ENGLISH TEXTS
BREED
� PAGE 18
JAPANESE, BREEDING
By Jocelyn de Moubray
Croix du Nord, Alohi Alii and Byzantine Dream, exemple of excellence.
Whatever happens on October 5th Japan’ s contenders for the Prix de L’ Arc de Triomphe have made a mark in France. Croix du Nord, Alohi Alii and Byzantine Dream not only won their preparatory races but in doing so they put up three of the best performances of the year in France. Alohi Alii won the Prix Guillaume d’ Ornano unchallenged by 3 ½ lengths, coming off a four-month break. Those trailing in his wake included Cualificar, the Jockey-Club runner up who is rated among the best five three-year-olds trained in France. Byzantine Dream didn’ t win quite as easily but still had no trouble in beating Sosie, a multiple Group 1 winner, by ½ length in the Prix Foy on his first start for four months. The Japanese Derby winner Croix du Nord had to fight to win the Prix du Prince d’ Orange by a short head, but he was giving weight to all of his rivals, he had not run for three months and managed to overcome both the ground, recorded as 3.9 or very soft, and a slowly run race. Croix du Nord hit a peak speed of
67.5 km / ph and ran the final 400 metres 20 % faster than his race average. So, despite having to race on ground far softer than anything he had previously encountered and in a style of race equally unfamiliar, Croix du Nord still managed to beat France’ s highest rated three-yearold Daryz, while giving his rival a kilo. The three have pedigrees which are typical of the best Japanese bred horses. Croix Du Nord is a son of leading sire Kitasan Black who ran twenty times from three to five winning the Japan Cup as well as two Tenno Sho’ s, a Group 1 run over 3200 metres. Croix du Nord’ s dam Rising Cross ran thirty-two times in England, France and the USA, finishing second in the Oaks and achieving her highest rating when fifth in the Prix Royal Oak over 3100 metres. Croix du Nord’ s fourth dam Cley was a half-sister to the Derby winners Blakeney and Morston. Byzantine Dream is a son of Epiphaneia who ran fourteen times from two to five winning both the St Leger over 3000 metres and the Japan Cup, while his dam ran twenty-one times from two to six winning over 2600 metres. Byzantine Dream’ s fourth dam Rustic Belle was a daughter of Mr Prospector who won a maiden at three at Saint Cloud for Sheikh Mohammed and Andre Fabre. Finally, Alohi Alii is from the fifth and last crop of outstanding sire Duramente, who won the 2.000 Guineas and Derby. His dam Espoir ran twelve times from two to four and was Group and stakes placed at up to 2200 metres. His fifth dam is Sun Princess who won the Oaks and the St Leger and was second to All Along in the Arc de Triomphe in 1983. In Japan, the ability to race over several seasons and over distances up to 3200 metres are characteristics more or less required of stallion prospects, the only sprinter among the current leading sires is Lord Kanaloa who also won a Group 1 over 1600. Japanese breeders are also happy to use a horse like Kitasan Black, even though at 1.72 metres he is far taller than the average. The races which count the most for stallions are the old established ones, the Classics, and the Japan Cup, but then system of Group races in Japan is different from the European one as there has been no ridiculous expansion. In Japan Group races make up 0.8 % of the total and Group 1 races 0.15 %, to achieve the same figures in France, Britain and Ireland it would be necessary to cut 244 Group races including 59 Group 1’ s leaving a total of one hundred Group races and nineteen Group 1’ s in the three countries combined, all of which would of course, as is the case in Japan, attract large competitive fields. Many of the best Japanese bred horses are descendants of mares import over the last forty years, more than not by either Teruya or Katsumi Yoshida of Shadai and Northern Farm, both part of the Shadai Group.
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