FINALLY, the five-year-old Win Marilyn has achieved what she has promised to do for some time, and win a Group 1 race.

She continued the great run of success on the international stage for horses bred and trained in Japan, and gave that nation a win in the Group 1 Longines Hong Kong Vase. She denied the Irish-bred Botanik and another Japanese challenger Glory Vase, winner of the race 12 months ago.

Winner of her only start at two, Win Marilyn captured the Group 2 Sankei Sports Sho Flora Stakes at three as a prelude to running second in the Group 1 Yushun Himba-Japanese Oaks at three. Last year she added two more Group 2 wins to her record, and now she has increased her tally of wins to six with her latest triumph. She had warmed up for this task with a runner-up finish behind Geraldina in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup.

Bred by Cosmo View Farm, Win Marilyn is a daughter of Screen Hero (Grass Wonder) who won the Group 1 Japan Cup as a four-year-old, was voted champion older horse, but disappointed the following year and did not build on that success.

His first crop, born in 2011, included his only other Group 1 winners, the Arima Kinen hero Gold Actor and the Yasuda Kinen winner Maurice.

The latter is well-known as he won six Group 1 races, was the champion sprinter and miler in Japan in 2015, and that year he won the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile. A year later Maurice stretched to a mile and a quarter to add the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup.

Standing at Shadai Stallion Station where his 2023 fee will be €55,000, Maurice has made a flying start at stud with four Group 1 winners, two each in Japan and Australia. His latest Group 1 winner is Geraldina, who beat Win Marilyn last time out.

Australia-born

Win Marilyn is out of the Fusaichi Pegasus (Mr Prospector) mare Cosmo Cielo who was foaled in Australia.

Brought to Japan after her purchase for A$170,000 in 2005, she won at three over a mile and a half. Her sire won the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby in 2000 and was runner-up in the Grade 1 Preakness Stakes. His top-level winners included the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes winner Haradasun.

All of Cosmo Cielo’s first eight foals are named, have raced and seven have won. Win Marilyn joins Win Malerei (Matsurida Gogh) as stakes winners from their dam, the latter having won the Group 3 Radio Nikkei Sho.

Cosmo Cielo is a full-sister to an Australian stakes-placed runner and a half-sister to three stakes winners, a pair of Group 3 Adelaide Guineas scorers in Shorblue (Bluebird) and Classic Allure (Bellotto), and dual listed winner Kaladan (Kala Dancer).

They are all out of an unraced half-sister to Victoria Derby and Moonee Valley Stakes winner Always There (Pipe Of Peace) and to the dam of the Group 2 winning Australian two-year-old Cindy’s Appeal (Cindy’s Son).

Irish taproot for Japanese champion-elect

CONDESSA was a leading filly of 1981 in Ireland and England, and she was a great advertisement for her trainer Jim Bolger’s reputed philosophy that sending a horse racing was like giving them a day off from their normal life.

Whether that is an old wife’s tale or a genuine doctrine, the trainer believes that horses are for racing, and there are few better examples of it in practice than Condessa. Bred by the late Des Vere Hunt, this daughter of Condorcet (Luthier) and the McGrath-bred Varinessa (Varano) was sold as a yearling for 13,000gns, and successfully raced for builder Paddy Barrett before she and Cairn Rouge were purchased by the American owner Craig Singer.

At two Condessa won the Listed Waterford Glass Nursery at Gowran Park, but she blossomed at three. Her greatest success came in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks, three days after she ran at the Curragh.

She had been successful earlier in the year in the Group 3 Musidora Stakes at York, five lengths clear and with the recent classic winner Fairy Footsteps in third, and that victory was four days after she was placed in an Oaks trial at Lingfield.

At stud in the USA, Condessa was mated with the best stallions in the world. She had six winners, the best of them being Biko Pegasus (Danzig). He was a smart runner in Japan where he was runner-up on a number of occasions in races that now carry Group 1 status, but he was a failure at stud.

It was to be through her daughters that Condessa would eventually leave a legacy, and it is something of a mixed one too. Her winning daughter Valira (Nijinsky) bred a pair of Grade 2 winners, but these were gained over hurdles, Valiramix (Linamix) winning the Bula Hurdle, while De Valira (Shantou) won a pair of Grade 2 races at Fairyhouse and Leopardstown.

Dewhurst victory

Batoosh (Danzig) was a placed daughter of Condessa, but she is grandam of the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes winner Tout Seul (Ali-Royal), winner of that contest 20 years ago. Then there was the unraced Condescendance (El Gran Senor).

Finding her way to Australia, Condescendance had 11 foals, eight of which ran but just three won. One of her earliest progeny was Redoute’s Dancer (Redoute’s Choice) and he headed the New Zealand Free Handicap at three when he won the Group 1 Derby in that country.

Condescendance’s twice-raced daughter Condesaar (Xaar) sold for A$6,000 in 2015 before the emergence of her daughter Yankee Rose (All American). She was a A$10,000 yearling but went on to be the champion filly at two and three in Australia, successful twice at Group 1 level. When Condesaar resold in 2018 to Rosemont Stud she realised A$320,000.

Now Yankee Rose is at Northern Farm in Japan where her first two foals are winners, the three-year-old Romneya (Deep Impact) and Liberty Island (Duramente).

The last named is set to be crowned champion juvenile filly after her stylish win in the weekend’s Group 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies. This was her second win in three starts, and she was unlucky in running when runner-up in a Group 3. Yankee Rose’s Lord Kanaloa (King Kamehameha) yearling colt sold last year for the equivalent of $3.3 million at the JRHA Select Sale, and she has a filly foal by Kizuna (Deep Impact).

Classic winner

Champion at three in Japan when he won two of the three classics open to colts, the Group 1 Tokyo Yushun-Derby and the Satsuki Sho-2000 Guineas, Duramente stayed in training at four, winning at Group 2 level and twice being runner-up in Group 1 races, notably running Postponed to two lengths in the Dubai Sheema Classic.

Duramente stood for just three seasons at Shadai Stallion Station before succumbing to acute colitis at the age of nine. Liberty Island is a member of his final crop, and his sire’s third Group 1 winner. The first crop included Titleholder, successful in the Group 1 Kikuka Sho-St Leger and two other Group 1 races, while the second crop contained this year’s dual classic winner Stars On Earth. Can Liberty Island make it a third classic winner in three crops next year?