Rulership

Last year's G1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St Leger) runner-up Redentor made the breakthrough at the top level with a hard-fought victory in Sunday's Tenno Sho (Spring) at Kyoto, producing a gutsy performance to justify favouritism in the hands of Damian Lane. Trained by Tetsuya Kimura, of Equinox fame, Redentor raced in a share of sixth position as the 15 runners went by the winning post for the first time in this 3,200-metre contest, with longshot Jean Kazuma taking the field along at just a modest gallop. Angled to the outside...

To a degree, when it comes to the Japanese sires' championship of 2022, one could resort to that old saying 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'. It holds good for now, as in the last three years the names filling the top three spots in the list have remained the same, in an unchanged order: Deep Impact (Jpn), Lord Kanaloa (Jpn), and Heart's Cry (Jpn). But all things change eventually and, as we know, two of those stallions are no longer active, with Deep Impact gaining...

The death of Deep Impact (Jpn) in July 2019 may have robbed Japan, and the wider breeding industry, of a phenomenally successful stallion but his dominance persists for now, with a tenth Japanese sires' championship going his way in 2021.  The most prolific son of Sunday Silence, who was just 17 when he died a few months after covering a final book of 24 mares, has held the title consecutively since 2012, the year in which his eldest runners were 4-year-olds. He had hit the ground running as the champion...

Five months after his death at the age of 17, Deep Impact (Jpn) lodged his ninth consecutive sires' championship in Japan in 2019, with his 244 winners contributing to progeny earnings of ¥7,773,484,000 (£54.5m/€64.3m). It will be no surprise to see his name in the top spot for a number of years to come, closing in on the record of his sire Sunday Silence, who was champion sire in Japan 14 times, from 1995 to 2008. Deep Impact's similar dominance is all the more profound considering that his position in...