Superb Soul Stirring could run in Europe in 2018, says Yoshida

Teruya Yoshida’s Soul Stirring, the most brilliant of Frankel’s offspring to date and winner of the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) on her most recent start, is being aimed at the Tenno Sho against older males in October before a potential European campaign in 2018.

“She won the Oaks so easily, so it's worth trying. These days, good fillies can defeat colts anywhere in the world,” Yoshida said on Saturday while at his Shadai Farm on the island of Hokkaido, where Soul Stirring’s dam, US champion and French Classic winner Stacelita, has a Deep Impact filly at her side.

The Tenno Sho provides a significant weight allowance for three-year-old fillies, who would carry only 54kg compared to 58kg for older males. The ten-furlong race will be run on October 29 at Tokyo racecourse with a purse of approximately $2.83 million.

Yoshida said Soul Stirring has proven she can handle distances between ten and 12 furlongs “without any problems,” and thus he is also thinking about an agenda that could include the 2018 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

With a versatile running style, Soul Stirring “can win from in front and she never gets tired,” Yoshida said.

Japan’s champion juvenile filly of 2016, Soul Stirring has won five of her six starts with her only loss coming in the Oka Sho (Japanese 1,000 Guineas) on soft ground. She subsequently thrashed Oka Sho winner Reine Minoru, who finished 13th in the Yushun Himba.

Soul Stirring is based at Yoshida’s private Yamamoto Training Centre on the main island of Honshu before returning to trainer Kazuo Fujisawa for her Tenno Sho preparation.

Meanwhile, Stacelita has a yearling filly by Deep Impact in addition to the filly foal, who is a strapping bay with three white socks and a blaze born on January 28. Yoshida indicated that the foal may eventually be placed in the Shadai Race Horse club that campaigns Soul Stirring.

An 11-year-old daughter of Monsun who won six races at the elite level including four in France topped by the Prix de Diane and two in the United States, Stacelita is back in foal to Deep Impact.

Yoshida purchased Stacelita privately from former owner Martin Schwartz at the conclusion of her racing career.

In addition to Soul Stirring, Yoshida owns several other horses by Frankel, including the juvenile colt Solid Dream, who is out of 2011 Cartier champion and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Danedream.

Solid Dream, who was foaled in Britain, is in training in Japan for his debut, Yoshida said.

A bowed tendon ended racing hopes for Nothing But Dreams, the three-year-old Frankel filly out of Danedream, and she will join Yoshida’s massive band of more than 600 broodmares, he said.

Danedream produced another Frankel filly on March 12 and is back in foal to the Juddmonte star, as is another Yoshida-owned mare, Grade 1 winner Minorette, by Smart Strike.