Japan Cup Winner's Australian Connections

3 minute read

Last Sunday’s Japan Cup winner Cheval Grand has a number Australian pedigree connections.

Ridden by champion Australian jockey Hugh Bowman, Cheval Grand is by Heart’s Cry, a son of Sunday Silence and Irish Dance, a mare by the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner and leading Japanese sire Tony Bin.

Tony Bin was by Kampala, a sire who spent five seasons stranding in NSW before he moved to Japan.

Heart’s Cry won three Listed Races in Japan and the G1 Sheema Classic in Dubai. He also finished second in the G1 Japan Cup and third in the G1 King George V1 & Queen Elizabeth in England.

At stud since 2007, he has provided 520 winners of 1573 races and over $200 million.

He has sired five G1 winners among his 29 stakes winners including Admire Rakti, the Japanese owned and trained winner of the 2014 Caulfield Cup who went amiss in the Melbourne Cup and died shortly after the race.

Third in the 2016 Japan Cup, Cheval Grand is a three-quarter brother to the G1-winning fillies Verxina and Vivlos.

Deep Impact, their sire, is one of Sunday Silence’s greatest sons and is set to play a big role in Australia in the future through is sire sons Mikki Isle and Real Impact in use at Arrowfield Stud.

Cheval Grand’s dam Halwa Sweet was got in Japan by Machiavellian from Halwa Song, a Nureyev mare out of Morn Of Song, a half-sister by Blushing Groom to Singspiel (In The Wings).

Singspiel won the Japan Cup, Dubai World Cup, Coronation Cup at Royal Ascot and the Canadian International.

He covered over 100 mares when he spent the 2001 season at stud in Australia, leaving the unraced Accessories who has produced four Group winners including the G1 winners and dual hemisphere sires Helmet and Epaulette.

Each of the three placegetters in this year’s Japan Cup - Cheval Grand, Rey de Oro and Kitasan Black - have blood ties.

Rey de Oro is a 3YO colt by King Kamehameha, a Kingmambo G1 winner out of La Dorada, a Tokyo winner from Lady Blond.

She is a Seeking The Gold half-sister to Deep Impact and his Listed winning brother Black Tide, sire of Kitasan Black.

Kitasan Black has been one of the best Japanese performers of recent times, being Japan’s Horse of the Year for 2016. He has won 11 of his 19 starts including six victories in G1 races including the 2016 Japan Cup.

Besides Rey de Oro, King Kamehameha’s offspring include Lord Kanaloa, the 2013 Japanese Horse of the Year.

The winner of 13 of his 19 starts including six G1 successes, Lord Kanaloa is Japan’s leading first season sire this year and has three yearlings in the Arrowfield Stud draft for the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale in January.