Yoshida offers US breeders shot at redemption after snubbing Sunday Silence

Three decades ago American breeders snubbed their 1989 Horse of the Year as not worthy of support at stud, with their chilling lack of interest the primary factor that spurred his sale abroad.

During the forthcoming breeding season they will have a chance to make up for what, in hindsight, appears to have been an egregious error in judgement as the first elite American-raced scion of the now legendary male line established by Sunday Silence in Japan will begin stud duty at WinStar Farm.

This article first appeared in the Racing Post's guide to the new US sires of 2020. To read it, click here

A Grade 1 winner on dirt and turf, Yoshida offers his exceptional versatility as well as dashes of the exotic through his sire, Sunday Silence’s Japanese champion Heart’s Cry, and the familiar through his dam, American Grade 1 winner Hilda’s Passion, a finalist for the 2011 Eclipse Award as best female sprinter.

In the weeks after his arrival at WinStar in early November, Yoshida impressed admirers with his physical attractiveness in addition to his multi-dimensional race record. Capitalising on the storybook angle of his potential, WinStar promoted the sleek bay on social media as #theReturnofSundaySilence.

Yet WinStar officials found that, even all these years later, they still have work to do in lobbying for this male line. Their main task at present revolves around tutoring the strengths of Yoshida’s sire Heart’s Cry, a top stallion in Japan whose offspring have performed with distinction internationally but who is not familiar to many Americans.

“That’s probably the one part of Yoshida’s profile that I think we have to educate people on,” observes Sean Tugel, WinStar director of bloodstock services and assistant racing manager. “He’s the return of the Sunday Silence line, but what people also have to realise is that Heart’s Cry is a leading sire. He’s one of the premier sires in not only Japan but the world.

“Heart’s Cry sired the winner of the Cox Plate in 2019 [the mare Lys Gracieux], and more recently he had the winner of the Japan Cup [Suave Richard]. People may not know exactly who Heart’s Cry is, and it’s our job to tell them, but he’s a top sire and you’re getting a chance to breed to a son of a premier horse. And Hilda’s Passion, Yoshida’s dam, was a Grade 1 winner and a track record-setter, so there’s very little not to like about this horse.

“Heart’s Cry already has a son, Just A Way, who is the leading second-crop sire in Japan [and worldwide, by progeny earnings]. So Yoshida has all the ingredients to be a substantial sire,” he adds, before saluting Yoshida’s great grandsire, a foundation rock to which breeders can also cling.

“We all know what the Halo line has done all over the world,” says Tugel.

Yoshida’s arrival at the farm was actually set into motion in the summer of 2015. WinStar, through agent John McCormack, bought the then yearling colt bred by Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm for ¥94 million (around $750,000) at the Japan Racing Horse Association select sale in Hokkaido.

WinStar officials and associates had travelled to Japan to try to repatriate Empire Maker to America, but Gainesway Farm and Don Alberto Corp succeeded in the bidding for that stallion, who had previously been sold by Juddmonte Farms to the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association. Instead, WinStar acquired three yearlings and two foals at the JRHA sale.

In addition to being the most expensive of that group, Yoshida proved the best by far on the racetrack, as well as a fitting honour for his namesakes in the Yoshida family, including Teruya Yoshida of Shadai Farm, breeder of Heart’s Cry.

Trained by Bill Mott, Yoshida delivered a fine performance on his two-year-old debut, finishing second over a mile on turf after being hampered in deep stretch, and he proceeded to win his next two races, also on grass and including a Listed stakes, impressively.

From that time forward Yoshida raced only in Graded/Group events, with 11 of his 18 career efforts in Grade/Group 1 competition. He scored his first major victory in the Turf Classic Stakes on yielding Churchill Downs ground in May 2018, defeating a field that included five top-level winners.

That effort was so convincing that his connections, including co-owners China Horse Club and SF Racing, opted to send him to Royal Ascot for the Queen Anne Stakes. Yoshida acquitted himself with dignity, finishing only a length and a quarter behind winner Accidental Agent in fifth, but notably in front of Grade/Group 1 winners Benbatl, Rhododendron, Limato, Suedois and Recoletos on good to firm ground.

About two and a half months later Yoshida stormed home to capture the Woodward Stakes on dirt at Saratoga, defeating 13 rivals and defining himself as the ultimate kind of modern international runner who could perform no matter what sort of material lay beneath his feet.

Following up that landmark score with a start in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on dirt, Yoshida encountered some bad luck, bobbling at the start and rallying six wide, but still winding up less than two lengths behind winner Accelerate and just a nose behind third-placed Thunder Snow. Finishing to Yoshida’s rear in the mile-and-a-quarter contest were the likes of champions West Coast and Roaring Lion and Grade 1 winners McKinzie, Catholic Boy, Mind Your Biscuits, Pavel and Discreet Lover.

“He’s a very classy horse, he takes everything in his stride,” Tugel says of Yoshida, whose fee has been set at $20,000. “We shipped him all over the world and all over the US and he would always show up and pretty much run his race.”

In similar fashion Yoshida has adapted “extremely well” to farm life, arriving at WinStar soon after an uncharacteristic eighth placing in the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita, concluding his career with five wins and five placings while banking more than $2.5 million. Tugel says Yoshida had settled in so well that within just a few weeks “you couldn’t tell he’d been in full training”.

He adds of Yoshida’s demeanour at the farm’s stallion shows: “He just comes out and is very professional. You could probably just put a rope shank on him and he’d follow you around.”

In that sense Yoshida may be a welcome, mellower version of some of the hot-tempered individuals who have descended from the notoriously tough Halo; both Sunday Silence and Heart’s Cry certainly were/are more fire than ice.

Although Americans may be, in general, relatively unfamiliar with Heart’s Cry, he is visually cut from the same cloth as Sunday Silence, being among the sons who most resemble their sire – as well as grandsire Halo – with a raw, nearly black frame embellished with a white stripe and one white foot.

In racing, Heart’s Cry was a rugged competitor who benefited from the extra stamina provided by Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Tony Bin, sire of his dam, multiple Japanese Graded winner Irish Dance.

Most famously, Heart’s Cry held off the previously unbeaten Triple Crown winner Deep Impact, another son of Sunday Silence, in taking Japan’s prestigious Arima Kinen over an extended mile and a half in 2005, a feat that earned him honours as champion older male. A few months later he handily captured the Dubai Sheema Classic over a mile and a half from the likes of international champion Ouija Board.

Yet what makes Yoshida so potentially potent for American breeders is that both his immediate male ancestors have made their marks at stud primarily through offspring out of mares by North American-bred sires. The evidence makes it clear that Yoshida could thrive with the mates he will receive in Kentucky.

Sunday Silence sired 44 Grade 1 winners and 34 of those were out of mares by North American-bred sires. His Grade 1 winners bred along those lines included Japanese Horse of the Year, Triple Crown winner and multiple leading sire Deep Impact; champion and leading sire Manhattan Cafe; Classic winner and leading sire Agnes Tachyon; and Horse of the Year Zenno Rob Roy.

Deep Impact, who passed away in July 2019, has now surpassed his sire and his own success at stud also seems intriguingly relevant. Deep Impact has sired 45 Grade/Group 1 winners, with 35 out of mares by American-bred stallions, including eight out of Storm Cat mares and another out of a mare by Storm Cat’s son Giant’s Causeway.

For his part, Heart’s Cry has sired nine Grade 1 winners, with seven out of mares by American-bred stallions. His two Japan Cup winners, Suave Richard and 2017 hero Cheval Grand, were both produced by mares from Mr Prospector-line stallions, with Cheval Grand also the result of a 3x4x5 inbreeding to Halo.

One And Only, Heart’s Cry’s son who won the 2014 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), is 3x4 to Halo and 5x4 to Northern Dancer, also revealing potential strategies for American breeders as they contemplate matches with Yoshida.

Lys Gracieux, the Cox Plate winner by Heart’s Cry, is 4x5x4 to Northern Dancer’s son Lyphard and has another line of Northern Dancer through Sadler’s Wells.

Tugel says: “We look to Heart’s Cry and what he’s worked well with – he’s really loved the return of Mr Prospector blood and has had great success there, which lends to our other idea as to how to breed the horse.

“He’s bred identically to [WinStar-based shuttler) More Than Ready, from the Halo line out of a Mr Prospector-line mare [Hilda’s Passion is by Gone West’s son Canadian Frontier].

“More Than Ready loves the return of Mr Prospector in a mating, just like Heart’s Cry does. That helps give confidence that you can use More Than Ready as basically your parameter for what to breed to Yoshida-Unbridled’s Song mares, the return of Mr Prospector, any type of Seattle Slew line, any type of [Northern Dancer’s grandson] Deputy Minister.

“We see it working with Heart’s Cry with the Japan Cup winner [Suave Richard] out of an Unbridled’s Song mare. He also had a Grade 3 winner [juvenile colt My Rhapsody] that same weekend out of a Salt Lake mare [whose pedigree features Seattle Slew and two lines of Northern Dancer], so both winners have American pedigrees.”

Clearly, More Than Ready has thrived in Australia with Danehill/Danzig/Northern Dancer-line mares who are plentiful in Kentucky.

Duplicating some of the distinctive success of Deep Impact, Heart’s Cry has also worked well with Storm Cat and Storm Bird-line mares, just as More Than Ready has with Grade 1-winning offspring such as Rushing Fall and Verrazano. Heart’s Cry’s offspring from these mares includes Godolphin’s exciting 2019 Graded-winning juvenile filly Woman’s Heart.

“We know how many Storm Cat-line mares we have in America, so I would jump all over that,” Tugel says when further considering mares for Yoshida.

The influential Halo: Yoshida does not have his ancestor's notorious temperament issuesCredit: Courtesy of the Tony Leonard Collection

At a little over 16 hands, Yoshida is an outstanding specimen who Tugel says will physically complement many mares.

“I find him very well balanced,” he remarks. “He has phenomenal shoulder and depth of heart girth. His neck lies very well on him and he has a beautiful head and eye. His movement, his walk, his athleticism is second to none. He’s just an effortless mover and certainly that’s why, for four years as a racehorse, he was able to compete at the highest level and on all surfaces.”

He adds: “He’s a very exciting horse. With local breeders here, once they’re able to see him and if they recognise the pedigree, he becomes a very exceptional prospect. Whether you’re breeding to race or whether you’re breeding for the commercial market, he checks all the boxes.”

With WinStar, China Horse Club and SF Bloodstock planning to support Yoshida, his book will likely reach at least the 140-mare level viewed by some as a threshold for significant success, Tugel says. Applications from other breeders continue to arrive at the WinStar office.

Looking ahead, foals by Yoshida have the potential to appeal to a wider range of buyers in the commercial marketplace than those by many of his American rivals.

Mott forecast earlier in 2019 that Yoshida “is going to be a fashionable sire for people who are looking for a good turf horse or a good dirt horse. I think he could have international appeal with people from Europe or Japan or wherever someone might be looking to run on the turf”.

Tugel notes: “Any time, whether it’s horses or anything else in this world, the more versatility you have, the more opportunity you have to succeed. We know he was excellent on turf and we know he was excellent on dirt. You put them together and you go, ‘Holy cow!’ And he’s by a leading sire.

“He wasn’t better on one surface or the other. He was very good on both surfaces, and I think that will open up many avenues for all types of buyers and end-users and trainers, whether it’s an American-based buyer or somebody who is looking to buy to take the horse back to Europe or Japan. You can make a case for him regardless of any place or any surface.”

Joining Yoshida at WinStar for the upcoming season, in addition to established sires like More Than Ready, Speightstown and Tiznow, is Grade 1 winner Audible and Take Charge Indy, America’s leading third-crop sire of 2019 who is returning after three seasons in South Korea.

Audible, who was retired about six weeks before Yoshida’s arrival at the farm, has been “slammed” with interest from breeders.

“He’s one of our busiest horses, if not the busiest, as of this time,” says Tugel. “You bring him out and he’s quite possibly the best-looking horse to retire this year. He’s booked full; we can’t take any more. We’ve had to shoo people away.”

Take Charge Indy, “just like our two first-year stallions, is going to end up breeding a full book”, Tugel adds.

“Even though he was gone for a couple of years people can breed to him with confidence; you know that he can give you horses for the big stage. From two crops of three-year-olds or older, he’s had a horse in the Kentucky Derby both years.

“At the end of the day he’s out of one of the best mares we have in America [multiple Grade 1 winner and 2014 Broodmare of the Year Take Charge Lady] and he’s by A.P. Indy, a game changer. He has fallen right back into the line where he deserves to be.”

But it is only Yoshida who offers breeders the chance to redeem the mistake of initially spurning Sunday Silence, as well as clear opportunity for international achievement.

“Not only will his foals appeal to the global Keeneland yearling market, we’ve seen how much the breeze-up sales have expanded in Europe,” says Tugel. “I think Yoshida would be a horse for whom any of those guys could make a case.

“If you’re looking for a horse who has international appeal and can step outside of America with his offspring from the get-go, Yoshida would be that horse.”

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