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57.
Sunday Silence Dead
At 16
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19/08/2002 |
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After
a long battle legendry Sunday Silence finally succumb to his illness today at
11am Japanese time. The 16-year-old stallion is reported to have died of heart
failure at Shadai Stud after battling crippling laminitis.
"For the last three days, his condition has been getting worse, and we used
a lot of strong medicines," said Eisuke Tokutake, spokesman for the Shadai
Stallion Station. "But today, he lay down and couldn't get up."
The death of Sunday Silence completes a tragic year for Shadai Stallion Station
which has lost End Sweep and El Condor Pasa in recent weeks.
It is a crippling blow to the Japanese thoroughbred industry as the former U.S
Horse of the Year almost single handily dragged Japan out of its self imposed
isolation.
SUNDAY SILENCE
Bred by Oak Cliff Thoroughbreds Ltd. Sunday Silence was raised at Arthur
Hancock’s Stone Farm, Kentucky. A veteran of several sales rings including a
Hollywood Park March 2-y-o sale where he was bought back for $32,000, Sunday
Silence was far from the perfect physical specimen. His cow hocks and offset
knees turned off potential buyers and Hancock formed a partnership to race the
colt under the guidance of famed conditioner Charlie Whittingham.
A near black son of the Hail To Reason stallion Halo, Sunday Silence went on to
prove a champion on the track. All told Sunday Silence won 9 of his 15 starts
and finished second 4 times for earnings of just under US$5 million. His
victories included the Kentucky Derby (G1), Preakness Stakes (G1), Breeders' Cup
Classic (G1), California Stakes (G1), Santa Anita Derby (G1) and Super Derby
(G1). In 1989 Sunday Silence earned an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male
and was honoured as the Horse of the Year.
Shadai Farm’s Zenya Yoshida purchased a quarter share in Sunday Silence in
1990. When Sunday Silence retired from racing Hancock attempted to syndicate the
colt for a value of approximately US$10 million however the response from
American breeders was a long way short of overwhelming. Yoshida made a bid to
purchase Sunday Silence outright, the sum reputably valued Sunday Silence at
US$11 million, and he was on his way to a date with destiny in Japan. If the
response to Sunday Silence was lukewarm in America there was no holding back the
Japanese breeders. Yoshida quickly syndicated Sunday Silence into 60 shares at
$300,000 a share, keeping thirty for himself, a valuation of $US18 million.
The first crop to race by Sunday Silence in 1994 quickly established him as a
siring phenomenon. He was leading first crop sire and champion sire by earnings
a year later, a position he has held every year since.
Sunday Silence has sired 21 GI winners and 74 graded stakes winners. The progeny
earnings of Sunday Silence to date are the equivalent of a mind boggling
A$247,316,758.
His major earners have been Stay Gold (ex Golden Sash by Dictus), Special Week
(ex Campaign Girl by Maruzensky), To The Victory (ex Fairy Doll (USA) by Nureyev),
Silent Honor (ex Wood Vine (USA)-Woodman), Marvelous Sunday (ex Momiji Dancer by
Viceregal), Bubble Gum Fellow (ex Bubble Company (FR) by Lyphard), Dance In The
Dark (ex Dancing Key (USA) by Nijinsky), Fuji Kiseki (ex Millracer (USA) by Le
Fabuleux), Tayasu Tsuyoshi (ex Magaro (USA) by Caro) and Genuine (ex Croupier
Lady (USA)-What Luck). The latter three are available to Australian breeders
this season. Fuji Kiseki at Arrowfield Stud, Tayasu Tsuyoshi at Kambula Stud and
Genuine at Chatswood Stud. The high-class Bubble Gum Fellow also shuttled for a
couple of seasons to Chatswood Stud.
No county outside Japan has greater access to the prized blood of Sunday Silence
than Australia. Great credit must go to the vision showed by Arrowfield’s John
Messara who not only imported Fuji Kiseki and Bubble Gum Fellow to Australia but
also arranged mares to mated with Sunday Silence to southern hemisphere time.
The results from the first small group of foals conceived from this experiment
include the very promising Sunday Joy, one of an exclusive band of stakes
winners outside of Japan for Sunday Silence.
Just what the death of Sunday Silence has on the bloodstock market in Japan is
difficult to quantify. A measure of the overwhelming dominance of Sunday Silence
in the sales ring is shown from the results of the Select Foal Sale in July
where the average price of his foals was 92.48 million yen (A$1.44 million),
approximately two and a half times more than the next best, Green Desert (35.33
million yen) and more than 3 times that of El Condor Pasa (24.91 million yen).
The average price of his foals at the Select Sale in July was 92.48 million yen,
far exceeding those of the second runner, Green Desert (35.33 million yen) and
of the third runner, El Condor Pasa (24.91 million yen).
A household name in Japan, Sunday Silence will be mourned by all in his adopted
country and by all lovers of a courageous horse who battled his way to the top
on the racetrack and later a breed-shaper at stud.
By: Mark Smith
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