The Sunday Factor
Tara Madgwick - 3 June 2008
A recent treble of Classic winners in three different corners of the globe would suggest the impact of ill-fated Japanese sire sensation Sunday Silence is far from over.
Winner of the 1989 Kentucky Derby and Breeders Cup Classic, Sunday Silence was the one that got away for the North Americans, sold to stud in Japan where he became a superstar for Shadai Farm.
Crowned Champion Three Year Old and US Horse of the Year, Sunday Silence was originally slated to retire to Stone Farm in 1991 at a fee of $50,000, but with only luke warm interest from American breeders in the son of Halo, an offer of around $10million from Japan was accepted and thoroughbred history changed course.
Sunday Silence
Sunday Silence was the champion first season sire in Japan in 1994 and when his progeny turned three they really hit their straps, enabling their sire to become a dominant champion sire until his death in 2002, his influence now stretching worldwide.
In England, the French trained filly Natagora captured the Group One English 1,000 Guineas and finished third in the Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby).
In Australia, Riva San took out the Group One QYC Queensland Oaks, while in Japan, Deep Sky saluted in the Japanese Derby.
These horses are by sons of Sunday Silence, Natagora by Divine Light, Riva San by Any Given Sunday and Deep Sky by Agnes Tachyon.
Interestingly, none of the three Sunday Silence sires responsible for these Group One winners rate in the top 20 of his 168 stakes-winners with ill-fated Any Given Sunday an unraced Australian bred horse, Agnes Tachyon, a winner of the Japanese 2,000 Guineas and Divine Light, a stakes-placed sprinter, now believed to be standing in Turkey.
Sunday Silence is becoming one of those names that you see in a pedigree and you have to give it respect, no matter what the horse in front of you may look like.
For Australian breeders looking to tap into the Sunday Silence bloodline, there is an obvious option that is not expensive.
Sunday Knight
Plaintree Farms in Queensland stand Sunday Knight another Aussie bred son of Sunday Silence from Group One winning Bletchingly mare Wrap Around, the grand-dam of champion two year-old Fashions Afield.
His oldest progeny are three year-olds and Sunday Knight is already the sire of half a dozen winners from very limited opportunity with just 117 live foals. His best performer to date is the Perth based gelding Maranouchi, a metropolitan winner of four of six starts.
As a result of EI, Sunday Knight covered just three mares last spring and will stand at Plaintree Farms this year at a fee of $4,400.