COOLMORE’S support of Japanese bloodstock reaped more rewards two weekends ago with the success of Continuous in the Group 1 St Leger in Doncaster. The colt is now the sole Ballydoyle representative in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday.

The colt’s Doncaster win also provided Coolmore with a fifth Group 1 winner from just 18 runners by Japanese-based stallions.

Continuous, by Heart’s Cry, is the only horse of the quintet not by Deep Impact. Saxon Warrior, Fancy Blue, Auguste Rodin and Snowfall are all progeny of Japan’s industry shaping stallion to secure Group 1 honours for the industry powerhouse.

Continuous is the third foal out of the 95-rated blue blooded Galileo mare, Fluff. Her pedigree is no stranger to success from Japanese origins.

Fluff is a full-sister to Maybe, the dam of classic winner Saxon Warrior. Maybe has also produced the group winner, Drumroll, and blacktype performer Pavlenko, both by Deep Impact.

Fluff’s first two foals are by Deep Impact but neither achieved significant success on the track. However, tragic but ultimately fortuitous timing led to a switch of stallion and resulted in Fluff’s broodmare career being propelled to the highest echelons of breeding.

Fluff had been scheduled to visit Deep Impact for a third time in early 2019. Alternative plans had to be made when the Shadai Stallion Sation resident was suffering from a neck injury that prevented him from covering all but 24 mares in the earliest part of the breeding season.

Deep Impact eventually succumbed to those injuries in July at the age of 17. Enter Heart’s Cry.

Hugely successful

An elite performer both on the track and in the stallion ranks, Heart’s Cry has been hugely successful, albeit operating largely in the shadow cast by Deep Impact.

Despite being a dual Group 1 winner, his exploits on the racecourse are widely remembered by his defeat of Deep Impact in the 2005 Arima Kinen.

As a stallion, Heart’s Cry has been a constant presence at the summit of Japan’s stallion ranking table since entering stud in 2007, he retired from active breeding duty in 2020. Continuous provided a fitting international eulogy for the immensely popular son of Sunday Silence who died in March 2023.

Heart’s Cry had already tasted Group 1 success outside of the Land of the Rising Sun prior to the Doncaster showpiece. Just A Way, Yoshida, and Lys Gracieux all claimed Group 1 races on the global stage. As a sire of sires, Heart’s Cry’s son, Suave Richard, is currently the standout performer in this year’s JRA first season sire’s list.

Paca Paca

During much of her stint in Japan, Fluff resided at Dr Harry Sweeney’s Paca Paca Farm in the rolling hills of Hidaka. In tandem with the responsibilities of farm ownership, Sweeney presides over the Japanese arm of Godolphin’s breeding and racing operation.

Not for the first time, a subsequent classic winner has been raised and grazed on the expansive paddocks of the Paca Paca Farm.

The 2012 Tokyo Yushun (Derby) winner, Deep Brillante, was the first classic-winning graduate from the Irish-owned nursery. The 500-acre property is based in Japan’s equine breeding hub, nestled neatly on the northern most island of Hokkaido.

When asked about any political fallout from a current Godolphin president providing a vital cog in yet another Coolmore classic winner, Sweeney quipped: “Sure, aren’t we one big happy family! Paca Paca Farm was just happy to be able to help out a fellow Irish breeder during their brief sojourn in Japan.

“Kudos to Coolmore and partners – they have a true global view and deserve their success.”