief Singer, an outstanding performer who numbered the G1 July Cup and G1 Sussex S. among his wins, and her third dam was Pia. This very tough and versatile performer shone over sprint distances at two and at up to a mile and three-quarters at three, when she won the Oaks.