Death of dual Japanese Classic winner and promising sire Duramente at nine

The 2015 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas) and Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) winner Duramente has died due to acute colitis at the age of nine.

The Japan Racing Association's official website reported the news and said it had occurred on Tuesday.

After he was retired from racing, he took up stud duties at the Shadai Stallion Station in Abira, Hokkaido, and had been active this year

Eisuke Tokutake, Shadai Stallion Station secretariat, said: "He had been treated for about a week, and it was in the process of improving, but there were signs of enteritis from the previous day, and it has deteriorated sharply since then. We can't believe it because he has had a very good season."

Duramente, King Kamehameha's son out of Sunday Silence's Grade 1-winning mare Admire Groove, posted five wins and four runner-up efforts from nine career starts, his seconds including when behind Postponed in the 2016 Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic.

Duramente's career as a sire had been highly anticipated because he boasted the type of pedigree that the Shadai group had supported the growth of Japanese horseracing with.

The sires Northern Taste, Tony Bin, Sunday Silence and Kingmambo's son, Japanese Derby winner King Kamehameha, are all among his back pedigree.

The third dam Dyna Carle won the Japanese Oaks and his granddam Air Groove was the 1997 JRA Horse of the Year, winning the Group 1 Tenno Sho Autumn among other races, and dam Admire Groove was sold for 230 million yen (£1.52m/€1.77m) at the Select Sale and was a dual winner of the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup at Kyoto.

Duramente was the top ranked of the Japanese first-season sires in 2020, both in terms of numbers of winners and earnings, ahead of Maurice. One of that crop of two-year-olds from last year, Titleholder, progressed to win this year's Group 2 Yayoi Sho Deep Impact Kinen.

Noriyuki Hori, trainer of Duramente, said: "I was surprised at the sudden death, because I believed that he had overcome difficulties with his mental strength and would overcome this situation. I am in deep sorrow, so that I cannot convey what I really feel even if I spoke for a long time.

"I am sure that he was one of the best racehorses and will leave many excellent successors. I'm sorry that his future was cut off even though he was only nine years old. Thank you to all the fans for their warm support, and I pray for his soul."

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