Fierce Impact’s potential Chipping Norton milestone for his sire Deep Impact
Japanese-bred entire joins Blue Diamond winner Tagaloa on studmasters’ radar
Fierce Impact’s bid to win the Chipping Norton Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) could create a new milestone for his champion Japanese sire Deep Impact (Sunday Silence) and enhance the import’s stallion credentials both domestically and internationally.
No son of the late Deep Impact has won more than two races at the highest level, which includes the likes of sire-sons Real Impact, Mikki Isle, Saxon Warrior and Tosen Stardom, but the Matthew Smith-trained entire gets the chance to eclipse that benchmark at Randwick on Saturday.
Prominent Victorian owner Ozzie Kheir has already been appointed to handle negotiations with studmasters from Australia and overseas on behalf of the Seymour Bloodstock-led syndicate who part-own the six-year-old Toorak Handicap (Gr 1, 1600m) and Cantala Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) winner.
Melbourne-based Kheir is also in the enviable position of part-owning Saturday’s Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m)-winning colt Tagaloa, himself by Japan’s new emerging super sire Lord Kanaloa (King Kamehameha).
Stallion farms have already been circling Kheir about potentially buying into the Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young-trained Tagaloa, who is likely to head to Sydney for the Golden Slipper Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) in an attempt to further enhance his value as a stud prospect which skyrocketed after his Blue Diamond victory.
Agent Mark Pilkington, who manages Darren Thomas’ Seymour Bloodstock portfolio of racing and breeding stock, and also has a close association with Busuttin and Young, revealed yesterday that Kheir had fielded calls about Tagaloa and Fierce Impact.
“You can draw the analogy that Lord Kanaloa is the I Am Invincible on the way up and Deep Impact is the Redoute’s Choice of Australia,” he said.
“Fierce Impact, if he wins the Chipping Norton, becomes the first three-time Group 1-winning colt by the champion sire Deep Impact anywhere in the world, so it is pretty significant for him with that race on Saturday.
“When you are talking about the burgeoning Japanese influence they are having on the industry, (Tagaloa and Fierce Impact) are two colts that are probably front and centre of all the studmasters from literally around the world now.”
Lord Kanaloa is the sire of star Japanese mare Almond Eye, who is among his 15 stakes winners to date, and he is currently third on Japan’s leading general sires table this year, trailing Deep Impact and Heart’s Cry (Sunday Silence).
He was also crowned Japan’s leading first season sire in 2017 with 32 individual juvenile winners, while Deep Impact, who died in July last year aged 17, is on track to win his ninth consecutive sire premiership this year.
“As a breed on the whole, the Japanese are internationally very well respected and you only have to see what happened at last year’s spring carnival here in winning the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate, they have winners everywhere and they are a bloodline that Australia is yearning for really,” Pilkington said.
“Arrowfield Stud’s John Messara has been ahead of his time in getting all those breeds down here in consultation with (Shadai Stallion Station’s) Katsumi Yoshida.
“I am sure we will be doffing our hats to them in years to come.”
Fierce Impact was sourced from the 2017 Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale in Europe for 120,000gns by Smith and the now six-year-old returned from his stellar spring campaign with a first-up second in the C F Orr Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at Caulfield on February 8 before returning to Smith’s Sydney stable.
“Fierce Impact was tried as a stayer in Europe and the philosophy (for buying him) was that he had a pedigree to be a miler,” Pilkington said.
“Funnily enough, not long after we bought him, there was a full-brother to him in Japan (Keiai Nautique) who won a two-year-old Group 1 mile.
“Once we worked out to keep Fierce Impact at a mile, he won those two miles during the spring and he has got a proper maternal pedigree.
“We can’t put a two-year-old record alongside him now, but he could be the winningest (Group 1) colt by Deep Impact.
“There is international interest in him as well, so I would say it is exciting times for the Japanese breed and the integration of it down here.”
Pilkington believes Tagaloa will hold a lot of currency at stud even if he does not add to his Group 1 record.
“There’s a lot of appeal and he is by the young and up-and-coming sire in Japan and he is Danehill-free, which is great as well,” he said.
Tagaloa was a $300,000 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale purchase by Busuttin Racing from the Arrowfield Stud draft, with the “all Japan-bred” colt the first–named foal out of the winning Heart’s Cry (Sunday Silence) mare Vasilissa, who in turn is a half-sister to Listed winner Tricolore Bleu (Stay Gold).