Remembering Sunday Silence -30 years since he first entered the breeding shed. We look at the lasting legacy he has left on the racing world.
/![For over a quarter of a century, there has been an air of inevitability within Japanese racing circles.Sunday Silence dominated the sire standings in Japan for 13 straight years from 1995 to 2007—his last championship arriving five years after his death. He was a true game changer for the Japanese industry, not only as a brilliant source of elite talent but as a key to the development of Japan as a respected racing nation. Any idea that his influence would abate in the years following his death was swiftly quashed by an array of successful sire sons and productive daughters. In his place, Deep Impact rose to become a titan of the domestic industry. Others such as Heart’s Cry, Stay Gold, Agnes Tachyon, Gold Allure and Daiwa Major also became significant sires in their own right. Added to that, Sunday Silence is also a multiple champion broodmare sire and credited as the damsire of 202 stakes winners and 17 champions.“Thoroughbreds can be bought or sold,” says Teruya Yoshida of Shadai Farm, which bought Sunday Silence out of America in late 1990 and cultivated him into a global force. “As Nasrullah sired Bold Ruler, who changed the world’s breeding capital from Europe to the U.S., one stallion can change the world. Sunday Silence is exactly such a stallion for the Japanese Thoroughbred industry.”Sunday Silence has been dead close to 20 years, yet the Japanese sires’ table remains an ode to his influence. In 2020, Deep Impact landed his ninth straight sires’ championship with Heart’s Cry and Stay Gold’s son Orfevre in third and fourth. Seven of the top 12 finishers were sons or grandsons of Sunday Silence. Another descendant, Deep Impact’s son Kizuna, was the nation’s leading second-crop sire. Deep Impact himself was the year’s top sire of two-year-olds.Against that, it is estimated that up to approximately 70% of the Japanese broodmare population possess Sunday Silence in their background. All the while, his influence remains on an upswing worldwide, notably via the respect held for Deep Impact. A horse who ably built on the international momentum set by Sunday Silence, his own sire sons today range from the European Classic winners Study Of Man and Saxon Warrior—who are based in Britain and Ireland—to a deep domestic bench headed by the proven sires Kizuna, Mikki Isle and Real Impact.In short, the Thoroughbred owes a lot to Sunday Silence.Inauspicious beginningsRoll back to 1988, however, and the mere idea of Sunday Silence as one of the great fathers of the breed would have been laughable.For starters, he almost died twice before he had even entered training.The colt was bred by Oak Cliff Thoroughbreds Ltd in Kentucky with appealing credentials as a son of Halo, then in his early seasons at Arthur Hancock’s Stone Farm.Halo had shifted to Kentucky in 1984 as a middle-aged stallion with a colourful existence already behind him. By Hail To Reason and closely related to Northern Dancer, Halo had been trained by Mack Miller to win the 1974 Gr1 United Nations Handicap.It was those bloodlines and latent talent that prompted film producer Irving Allen to offer owner Charles Englehard a bid of $600,000 for the horse midway through his career. Allen’s idea was to install Halo in England at his Derisley Wood Stud in Newmarket; and his bid was accepted only for it to be revealed that his new acquisition was a crib-biter. As such, the deal fell through, and Halo was returned to training, with that Gr1 triumph as due reward.Would Halo have thrived in England? It’s an interesting question. As it was, he retired to E. P. Taylor Windfields Farm in Maryland, threw champion Glorious Song in his first crop, Kentucky Derby winner Sunny’s Halo in his third and Devil’s Bag—a brilliant two-year-old of 1983—in his fourth. Devil’s Bag’s exploits were instrumental in Halo ending the year as North America’s champion sire, and within months, the stallion was ensconced at Stone Farm, having been sold in a deal that reportedly valued the 15-year-old at $36 million. Chief among the new ownership was Texas oilman Tom Tatham of Oak Cliff Thoroughbreds.In 1985, Tatham sent the hard-knocking Wishing Well, a Gr2-winning daughter of Understanding, to the stallion. The result was a near black colt born at Stone Farm on March 26, 1986.It is part of racing’s folklore how Sunday Silence failed to capture the imagination as a young horse—something that is today vividly recalled by Hancock.“My first recollection of him was as a young foal,” he recalls. “He was grey back then—he would later turn black. “I was driving through the farm and I looked into one of the fields and saw this grey colt running. The others were either nursing or sleeping, but there was this colt running and jumping through the mares. "We had a number of foals on the place at the time, and I wasn’t sure which one it was, so I rang Chester Williams, our broodmare manager. I said, ‘Hey Chester, who is this gray foal in 17?’ And he told me it was the Wishing Well colt. He was flying—he would turn at 45 degree angles and cut in and out of the mares. And I remember thinking even then, ‘well he can sure fly.’“Then on Thanksgiving Day later that year, he got this serious diarrhea. We had about 70 foals on the farm, and he was the only one that got it; we had no idea where he got it from. Anyway, it was very bad. I called our vet, Carl Morrison, and between 9 a.m. and midday, we must have given him 23 liters of fluids. “We really thought he was going to die, but Sunday Silence just wouldn’t give up. Obviously it set him back some; he was ribby for a few weeks. But I have never seen anything like it in a foal during 50 years at Stone Farm, and at Claiborne before then; and I remember thinking then that it was a spooky thing for him to get it and then to fight through it the way he did.”As Hancock outlines, Sunday Silence was very much Halo’s son—not just as a black colt with a thin white facial strip but as a tough animal with a streak of fire.Halo had arrived from Maryland with a muzzle and a warning. Confident that a muzzle was an overreaction, Stone Farm’s stallion men worked initially without it, albeit against Hancock’s advice. It wasn’t long until the muzzle went back on.Not long after his arrival, Halo ‘grabbed the stallion man Randy Mitchell in the stomach and threw him in the air like a rag doll.’“Halo then got on his knees on top of Randy,” recalls Hancock, “and began munching on his stomach. Virgil Jones, who was with Randy, starts yelling at Halo and hitting him with his fist. Halo let go, and they managed to get him off. “After that, the muzzle stayed on.”Sunday Silence possessed a similar toughness. Indeed, that mental hardiness is a trait that continues to manifest itself in the line today, although not quite to the danger level of Halo.“Sunday Silence had a lot of guts and courage, even then,” remembers Hancock. “I remember being down at the yearling barn before the sale and hearing this yell. It was from one of the yearling guys, Harvey. Sunday Silence had bitten him in the back—I’d never had a yearling do it before then and haven’t had one since.”He adds: “When he came back here after his racing days, we had a photographer come to take some shots of him. Sunday Silence was in his paddock, and we were trying to get him to raise his head. I went in there and shook a branch to get his attention. Well, he looked up, bared his teeth and started to come after me—he was moving at me, head down like a cat. And I said, ‘No you’re ok there boy; you just continue to graze’ and let him be.“He was Halo’s son, that’s for sure, because Wishing Well was a nice mare. Sunday Silence had a mind of his own, even as a yearling. I remember we couldn’t get him to walk well at the sales because he’d pull back against the bit all the time.”It was that mental toughness and the memory of Sunday Silence flying through the fields as a young foal that remained with Hancock when the colt headed to the Keeneland July Sale. Then an individual with suspect hocks—a trait that still sometimes manifests itself in his descendants today—he was bought back on a bid of $17,000.“I thought he’d bring between $30,000 and $50,000,” he says. “So when it was sitting at $10,000, I started bidding and bought him back at $17,000. I took the ticket to Tom Tatham out the back of the pavilion and said, ‘Here Tom, he was too cheap; I bought him back.’ And Tom said, ‘But Ted Keefer [Oak Cliff advisor] didn’t like him and we don’t want him.’ “I remember we had another one that was about to sell, so I just said, ‘Ok Tom,’ put the ticket in my shirt pocket, walked away and thought, ‘Well I just blew another $17,000.’ Another scrape with deathHancock then tried his luck at the two-year-old sales in partnership with Paul Sullivan. The colt was sent to Albert Yank in California and cataloged to the Californian March Two-Year-Old Sale at Hollywood Park, again failed to sell—this time falling to World Wide Bloodstock (aka Hancock)—on a bid of $32,000, well below his owner’s valuation of $50,000.“I told Paul and he said, ‘Well I’ll take my $16,000 then,’” recalls Hancock.So the colt was loaded up for a return trip to Kentucky. Then more ill luck intervened. The driver suffered a fatal heart attack while on a north Texas highway, and the van crashed, killing several of its load. Sunday Silence survived but was injured.“Sunday Silence was in the vets for about a week,” says Hancock. “He could hardly walk, and then Carl Morrison rings me and says, ‘Arthur, I think he’s a wobbler.’ I said, ‘What are you going to do?’ He said that all he could do was leave him in a paddock and see what happened. “So he left him out there, and about a week later, he rings me and says, ‘You need to come to barn 16 and see this Wishing Well colt.’ It was unbelievable. I went down there, and there he was, ripping and running around just like he was a foal. It was a miracle—a spooky thing.”Therefore Sunday Silence had already lived a pretty full life by the time he joined Charlie Whittingham in California. A true master of his profession, Whittingham handled over 250 stakes winners during his 49 years as a trainer, among them such champions as Ack Ack, Ferdinand and Cougar alongside the European imports Dahlia and Exceller. Appropriately, Cougar would go on to stand at Stone Farm, where he sired Hancock’s 1982 Kentucky Derby winner Gato Del Sol.“Charlie Whittingham had seen Sunday Silence in California and rang me to ask about him,” says Hancock. “I told him I’d sell him half to $25,000. And he said, ‘But you bought him back for $32,000.’ Well the year before, we’d had Risen Star [subsequent winner of the Preakness and Belmont Stakes] go through Keeneland for $250,000. Charlie had asked about taking half of him, but we had wanted $300,000, so said, ‘Sure you can buy half for $150,000.’ And he had declined. “I reminded him of that, and he chuckled and said, ‘Well I’d better take it this time.’”He adds: “Charlie was a brilliant horseman with a lot of experience. He was very smart. He had a sixth sense about horses. And he had great patience, like those great trainers do. Without Charlie, I don’t think Sunday Silence would have reached the level that he did. He just took his time with him.” Whittingham paid Hancock $25,000 for a half share in the colt and later sold half of that share to a friend, surgeon Ernest Galliard.Within no time, that looked a good bit of business. It is a fine reflection of the trainer and his staff, in particular work rider Pam Mabes, that Sunday Silence’s temperament was successfully honed. In Jay Hovdey’s biography of the trainer, the colt is likened to ‘Al Capone singing with the Vienna Boys Choir’—his morning exercise routinely punctuated by bad behavior.“They’d take him out every day before dawn,” recalls Hancock. “I remember he had a thing about gray lead horses. Every time he saw one, he’d just go after it. “Charlie called me one morning—4 a.m. his time; he’d always get to the barn at 4 a.m. I answered, thinking, What’s he doing calling me at this time? I said, ‘Hey Charlie, what you doing?’ He said, ‘Just waiting on the hill.’ I knew he had something on his mind. Then he said, ‘You know what, this big black son of a bitch can run a little’—Charlie was a master of the understatement.’” Brought along steadily by Whittingham, Sunday Silence romped to a 10-length win second time out at Hollywood Park in November 1988 and after running second in an allowance race, returned at three to win his first two races, an allowance and the San Felipe Handicap.While he was emerging as a potential Classic candidate on the West Coast, Ogden Phipps’ homebred Easy Goer was laying down the gauntlet in New York. A handsome red son of Alydar with regal Phipps bloodlines trained by Shug McGaughey, Easy Goer was evoking comparisons with Secretariat, capturing Gr1 Cowdin and Champagne Stakes at two before running out the 13-length winner of the Gotham Stakes in a record time early on at three. To many observers, he appealed as the likely winner of the Kentucky Derby, if not the Triple Crown.Indeed, theirs would become an East-West rivalry that would enthral racegoers during the 1989 season.The pair met for the first time in the Kentucky Derby. Sunday Silence, partnered by Pat Valenzuela, was fresh off an 11-length win in the Santa Anita Derby. Easy Goer, though, had won the Wood Memorial in impressive style and was therefore the crowd’s choice.Yet on a muddy track, Sunday Silence had the upper hand, winning with authority over an uncomfortable Easy Goer in second.“Of all his races, the Kentucky Derby stands out,” says Hancock. “We’d been fortunate enough to win it with Gato Del Sol and I’m a Kentuckian, so to win it again meant a lot.“It was an extremely cold day, it was spitting snow, and Sunday Silence was weaving all the way down the stretch. Yet he still won.” With many feeling that the track had not played to Easy Goer’s strengths, he was fancied to turn the tables in the Preakness Stakes. However, once again, Sunday Silence emerged as the superior, albeit following an iconic, eye-balling stretch duel.Easy Goer did gain his revenge in the Belmont Stakes, making the most of the 1m4f distance and Belmont Park’s sweeping turns to win by eight lengths. The Triple Crown was gone, but Sunday Silence would later turn the tables in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, where his ability to deploy tactical speed at a crucial moment turned out to be a winning move against his longer-striding rival.“The Breeders’ Cup just sealed everything—champion three-year-old and Horse of the Year,” says Hancock. “It was the great showdown. Chris McCarron was able to use him at just the right time and Easy Goer, with that long stride of his, was closing. It was a great race.”Crowned Horse of the Year, Sunday Silence underwent arthroscopic knee surgery which delayed his four-year-old return to June, when he won the Californian Stakes. A head second to Criminal Type in the Hollywood Gold Cup next time out brought the career down on a spectacular one.No takersPlans called for Sunday Silence to join his sire Halo at Stone Farm. A wonderful racehorse who danced every dance, there were grounds for thinking that Sunday Silence would be an asset to the Kentucky bloodstock landscape. But breeding racehorses even then also adhered to commercial restrictions, and as a cheap yearling with suspect hocks and an underwhelming female line, he did little to spark interest. This was in contrast to Easy Goer, who retired to much fanfare at Claiborne Farm.“We tried to syndicate him and called people everywhere—Kentucky, England, France, and the answer was always the same,” says Hancock. “It became apparent very quickly that people wouldn’t use him.“It was spread around the industry that he was a fluke, another Seabiscuit or Citation who could run but that would be no good at stud. It was said that he was crooked, which he wasn’t, and that he was sickled hocked, which he was as a young horse but grew out of. He was an ugly duckling that grew into a swan.“We had three people on the books to take shares and two that would send mares. Then I spoke to my brother Seth at Claiborne, and he had 40 contracts to send out for Easy Goer. “At the same time, Ronald Reagan changed the tax laws, and land suddenly became worth a lot less, as did shares in horses.”The Yoshidas had already bought into the horse and suddenly, Hancock was left with little choice.“At the same time, I got a call from a representative of Teruya Yoshida saying that Shadai would be interested in buying the whole horse,” he says. “They were offering $250,000 per share. I talked to a number of people about it—Bill Young at Overbrook Farm, Warner Jones, and they all said the same thing: that it was a no-brainer to sell. “At the end of the day, I had two contracts and three shares sold. I owed money. I had to sell.“The day he left, I loaded him up myself; and I don’t mind admitting that when that van went down the drive, I cried.”He adds: “Basically, the Japanese outsmarted everybody.” An immediate successOut of a first crop of 67 foals, Sunday Silence sired 53 winners. A total of 22 of 36 starters won at two, led by champion two-year-old Fuji Kiseki, whose success in the Gr1 Asahi Hai Futurity set the scene for events to come.A tendon injury restricted Fuji Kiseki to just one further start when successful in a Gr2 the following year. Yet that failed to stop the Sunday Silence juggernaut. Genuine and Tayasu Tsuyoshi ran first and second in the Japanese 2,000 Guineas and later dominated the Japanese Derby, with Tayasu Tsuyoshi turning the tables. Dance Partner also landed the Japanese Oaks. As such, Sunday Silence ended 1997 as Japan’s champion sire despite the presence of only two crops.That first crop would also come to include Marvelous Sunday, who led home a one-two for his sire in the 1997 Gr1 Takarazuka Kinen. In no time at all, Sunday Silence had sealed his place as a successor to earlier Shadai heavyweight Northern Taste.“I believe Sunday Silence was a stallion that possessed the potential to be very successful anywhere in the world,” reflects Teruya Yoshida. “We were just lucky to be able to introduce him to Japan as a stallion. “He changed the Japanese breeding industry completely, especially as he sired successful sons as race horses and stallions. Those sons have again sired successful grandsons.“It is extraordinary that one stallion had continued to produce good quality stallions over three generations. Today, it is said that approximately 60-70% of the Japanese broodmares have Sunday Silence in their female lines.”Another top two-year-old, Bubble Gum Fellow, emerged out of his second crop alongside a second 2,000 Guineas winner in Ishino Sunday and St Leger hero Dance In The Dark.Stay Gold, Sunday Silence’s first real international performer of note by virtue of his wins in the Hong Kong Vase and Dubai Sheema Classic, followed in his third while another Japanese Derby winner followed in his fourth in Special Week, also successful in the Japan Cup.And so it continued. In all, his stud career came to consist of six Japanese Derby winners (Tayasu Tsuyoshi, Special Week, Admire Vega, Agnes Flight, Neo Universe and Deep Impact), seven 2,000 Guineas winners (Genuine, Ishino Sunday, Air Shakur, Agnes Tachyon, Neo Universe, Daiwa Major and Deep Impact), four St Leger winners (Dance In The Dark, Air Shakur, Manhattan Cafe and Deep Impact) and three 1,000 Guineas winners (Cherry Grace, Still In Love and Dance In The Mood).While a number of those good Sunday Silence runners became fan favorites, there’s no doubt that the best arrived posthumously in the champion Deep Impact. A member of his penultimate crop and out of the Epsom Oaks runner-up Wind In Her Hair, Deep Impact swept the 2005 Japanese Triple Crown and another four Gr1 races, including the Japan Cup and Arima Kinen, at four. One of Japan’s most popular horses in history, he also ran third in the 2007 Arc.Fittingly, Deep Impact was also quick to fill the void left at Shadai by his sire’s death from laminitis in 2002.International acclaim The Japanese bloodstock industry during the mid-1990s was still relatively isolated from the rest of the world, better known certainly in Europe as the destination for a slew of Epsom Derby winners.Sunday Silence would change all that.As word of his dominance at stud grew, so did international interest. Teruya Yoshida was swift to capitalize. In 1998, he sent his homebred Sunday Silence filly, Sunday Picnic, to be trained in Chantilly by Andre Fabre. It was a successful endeavor as the filly won the Prix Cleopatre and ran fourth to Ramruma in the Oaks.By that stage, Shadai had also entered into a partnership with John Messara of Arrowfield Stud with the principal idea of breeding mares to Sunday Silence on southern hemisphere time. Again, the move proved to be a success. Out of a limited pool of Australian-bred runners, Sunday Silence threw the 2003 AJC Oaks heroine Sunday Joy, who would go on to produce eight-time Gp1 winner More Joyous, and Listed winner Keep The Faith, subsequently a Gp1 sire.Sheikh Mohammed also joined the fray, notably by sending a relation to Miesque, the Woodman mare Wood Vine, to Sunday Silence in 1998; the resulting foal, the Irish-bred Silent Honor, was trained by David Loder to win the 2001 Cherry Hinton Stakes at Newmarket.Silent Honor was the opening chapter of a successful association for the Sheikh with Sunday Silence that also came to include Godolphin’s 1,000 Guineas runner-up Sundrop, a JRHA Select Foal Sale purchase, and homebred Gp3 winner Layman.Layman was foaled in the same 2002 crop as the Wertheimer’s high-class miler Silent Name. Initially trained in France by Criquette Head-Maarek, Silent Name was a dual Listed winner before heading to the U.S., where he won Gr2 Commonwealth Breeders’ Cup for Gary Mandella.Similarly, patronage of Sunday Silence also reaped rewards for the Niarchos family as the sire of their influential producer Sun Is Up, subsequently the dam of their top miler Karakontie.At the same time, several Japanese-trained horses were advertising the stallion to good effect on a global scale, notably Zenno Rob Roy, who ran a close second in the 2005 Juddmonte International, and Heart’s Cry, who was third in the King George a year later.Sire of siresMeanwhile, it was becoming very apparent just how effective Sunday Silence was becoming as a sire of sires. Shadai was initially home to plenty of them, including the short-lived Agnes Tachyon, who left behind a real star in champion Daiwa Scarlet and Fuji Kiseki, the sire of champions Kinshasa No Kiseki and Sun Classique. Stay Gold’s successful stud career was led by the household names Orfevre, who ran placed in two Arcs and is now a popular stallion for Shadai and Gold Ship. Japan Dirt Derby winner Gold Allure became a leading dirt sire—his record led by champions Copano Rickey, Espoir City and Gold Dream. Manhattan Café is the sire of five Gp1 winners. As for Special Week, he sired champion Buena Vista and Gr1 winner Cesario, now regarded as something of a blue hen. Those sons still in production are entering the twilight years of their stud career, yet they remain a heavyweight group. Following the death of Deep Impact, the most popular is Shadai’s Heart’s Cry—an exceptional sire for whom an increasingly international profile consists of British Gp1 winner Deirdre, American Gr1 winner Yoshida and Japanese champion Lys Gracieux, the 2019 Cox Plate heroine. Fellow Shadai stallion Daiwa Major is well regarded as a fine source of two-year-olds and milers, and earned international recognition in 2019 as the sire of Hong Kong Mile winner Admire Mars. His stud record consists of six Gp1 winners.Neo Universe, best known as the sire of Dubai World Cup winner Victoire Pisa, and Zenno Rob Roy are also proven Gp1 sires as is Deep Impact’s brother Black Tide, the sire of champion Kitasan Black—himself also now based at Shadai.Without Deep Impact, Sunday Silence’s influence as a sire of sires would have been immense. Deep Impact, however, took matters to another level. To date, he is the sire of 47 Gp or Gr1 winners. They cover the spectrum, ranging from Horse of the Year Gentildonna to last year’s Triple Crown hero Contrail—one of six Japanese Derby winners by the stallion—and a host of top two-year-olds.Significantly, Deep Impact had been exposed to an international racing audience when third past the post in the 2007 Arc and that played out in a healthy level of outside support when he retired to Shadai for the 2008 season. For the Wildenstein family, that reaped major rewards in the form of their Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine Beauty Parlour, her Listed-winning brother Barocci and French Gp3 winner Aquamarine. That success, as well as his growing reputation in Japan, helped to pique the attention of Coolmore. The Irish powerhouse began sending mares in 2013 and were rewarded by 2,000 Guineas winner Saxon Warrior—last year’s Prix de Diane heroine Fancy Blue and the Gp 1-placed September out of a limited pool of foals. Similarly, the Niarchos family, who patronized him from the outset, bred Le Prix du Jockey Club hero Study Of Man and the Gp3-placed two-year-old Harajuku, a smart prospect for 2021.Indeed, Deep Impact was at the height of his international powers when succumbing to a neck injury at the age of 17 in the summer of 2019.Global exposureWhile Deep Impact would build on the global foundations laid by his sire, there was a determination during the intervening years between Sunday Silence’s death and Deep Impact’s own success to expose the blood to a global audience.Chief among them was French-based agent Patrick Barbe, who sourced a number of sons to stand in France, and Frank Stronach, who purchased Silent Name to stand at his Adena Springs Farm. Barbe was the force behind importing an eclectic group of Sunday Silence horses to stand at Haras de Lonray during the mid-2000s. They were invariably priced towards the lower end of the market, yet Barbe was rewarded for his foresight, in particular through the addition of Divine Light, whose first French crop yielded the 1,000 Guineas and Cheveley Park Stakes heroine Natagora.“I have worked with Shadai for 35 years,” he says, “and I thought it would be interesting to bring the Sunday Silence bloodline to Europe—it hadn’t been tried very much at the time. It can be difficult to educate breeders about different blood, but people had already had slight exposure to Sunday Silence, so it wasn’t too bad. “Rosen Kavalier was one of the first we brought over. Then we imported Divine Light. Teruya Yoshida had mentioned to me that he thought he was going to do well at stud, as he had been an extremely good sprinter. But he covered only nine mares in his first season in Japan. So we brought him to France, and in his first crop, he sired Natagora.”As fate would have it, Natagora’s true ability came to light in the months following his sale to the Jockey Club of Turkey. Divine Light left behind just under 100 foals from his time in France and went on to enjoy further success in Turkey as the sire of champion My Dear Son.“Divine Light was a good-looking horse,” says Barbe. “He was out of a Northern Taste mare and was compact—very similar to Northern Dancer.”He adds: “Sunday Silence was a phenomenal sire, but he also had a pedigree that was similar to Northern Dancer. I feel that was the reason that he did very well with Northern Taste, who was obviously also inbred to Lady Angela [the dam of Nearctic] himself.”Divine Light wasn’t the only success story out of the French Sunday Silence experiment. While Rosen Kavalier was compromised by fertility problems, Gp3 winner Great Journey sired several smart runners, while Gp2 winner Agnes Kamikaze left behind a clutch of winners.“Great Journey was a very good racehorse and became a consistent sire,” says Barbe. “He did well as the sire of Max Dynamite—a very good stayer—and Soleil d’Octobre, who won two Listed races.”Today, the sole son of Sunday Silence available in either Europe or North America is Silent Name. Now 19 years old, he has found his niche within the Canadian market as a source of durable, talented runners—in a nutshell, what we have come to expect from the sireline.Despite never standing for more than C$10,000, Canada’s three-time champion sire is responsible for 27 black-type winners, making him the nation’s leading sire of a lifetime of stakes winners. They include champion sprinter Summer Sunday, Brazilian Gp1 winner Jaspion Silent and last year’s Gp2 Nearctic Stakes winner Silent Poet. So although entering the veteran stage of his stud career, momentum behind the stallion continues to remain robust at a fee of C$7,500, as Adena Springs North manager Dermot Carty explains.“Silent Name started out with us in Kentucky, but in 2008, we decided to bring him to Canada along with Sligo Bay,” he says. “He got three good books off the bat. At the same time, he shuttled to Brazil, and then just as his first Kentucky crop hit, he was sent to New York [where he spent two seasons with McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds]. “I pleaded to bring him back to Canada. People were starting to buy them, they were liking them, and the smaller trainers were doing well with them. “He’s a really good-looking horse—strong, a little bit sickle-hocked but with good bone. And he’s a tough horse, as tough as they go.“When we bought him, he was really the only big horse in the pedigree, but it’s a typical Wertheimer family, and it’s improved a lot since then.” In fact, Silent Name is a half-brother to Galiway—a current rags-to-riches story of the French scene whose early crops include last year’s Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Galilay.“He’s out of a Danehill mare who is out of a Blushing Groom mare who is out of a Raja Baba mare,” adds Carty. “They’re all big influences.“A lot of them can run on Polytrack, but they also excel on turf.“He’s been the leading sire in Canada for three years; the last horse to do that was Bold Executive. Frank has sent a pile of mares to him in recent years and done very well. He’s going to get you a tough horse—people who like to race like him.”Walmac Farm in Kentucky also made an early foray into Sunday Silence blood with the acquisition of Hong Kong Gp1 winner Hat Trick in 2008. Latterly based at Gainesway Farm, Hat Trick threw top French two-year-old Dabirsim in his first crop and in turn, that horse sired Albany Stakes winner Different League out of his own debut crop. Noted for siring stock that comes to hand quickly, Dabirsim remains popular at Haras de Grandcamp in Normandy, also home to Deep Impact’s talented son Martinborough.Hat Trick died last year and today, Kentucky representation of the Sunday Silence line relies on the young WinStar stallion Yoshida. A son of Heart’s Cry, he was sourced out of the JRHA Select Sale and went on to land the 2018 Woodward Stakes. He was popular in his first season at stud in 2020, covering 145 mares.Fruitful experimentMeanwhile, the retirements of Saxon Warrior to Coolmore in Ireland and Study Of Man to Lanwades Stud in Newmarket provide European breeders with quality access to Deep Impact blood. Saxon Warrior’s first crop sold for up to 280,000gns as foals last winter, while the first crop of Study Of Man are foals of 2021. As would be expected from a Niarchos homebred who has joined Kirsten Rausing’s Lanwades Stud, the latter is being well supported by his powerful connections.“The relationship between the Niarchos family and Shadai dates back to when they bought Hector Protector from us,” recalls Alan Cooper, racing manager to the Niarchos family. “We had breeding rights in the horse, and we said, well we better send some mares to Japan and use him, which worked out well as we went on to breed [champion] Shiva. “And that led us to using Sunday Silence. “The Sunday Silence adventure was very fruitful. It was lovely to get some fillies by him, and we’re still benefitting today from them.”Among the mares sent to Sunday Silence was Miesque’s Listed-winning daughter Moon Is Up. The resulting foal, Sun Is Up, never ran but went on to throw Karakontie, whose three Gp1 victories included the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and Breeders’ Cup Mile. Another mare, Metaphor, foaled the Listed-placed Celestial Lagoon, in turn the dam of last year’s Dante Stakes runner-up Highest Ground.“We also obviously had a lot of success breeding from Deep Impact through Study Of Man,” says Cooper. “We also have a filly named Harajuku, who showed smart form in France last year. We have kept her Heart’s Cry sister in training as well since Andre Fabre thinks there’s more to come (they’re out of a Galileo mare Phaenomena). Another Deep Impact that we bred, Dowsing, is now at stud in Indiana. “It’s been a very good experience breeding in Japan. The Sunday Silence line seems to have a bit of character, but I think as with anything to do with Halo, if they’re good, they’re very, very good.”The Niarchos family are also in the privileged position of owning a yearling from the final, small crop of Deep Impact. The filly in question is out of the Listed-placed Malicieuse, a Galileo half-sister to Arc hero Bago.In Kentucky, the Niarchos family have also thrown their weight behind Karakontie at Gainesway Farm in Kentucky. The son of Bernstein has made a bright start at stud as the sire of six stakes winners in two crops, including British Gp3 winner Kenzai Warrior. However, interestingly his best horse, recent Gr2 Mrs Revere Stakes heroine Princess Grace, is the product of a Silent Name mare, meaning that she is inbred to Sunday Silence. Indeed, she is the first stakes winner outside of Japan to carry his inbreeding.Too much of a good thing?Can there be too much of a good thing? In Sunday Silence, the Japanese racing scene has been dominated to such a degree—through both his sons and daughters—that outcrosses aren’t always easily available. And when such an animal does retire to stud in Japan, quite often their success is a reflection of their ability to cross effectively with Sunday Silence-line mares—the likes of Lord Kanaloa and Harbinger being notable examples.In addition, successful inbreeding to Sunday Silence has taken time to gain momentum. However, in recent years, the tide has started to change.Aside from Princess Grace, there was a major flag bearer last year in the Japanese Fillies Triple Crown heroine Daring Tact. Recent Gr2-winning three-year-old Fine Rouge is another advert among a group of 14 stakes winners from a pool of close to 3,000 named foals. One of the greatestSunday Silence might be receding in pedigrees, but his influence has never been stronger. Many of the line remain easily distinguishable with their dark coat and rangy stature; for the most part, they are hardy runners with a physical and mental toughness to them. “All these horses, they ran forever,” says Barbe. “They’re tough, train on and they’re sound. Whatever their level, they are consistent horses with a longevity to them.”Granted, those descendants of Sunday Silence now coming through at stud in Japan aren’t always helped by having to compete with each other. But at the same time, the omens remain good, particularly in relation to Deep Impact’s own legacy as a sire of sires, which already includes the successful Shadai sires Kizuna and Real Impact. The latter became the first son of his sire to be represented by a Gp1 winner when Lauda Sion won last year’s NHK Mile Cup.The presence of Saxon Warrior and Study Of Man in Europe and other Gp1 performers such as Satono Aladdin, Staphanos and Tosen Stardom in Australasia fuels the idea that this branch of the line is only going to become more powerful on an international scale.In short, international respect for the sireline is also at an all time high.“Thanks to Sunday Silence, the Japanese racehorses earn respect from horsemen around the world today,” says Yoshida. “In return, breeders tend to find good broodmares to send to good stallions—Japanese breeders today buy a lot of good broodmares in the international markets. “This enables Japanese breeding to keep developing. So you can imagine how strong Sunday’s impact is to our industry.”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/517636f8e4b0cb4f8c8697ba/1614240369120-9TQ4MVNWVEPICMUGOFKS/2002_SUNDAY_SILENCE_UDA.jpg)
By Nancy Sexton
For over a quarter of a century, there has been an air of inevitability within Japanese racing circles.
Sunday Silence dominated the sire standings in Japan for 13 straight years from 1995 to 2007—his last championship arriving five years after his death. He was a true game changer for the Japanese industry, not only as a brilliant source of elite talent but as a key to the development of Japan as a respected racing nation.
Any idea that his influence would abate in the years following his death was swiftly quashed by an array of successful sire sons and productive daughters. In his place, Deep Impact rose to become a titan of the domestic industry. Others such as Heart’s Cry, Stay Gold, Agnes Tachyon, Gold Allure and Daiwa Major also became significant sires in their own right. Added to that, Sunday Silence is also a multiple champion broodmare sire and credited as the damsire of 202 stakes winners and 17 champions.
Teruya Yoshida of Shadai Farm
“Thoroughbreds can be bought or sold,” says Teruya Yoshida of Shadai Farm, which bought Sunday Silence out of America in late 1990 and cultivated him into a global force. “As Nasrullah sired Bold Ruler, who changed the world’s breeding capital from Europe to the U.S., one stallion can change the world. Sunday Silence is exactly such a stallion for the Japanese Thoroughbred industry.”
Sunday Silence has been dead close to 20 years, yet the Japanese sires’ table remains an ode to his influence.
In 2020, Deep Impact landed his ninth straight sires’ championship with Heart’s Cry and Stay Gold’s son Orfevre in third and fourth. Seven of the top 12 finishers were sons or grandsons of Sunday Silence.
Another descendant, Deep Impact’s son Kizuna, was the nation’s leading second-crop sire. Deep Impact himself was the year’s top sire of two-year-olds.
Against that, it is estimated that up to approximately 70% of the Japanese broodmare population possess Sunday Silence in their background.
All the while, his influence remains on an upswing worldwide, notably via the respect held for Deep Impact. A horse who ably built on the international momentum set by Sunday Silence, his own sire sons today range from the European Classic winners Study Of Man and Saxon Warrior—who are based in Britain and Ireland—to a deep domestic bench headed by the proven sires Kizuna, Mikki Isle and Real Impact.
In short, the Thoroughbred owes a lot to Sunday Silence.
Inauspicious beginnings
Roll back to 1988, however, and the mere idea of Sunday Silence as one of the great fathers of the breed would have been laughable.
For starters, he almost died twice before he had even entered training.
Queen Elizabeth II meets Halo.
The colt was bred by Oak Cliff Thoroughbreds Ltd in Kentucky with appealing credentials as a son of Halo, then in his early seasons at Arthur Hancock’s Stone Farm.
Halo had shifted to Kentucky in 1984 as a middle-aged stallion with a colourful existence already behind him.
By Hail To Reason and closely related to Northern Dancer, Halo had been trained by Mack Miller to win the 1974 Gr1 United Nations Handicap.
It was those bloodlines and latent talent that prompted film producer Irving Allen to offer owner Charles Englehard a bid of $600,000 for the horse midway through his career. Allen’s idea was to install Halo in England at his Derisley Wood Stud in Newmarket; and his bid was accepted only for it to be revealed that his new acquisition was a crib-biter. As such, the deal fell through, and Halo was returned to training, with that Gr1 triumph as due reward.
Would Halo have thrived in England? It’s an interesting question. As it was, he retired to E. P. Taylor Windfields Farm in Maryland, threw champion Glorious Song in his first crop, Kentucky Derby winner Sunny’s Halo in his third and Devil’s Bag—a brilliant two-year-old of 1983—in his fourth.
Devil’s Bag’s exploits were instrumental in Halo ending the year as North America’s champion sire, and within months, the stallion was ensconced at Stone Farm, having been sold in a deal that reportedly valued the 15-year-old at $36 million. Chief among the new ownership was Texas oilman Tom Tatham of Oak Cliff Thoroughbreds.
In 1985, Tatham sent the hard-knocking Wishing Well, a Gr2-winning daughter of Understanding, to the stallion. The result was a near black colt born at Stone Farm on March 26, 1986.
It is part of racing’s folklore how Sunday Silence failed to capture the imagination as a young horse—something that is today vividly recalled by Hancock.
Staci & Arthur Hancock with Sunday Silence.
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