Sexton Files: Cesario’s formidable legacy

This article first appeared in the February edition of Owner Breeder

Barely does a major international meeting pass by without some kind of Japanese presence. Its participators are generally typical ofthe breed cultivated by the industry, particularly the Yoshida family, notably elite middle-distance middle horses with the ability to hold their form over an extended period of time.

It has taken a long time and immense investment, aided especially by Teruya Yoshida’s introduction of Northern Taste and then Sunday Silence to his Shadai Stallion Station. As the latter became increasingly successful during the 1990s, Japanese players adopted a more international outlook, with rewards not long in forth coming via Seeking The Pearl and Taiki Shuttle, winners of the Prix Maurice de Gheest and Prix Jacques le Marois back in 1998.

The American breakthrough took longer, not arriving until the summer of 2005 courtesy of Cesario’s win in the Grade 1 American Oaks at the now-defunct Hollywood Park. While Seeking The Pearl and Taiki Shuttle were both American-bred, being by Seeking The Gold and Devil’s Bag, Cesario was more of a Japanese advert as a daughter of the Sunday Silence stallion Special Week, one of the leading lights of the Shadai roster at the time. Her breeder, Katsumi Yoshida, had paid $280,000 for her dam, the Sadler’s Wells mare Kirov Premiere, at the 1994 Keeneland November Sale.

A direct descendant of Countess Margit Batthyany’s 1967 Oaks heroine Pia via the branch responsible for Jeff Smith’s champion Chief Singer, Kirov Premiere had won the Ulster Derby for Jim Bolger prior to a fruitful career in the US under the care of Mark Hennig, for whom she won a Grade 3 at Meadowlands.

Cesario, her sixth foal, gained an invitation to the American Oaks by virtue of her success in the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) for trainer Katsuhiko Sumii. She overwhelmed the opposition to win by four lengths, becoming the first Japanese-bred horse to win a Grade 1 in the US and setting aa stakes record for the ten-furlong distance in the process.

“This is the first step for us, so this will encourage all Japanese breeders” commented Sumii afterwards.

As we well know, those words proved more than prophetic. As for Cesario, she has gone on to become one of Japan’s great producers.

That is not said lightly. Wind In The Hair is deservedly the metric by which others are measured as the dam of Deep Impact and lesser heralded Black Tide, the sire of Kitasan Black. However, in the case of Cesario, she has left behind not two but three currently influential sire sons in Epiphaneia, Saturnalia and Leontes, all Group 1 winners and the products of different sires.

Each had a successful end to 2025 to gild a year during which they they sired 16 stakes winners between them.

It was a particularly important period for Saturnalia, the youngest of the trio, as the sire of Cavallerizzo, whose win in the Group 1 Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes at Hanshin sealed champion two-year-old honours.

Saturnalia has duly been consistently popular with breeders

Saturnalia was one of the best three-year-old colts of 2019, when his performances included a win in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas) and second in the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby).

As is generally typical of Japan’s leading well-bred colts, he retired to stand at Shadai, an outfit well attuned to the capabilities of his lineage as home to both his sire Lord Kanaloa, a top two  Japanese sire since 2020, and Epiphaneia.

Saturnalia has duly been consistently popular with breeders, initially at a fee of 7,000 000yen (£33,000) which makes the arrival of a Group 1-winning two-year-old in his second crop all the more important for everyone involved.

Cavallerizzo’s win in the Asahi Hai Futurity was followed a week later by that of Museum Mile in the Group 1 Arima Kinen, an extremely prestigious extended 1 m4f event in which the majority of the line-up is representative of a fan vote.

Museum Mile leapt to wider prominence last year when defeating Croix Du Nord in the Satsuki Sho. In the process, he shone the spotlight on his sire Leontes, a King Kamehameha son of Cesario who won the 2015 edition of the Asahi Hai Futurity.

Leontes is not part of the Shadai behemoth, instead being a resident of the Breeders’ Stallion Station Hahada Breeders’ Stallion Station. He had a six-season run of three-figure books of mares from his retirement in 2017 but support has dropped off in recent years, which tells its own story. Even so, he is undoubtedly a capable sire; Museum Mile heads a group of 14 stakes winners, a list that also includes the 2024 Group 1 Tenno Sho (Spring) winner TO Opera out of his first crop.

Museum Mile’s exploits were key in placing Leontes into seventh position on last year’s Japanese sires’ list, just one off Epiphaneia, whose sixth place was driven by the presence of seven stakes winners. Saturnalia wound up in 16th despite having only two crops running for him. He was the country’s leading second crop sire, reversing placings with fellow Shadai stallion Nadal, who had touched him off for champion first-crop honours in 2024.

Saturnalia’s overall record reads six stakes winners, four of whom are members of his second crop. Cavallerizzo is very much the standout among the juveniles but there is also a pair of Group 3 winners in Justin Vista and Festival Hill alongside Listed scorer Anduril. No other Japanese sire came close last year to matching that tally of four stakes-winning two year-olds while in terms of earnings only Epiphaneia had his measure. thereby giving sons of Cesario a sweep of the top two placings on the champion two-year-old sires list.

Epiphaneia has accumulated some valuable exposure outside of his native country thanks to the exploits of Danon Decile

Saturnalia’s fee has been increased to 10,000,000yen (£47,000) for 2026 but that still remains in the shadow of the 15,000,000yen (£71,000) charged for Epiphaneia. Now 16, the son of Symboli Kris S retired to Shadai in 2016 with a weight of expectation having won the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St Leger) and Japan Cup. He made an immediate impact as the sire of champion Daring Tact, the 2020 Japanese Fillies Triple Crown winner, in his first crop and another champion, the Arima Kinen, Tenno Sho (Autumn) and Satsuki Sho winner Efforia, in his second. Efforia now stands alongside his sire at Shadai, where he has been particularly popular with breeders, and his first crop run this year.

It is all very well gaining the respect of the domestic market. In the case of Epiphaneia, he has accumulated some valuable exposure outside of his native country thanks to the exploits of Danon Decile, the Japanese Derby winner who won last year’s Dubai Sheema Classic at the expense of Calandagan. He belongs to Epiphaneia’s fifth crop, as does Byzantine Dream, who won the Prix Foy at Longchamp en route to a good fifth in the Arc behind Daryz. By all accounts, Kitasan Black has assumed Deep Impact’s role as the Japanese go-to stallion for international breeders. However, Epiphaneia’s international record implies that he should be worth considering as well.

Part of the trio’s success might lie in the fact that as members of either the Kris S or King Kamehameha (by Kingmambo) sire lines, they act as an outlet of sorts for Sunday Silence blood. Results would suggest that is the case. For instance, six of Epiphaneia’s Group 1 winners carry Sunday Silence in their female family as do Leonte’s Group 1-winning pair Museum Mile and TO Opera. The same also applies to each of Saturnalia’s six stakes winners. Epiphaneia and Saturnalia have forged a particularly productive partnership with mares by the late Sunday Silence stallion Heart’s Cry, who features as the damsire of Efforia, Cavallerizzo and Festival Hall.

As Cesario is a daughter of Special Week, the move results in inbreeding to Sunday Silence, an idea not embraced by every Japanese breeder. The figures don’t paint a thriving picture, with 128 inbred stakes winners froma pool of around 10,000 foals. However, of that group, just over a quarter are either by Epiphaneia, Saturnalia or Leontes.

Christmas period puts Ask in spotlight

Walk In The Park is setting a good pace up front in his bid for a third successive jumps sires’ championship, his total of £2 million (at the time of writing) enhanced by the Grade 1 successes of No Drama This End and Final Demand over the Christmas period.

A series of large crops and commercial popularity continues to aid the Coolmore stallion. The same can’t be said, however, for former Coolmore stallion Ask, whose crops dropped to a low of ten registered foals as his stud career drew to a close.

The late son of Sadler’s Wells punched well above his weight over Christmas as sire of The Jukebox Man and Thistle Ask, winners of the King George VI Chase and Desert Orchid Chase at  Kempton. Just for good measure, the classy Lookaway also flew around Kempton to run out the 24-length winner wer of the extended 2m4f handicap chase during its January meeting not long before No Questions Asked scored in the Lightning Novices’ Chase at Windsor.

The quartet were bred during Ask’s latter years under the Coolmore banner at The Beeches Stud. Never priced at more than €3,000, he had won the Coronation Cup and Prix Royal-Oak for Sir Michael Stoute and belonged to the Highclere family responsible for Height Of Fashion and Deep Impact. However, he had been slow to come to hand, not finding his feet until his six-year-old season. In addition, by the time he headed to stud, the jumps market was was saturated with Sadler’s Wells blood – indeed, Ask has a place in history as the last Group 1 winner for the sire.

Ask’s early stud career shows a horse who was steadily popular rather than slammed with interest. Several fair jumpers were the result, eg among them Ask Paddington, a Grade 1-placed jumper in the US, and the highly tried Ask Dillon. It’s probably no coincidence that Thistle Ask and Lookaway belong to his largest crop of 140 produced in 2017. The Jukebox Man, a mere €3,000 foal purchase by John Phelan at the Tattersalls Ireland November National Hunt Sale, and No Questions Asked belong to the 2018 crop.

By that stage, Ask was on his way across the Irish Sea, firstly to Dunraven Stud and then to Willow Wood Farm, where he lived out his days until the age of 23. His British-bred crops might be low on numbers but with The Jukebox Man and others flying the flag, Ask’s name won’t be falling into the shadows just yet.