New World Power is the name chosen by Qatar Racing for a sale-topping three-year-old colt by Deep Impact, trained by Roger Varian. The name, of course, may refer to Qatar but it might equally apply to Deep Impact.
This stallion, who has proved himself the Japanese equivalent to Galileo, could be on the verge of an international break-out over the next few years.
The Japanese equivalent to Galileo is on the verge of an international break-out
Galileo, you’ll remember, pulled off another Classic 1-2-3 when Minding led home Ballydoyle and Alice Springs in the 1,000 Guineas. I can think of very few stallions capable of such a feat. Sadler’s Wells was one and so too is Deep Impact. Just a couple of weeks before Galileo’s Guineas triumph, Deep Impact had set a precedent in the Satsuki Sho, the so-called Japanese 2,000 Guineas (even though it is contested over a mile and a quarter).
Deep Impact supplied six of the 18 runners including four which had already won Graded races in 2016. Three of those Graded winners – Dee Majesty, Makahiki and Satono Diamond – led the way home.
By the time this is published, Deep Impact may also have dominated the Japanese Derby on May 29 – a race which has previously fallen to his sons Deep Brillante and Kizuna. In addition to the first, second and third in the 2,000 Guineas equivalent, he is also the sire of Vanquish Run, winner of the Grade 2 TV Tokyo Hai Aoba Sho – a race officially subtitled as the Japanese Derby Trial. Deep Impact colts also finished third and fourth in this trial.
Vanquish Run is interesting on more than one count. Like New World Power, he is a graduate of the Japan Racing Horse Association sales, but he was sold as a foal, not as a yearling. Takaya Shimakawa had to pay ¥190,000,000 – equivalent at the time to nearly £1,300,000 – to secure the colt, and he has already recouped a quarter of his outlay.
Although Vanquish Run failed to win in three juvenile starts, he has progressed so well that he has won three of his four starts this year. Laevateinn, the only colt to have beaten him in 2016, was more than four lengths behind him in the trial.
It is probably no coincidence that Vanquish Run’s best efforts have come over a mile and a half. Deep Impact, after all, won the Japanese Triple Crown and went on to take the Tenno Sho over two miles. This stamina has no doubt been reinforced by the fact that Vanquish Run’s broodmare sire is Galileo, whose progeny have an average winning distance of more than 11 furlongs.
Yoshida homebred Deep Impact has taken Japan by storm
That said, Vanquish Run’s dam Lily Of The Valley was not one of the stamina-packed Galileos. She began her unbeaten three-year-old campaign with a pair of wins over a mile before progressing to nine and ten furlongs. She was very good at her best, as she showed in defeating Stacelita in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera, but she fell well short of that standard at four and was sold privately to Japan.
Vanquish Run could be just the first of several good Deep Impact winners with a dam by Galileo. There are 29 broodmare daughters of Galileo registered in Japan, including those high-class performers Lush Lashes and Maybe, as well as the Group 3 winners Adored, Kissed By Angels and Leo’s Starlet. Kissed By Angels is especially interesting, as she is a sister to the exciting Minding. With Sadler’s Wells and Danehill close up in her pedigree, her options in Europe are limited, so Deep Impact would represent an exciting first step for this Group winner over a mile.
Maybe, the top juvenile filly of 2011, has a two-year-old filly and a yearling colt, both by Deep Impact. The filly is in training with Aidan O’Brien and the yearling is also in Ireland. The Coronation Stakes and Yorkshire Oaks winner Lush Lashes has 2014 and 2015 colts, the first named Double Bind. There are also Deep Impact youngsters out of Chanrossa (an all-weather winner with a 2015 filly), Leo’s Starlet (a 2014 filly called Starlight), Lily Of The Valley and Livia Rose (a 2015 colt).
Qatar Racing turns to Japan
To get back to New World Power, this son of Sadler’s Wells’s Fillies’ Mile winner Listen is just one of six Deep Impact youngsters which Qatar Racing has in training in Britain. The other five are two-year-olds, the highest-priced – at nearly £1 million – is a colt out of the Group 2 Prix Dollar winner Musical Way.
French breeders were arguably much quicker to appreciate Deep Impact’s potential, with Barocci, Aquamarine and Beauty Parlour all becoming stakes winners in France for the Wildenstein family. Beauty Parlour’s win in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches was her fourth from four starts. Her subsequent defeat by Valyra in the Prix de Diane was an early reminder that stamina isn’t necessarily going to be the main asset of Deep Impact’s progeny.
It is worth mentioning that he already has 13 individual Graded winners in 2016 and the distances of their 15 successes break down to one over seven furlongs, three over a mile, five over nine furlongs, four over ten furlongs, one over 11 furlongs and only one over a distance as long as a mile and a half. One of the nine-furlong wins came from Real Steel in the Group 1 Dubai Turf.
The Wertheimer brothers have the two-year-old colt Akihiro with Andre Fabre and also have two yearling fillies by him which were foaled in France. One is out of the Group 3 winner Iron Lips, the other out of the Listed winner Baahama. Both mares are grand-daughters of Danzig, as is the Cheveley Park Stakes winner Donna Blini, whose visits to Deep Impact have yielded that outstanding racemare Gentildonna and her Grade 3-winning sister Donau Blue.
The Wildenstein family enjoyed Classic success with Deep Impact’s daughter Beauty Parlour
Gentildonna played her part in helping Deep Impact bag his first three sires’ championships, in 2012, 2013 and 2014. Even though he was again champion sire in 2015 and has a sizeable lead in 2016, the chances are that his success so far is just the tip of the iceberg. He has 176 two-year-olds this year, plus 172 yearlings.
The yearlings are out of a star-studded contingent of mares, which underline the burgeoning power and potential of the Japanese breeding industry. No doubt some of these youngsters will be on offer at the Select Yearling Sale, scheduled for July 11 (the catalogue was not available at the time of writing). There will also be some of Deep Impact’s 2016 foals coming under the hammer the following day.
The mares responsible for Deep Impact’s 2015 crop have been drawn from most of the world’s continents, including North and South America, Europe and Australasia, in addition to the Japanese contingent.
Deep Impact’s opportunities with Japanese-bred mares is restricted by the ubiquity of Deep Impact’s sire Sunday Silence in the Japanese gene pool. It is here that Japan’s Kingmambo stallions will be useful and Deep Impact has a 2015 colt out of Apapane, a King Kamehameha filly who won the Japanese 1,000 Guineas and Oaks in 2010. One of the fillies is out of the El Condor Pasa mare Chrysoprase, which makes her a sister to the Grade 1 winner Marialite. Another is out of Rainbow Dahlia, a Grade 1 winner by Roberto’s son Brian’s Time.
Impressive list of suitors
It is when you move onto the imported mares that you begin to appreciate the impressive strength in depth of the support Deep Impact regularly receives.
When you move onto the imported mares you begin to appreciate the impressive strength in depth of support for Deep Impact
For example, many of the 2015 foals are out of mares which shone on North American tracks. Among the celebrities are Horse of the Year Azeri, who was bought by Katsumi Yoshida for $2,250,000 in 2009. Yoshida also bought the champion two-year-old filly Awesome Feather for $1,900,000 in 2013 and the champion female sprinter Dubai Majesty for $1,100,000 in 2010. There’s also the champion three-year-old filly Proud Spell.
Among the other North American Grade 1 winners with yearlings by Deep Impact are Ave (bought for $1,400,000), Cambina, Champagne d’Oro ($2,700,000), Commercante, Contested ($2,300,000), Diamondrella ($1,500,000), Franny Freud, Gabby’s Golden Gal ($1,250,000), Gaviola, Gozzip Girl, Hilda’s Passion ($1,225,000), In Lingerie ($2,400,000), Island Fashion, Lady Joanne ($1,600,000), Persistently, Sky Diva, So Many Ways, Ultra Blend, Weemissfrankie, Willa B Awesome and Zazu ($2,100,000).
That adds up to at least 25 North American Grade 1 winners, and there are plenty more top performers among the contingent of European-raced mares. In addition to the previously-mentioned Donna Blini, Listen, Lush Lashes and Maybe, there’s Samitar (Irish 1,000 Guineas), Elusive Wave (Poule d’Essai des Pouliches), Fleeting Spirit (July Cup), Lune d’Or (Premio Lydia Tesio), Mrs Lindsay (Prix Vermeille), Night Magic (Preis der Diana and Preis von Baden), Paita (Criterium de Saint-Cloud), Salomina (Preis der Diana), Serious Attitude (Cheveley Park Stakes), Siyouma (Sun Chariot and EP Taylor Stakes) and Turfrose (Premio Lydia Tesio).
The small Australasian team also features a star or two. The New Zealand-bred Shamrocker defeated the males in the AJC Australian Derby, while Fastnet Rock’s daughter Mosheen collected a spate of Group 1 successes over an impressive range of distances.
In other words, Deep Impact is covering a large proportion of mares which made their mark at Group/Graded level, under a wide variety of conditions. Indeed, the quality of his mares must be the envy of stallion owners the world over and it isn’t hard to envisage his progeny enjoying more and more success outside his native Japan. As we have already seen Gentildonna and Real Steel shine in Dubai, with Real Impact and Beauty Parlour becoming Group 1 winners in Australia and France respectively, this is an exciting prospect.