Sun rises at Flemington
By Tony Arrold, The Australian - 5 September 2005
A piece of history ran into the overcrowded and colorful archives of Flemington’s racing history on Saturday when Japanese trained horses competed for the first time in Australia.
Fusaichi Ole, trained by the adventurous Hideyuki Mori, represented much of what is good about modern Japanese racing, which is the richest anywhere in the world.
Fusaichi Ole runs in the red and yellow colors of Fusao Sekiguchi, perhaps the Japanese owner best known to the rest of the racing world because of the Kentucky Derby triumph of Fusaichi Pegasus, the Mr Prospector horse now well settled for another southern season at Jerry’s Plains NSW.
Though his record shows he won just five times in 35 starts, Fusaichi Ole is credited with home earnings that convert to $1.65 million.
Fusaichi Ole is not a graded stakeswinner in Japan but he is a son of that country¹s world renowned super-sire, Sunday Silence.
His mother is Triple Wow, a US-bred mare by Seattle Slews conqueror, Coastal.
Triple Wow was a stake winner 14 times and besides Fusaichi Ole she produced the Alsheba horse Alywow, which became Canadian Horse of the Year for 1994.
What plans are now in store for Fusaichi Ole is uncertain, but he will need to stay a little longer that he did in the Group 1 VRC Craiglee Stakes (1600) at Flemington, where he showed good speed up front for 1400 meters but went lead-legged over the final 200 m and was passed by every other runner in the 12 strong field.
However, with 200 m to run, the rising sun was flying high.
There was Fusaichi Ole in front, on sufferance, admittedly, but Hollow Bullet was out wide making a charge like she did in the Group 1 VRC Oaks stakes last spring.
Hollow Bullet, remember, is by the Japanese Derby winner Tayasu Tsuyoshi, another son of Sunday Silence,
Whatsmore, in the middle of the field was Confectioner, holding his ground close to the lead, a position he held right from the jump.
Indeed, Confectioner not only held his ground but went away from the rest as Fusaichi Ole tired and Hollow Bullet¹s run lost its zest.
Confectioner pulled away to win the Craiglee Stakes by 1 and a half lengths, with the West Australian mare Free At Last charging late for second, narrowly in front of the Encosta Del Lago gelding Our Smoking Joe.
The win marked the most important success in Australia for Bubble Gum Fellow, a shuttle horse from Japan for two seasons in 1999 and 2000. He, too, is a Group 1 winning son of Sunday Silence.
Confectioner has previously included two listed wins in his seven-win record, but Bubble Gum Fellow was taken to Group 1 level in this neck of the woods when Rockabubble, from the same 1999 foal crop as Confectioner, won the Group 1 TARJC New Zealand Breeders Stakes.
In his sire¹s foal crop of 1993, Bubble Gum Fellow won Japan¹s only Group 1 race for two year old males, the Asahi Sansai Stakes at 1600 m, and in his classic season he took out the prestigious Group 1 Tenno Sho Autumn Emperors Cup (2000m)
Confectioner came up before buyers at the 2002 Melbourne Premier yearling sale, where Mark Pilkington, who buys for David Hayes stables, had the bay colt knocked down to him for $40,000.
Although his racing has been complicated by tendon problems, the now five year old gelding is just $70,000 away form becoming a millionaire.
Hayes says a million or more could land in the bank account between now and the Caulfield-Melbourne Cups time provided Confectioners tendons hold up.
He prepared Confectioner to win after a 45 week break with a big hand, obviously, from Tony McEvoy, who handed the reins back at Lindsay Park to Hayes a month ago.
Confectioner was last seen in the Group 2 MRC Sandown Classis (2400m) in November, two weeks after leading the hapless chase behind Grand Armee in the Group 1 VRC MacKinnon Stakes.
He subsequently went on his second long break with tendon problems, having overcome the first layoff from his late three-year-old term.
Confectioner was the only colt among three foals for Princess Blue, who died in 2001 while carrying to Bubble Gum Fellow.
A maiden winner at Murtoa, Victoria, Princess Blue was by Group 1 MVRC Cox Plate winner Our Poetic Prince, by the Nijinsky horse Yeats.
Princess Blue was one of seven foals from the un-raced Wild Blue, a Vice Regal mare whose best runner was Wild Thunder, a Moonee Valley winner at two years and placed at three in the Group 1 VRC Oaks Stakes, Group 2 Manifold Stakes and MVRC AAMI Vase.
Wild Blue also figured as a three-quarter sister in blood to stakes winning Richbourg, which in turn, was the grand dam of the 2001 Caulfield-Melbourne Cups heroine, Ethereal.