JOÃO Moreira is affectionately known as ‘The Magic Man’, and is one of the most in-demand jockeys on the international circuit. He is very popular with Japanese owners and trainers, despite failing to be get a licence to ride permanently in that country some years ago, a consequence of their strict protocols for issuing such permits.

He has been able to get temporary licences however, and no wonder. On Sunday he partnered the three-year-old colt Museum Mile (Leontes) to victory over the favourite Croix Du Nord, last year’s undefeated champion juvenile, in the Group 1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) at Nakayama Racecourse.

This was a third Group 1 win in four weeks for Moreira while riding in Japan, and came seven days after he won the fillies’ classic.

Croix Du Nord looked all over the winner on his sophomore debut, but he had no answer as Museum Mile, also sporting the Sunday Racing silks, passed him nearing the winning post. Museum Mile won the 10-furlong classic in a race-record time, and no doubt benefited from being race fit. The winner ended his juvenile season with a runner-up finish in the Group 1 Asahi Hai Futurity, and was fourth in a Group 2 last month.

The first leg of the Japanese Triple Crown is renowned for producing quality winners and champions, and time will tell if Museum Mile can live up to the achievements of previous winners. In the last two decades, nine winners of the race have gone on to become champions at three, notably Deep Impact who won in 2005. He also won the Triple Crown and became a hugely influential sire.

Museum Mile was bred by Northern Farm. He is from the fifth crop of Leontes (King Kamehameha) who was the best two-year-old of 2015 in Japan after his win in the Group 1 Asahi Hai Futurity, and is a second winner at the highest level for the sire who stands at the Breeders Stallion Station. Leontes is also responsible for T O Royal who won the 2024 Group 1 Tenno Sho (Spring). They are among 11 stakes winners for Leontes, three others gaining their biggest wins at Group 3 level.

Irish connections

Museum Mile comes from a family with a deep Irish connection. He is the first foal of his stakes-placed dam Museum Hill, a daughter of Heart’s Cry (Sunday Silence), and her second offspring is a two-year-old filly by Saturnalia (Lord Kanaloa), Shadai Stallion Station’s Japanese 2000 Guineas winner, and a half-brother to both Leontes and the Group 1 Japan Cup winner Epiphaneia (Symboli Kris S).

Museum Hill’s third dam was Happy Trails (Posse), and she raced for Bert and Diana Firestone. Placed twice, she was a much more successful broodmare, with 12 successful sons and daughters. Her best runner was the Irish-bred Japanese champion Shinko Lovely (Caerleon), and that mare won 10 of her 15 starts and later bred a couple of stakes winners.

Another daughter of Happy Trails to do very well was the dual stakes winner Happy Path (Sunday Silence). She too bred a couple of stakes winners, both of which were classic-placed, and her daughter Cecchino (King Kamehameha) was responsible for a recent classic winner in Cervinia (Harbinger), successful last year in the Group 1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks).

Embroidery wins

The previous week’s Group 1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) provided João Moreira with a second successive win in that race, this time on Silk Racing’s Embroidery. The three-year-old daughter of Admire Mars (Daiwa Major) was another bred by Northern Farm, and her owners also raced the 2018 winner of the Oka Sho, Almond Eye, and that great champion went on to win the Triple Tiara, the fillies equivalent of the Triple Crown.

This was victory number four in six starts for Embroidery, but unlike Museum Mile she was well fancied to land the opening classic of the 2025 season in Japan. She was also a significant milestone in the young career of her sire Admire Mars, as she is a second stakes winner for him in his first crop.

The champion juvenile of 2018, Admire Mars went on to become a leading international miler, adding the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile to a couple of home wins at that level.

Embroidery is the second foal and winner for her stakes-winning dam Rottenmeier (Kurofune), and that mare’s third dam was Aghsan, a Lovestone Stud-bred daughter of the Irish National Stud’s Lord Gayle (Sir Gaylord). Placed a few times in the colours of Hamdan Al Maktoum, Aghsan found her way to Japan where three of her four winners were foaled.

Biwa Heidi

The best of Aghsan’s offspring was the champion two-year-old filly Biwa Heidi (Caerleon), and she was accorded that title 30 years ago. Not to be outdone by her dam, Biwa Heidi went on to become an exceptional broodmare, the dam of two champions, and six of her 10 winners earned at least one stakes win in their careers.

The two champions out of Biwa Heidi were Buena Vista (Special Week) and Joie De Vivre (Deep Impact). While the latter’s triumph in the Group 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies was enough to crown her the best juvenile filly of 2011, her older half-sister Buena Vista was Horse of the Year in Japan, the champion filly at two and three, and twice champion older mare. She won two classics, the 1000 Guineas and Oaks, and her three internationally recognised Group 1 wins included the Japan Cup.