Brave Smash gains second Group 1 in Manikato Stakes
Japanese-bred Brave Smash’s win was decisive despite the margin of only a head over Aidan O’Brien’s raider Spirit of Valor (War Front), as Kementari (Lonhro) flew late to be third, only another half-length further back. Time was 1:09.36 with the last 600 metres covered in 34.84.
This was Brave Smash’s second Group 1 triumph in Australia, following his success in February in the Futurity Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Caulfield, and additionally he has won Listed events in both Australia and Japan as well as recording seconds in two of Australia’s premier sprints, the 2018 Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) and the Moir Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m).
In Australia Brave Smash has proved most effective over sprint distances but in Japan as a two-year-old his first two wins were over 1500 and 1600 metres.
Bred by Takaya Shimakawa and later sold to a syndicate organised by Australian Bloodstock, Brave Smash appeals as an interesting stallion prospect despite his somewhat offbeat pedigree, his Australian earnings alone now exceeding $2.5 million.
Brave Smash is so far the only stakes winner by his lightly-used sire Tosen Phantom (Neo Universe) and hails from the dominant Sunday Silence (Halo) male line. While Tosen Phantom was a stakes winner in Japan he was not in the same class as his sire, champion Neo Universe (Sunday Silence), who has left two champions among his tally of 29 black type winners.
Tosen Smash (Tokai Teio), the dam of Brave Smash, was a winner over 1800 metres in Japan and her five other foals to race have included only one other winner, St Marilyn (Xaar), a winner of five races, while one of the others has placed.
From there, the tail female pedigree of Brave Smash improves as his winning second dam, Annus Mirabilis (Real Shadai), has foaled nine winners, best of them being the stakes winner Tosen Jo O (Timber Country), a winner of nine races and dam of the stakes-placed Tosen C’est la Vie (Deep Impact).
Much more black type comes into the third and fourth removes of Brave Smash’s family which features multiple Group 1 winner and successful sire Daiwa Major (Sunday Silence), twice champion sprinter in Japan.
Brave Smash’s third dam Scarlet Blue (Northern Taste) is a daughter of a legendary Japanese sire who did much to bring the Yoshida family’s Shadai Farm into world prominence.
Bred in Canada by E.P Taylor, the boldly-marked Northern Taste (Northern Dancer) was purchased by Zenya Yohida, primarily as a stallion prospect, at the 1972 Saratoga Yearling Sale.
Northern Taste possessed a powerful pedigree as he was inbred 3m x 2f to Lady Angela (Hyperion) and sent to race in France he showed a high level of ability, with the most important of his five wins coming in the Prix de la Foret (Gr 1, 1400m).
At stud in Japan he became champion sire 11 times in succession, leaving 49 stakes winners, but his most enduring contribution to breeding in that country was as a maternal grandsire, heading that list no fewer than 14 times.
Many of the outstanding winners produced by Northern Taste’s daughters were by later Shadai Farm stallion imports Sunday Silence, who broke Northern Taste’s records as a sire of winners, and Tony Bin (Kampala). All three of these famous sires appear in the pedigree of Tosen Phantom and Brave Smash himself is linebred 4f x 4f to Northern Taste.
With three lines of Northern Dancer (Nearctic) in his fifth generation plus two lines of Hail To Reason (Halo), Brave Smash may prove prepotent at stud and is well worthy of patronage from broodmare owners when retired from racing.