BRINGING ASIAN RACING TO THE WORLD
Future opportunities to stand a son of the late Deep Impact could well be limited so securing a classy stallion by the great Japanese champion looks sound business for Haras Vacación, and Windsor Park and Mapperley Studs.
15 March 2023
There was big news for breeders in Argentina and New Zealand this week and it all revolved around the great Deep Impact and two of his highly-performed but ultimately underachieving sons, Satono Flag and Profondo.
The late Deep Impact’s progeny will naturally fade out of the racetrack rounds all too soon but there are still one or two big wins likely to be added to his stud record for a little while yet, and his five-year-old son Prognosis emphasised that point with a smart success in the G2 Kinko Sho at Chukyo on Sunday.
The Mitsumasa Nakauchida-trained entire now has five wins on the board from eight career starts and looks set to take a hand in Group 1 contests this season. If that is the case, he too, in time, could join the list of Deep Impact’s stallion sons around the globe. That list is expanding, but it cannot do so for much longer.
Satono Flag’s relocation across hemispheres to Haras Vacación is a notable coup for the Argentine industry and for South America as a whole, with the stallion being the first son of Deep Impact sold to stand on the continent.
“Deep Impact was absolutely dominant in Japan, even surpassing Sunday Silence, his father, who changed the history of Japanese turf,” Haras Vacación manager Agustín Ventimiglia told the Spanish-language Turf Diario.
“(Satono Flag) knew how to win and he competed against the best of his generation … He has an impressive physique … and we are very excited and happy with his arrival.”
Satono Flag was a high-class galloper but the fact that he is making his way to Argentina is a good clue that he was not among the top rank of Deep Impact’s sons. If he was, he’d be at Shadai Stallion Station alongside Contrail, Kizuna, Mikki Isle, Real Steel, Satono Diamond and Danon Kingly.
The freshman stallion won three of his 11 starts – a hat-trick straddling his two and three-year-old campaigns – including the G2 Deep Impact Kinen; he was fifth in the G1 Satsuki Sho, 11th in the G1 Tokyo Yushun, and third in the G1 Kikuka Sho, each time behind the triple crown winner Contrail; he missed the entirety of 2022 due to an injury and failed to finish on his comeback attempt in January.
But Satono Flag’s acquisition is especially significant given that he is out of the champion Argentine race mare Balada Sale. She was bred at Haras Vacación – located outside the town of San Antonio de Areco, northwest of Buenos Aires – and was a Group 1 winner at home before racing, unsuccessfully, at the Dubai Carnival and in France, and being sold as a broodmare to Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm in Japan.
“Balada Sale was one of the best mares that we bred in our history, and today we are proud of how she is performing in Japan,” said Ventimiglia.
Balada Sale has also produced Satono Flag’s Group 1-placed sister Satono Reinas, whose racing career ended after a sterling fifth behind Shahryar in the 2021 G1 Tokyo Yushun. At five years of age, she is already alongside her dam at Northern.
Meanwhile, Deep Impact’s sons are now their father’s future and their reach is extending as his bloodline is sought around the world. At the end of January Asian Racing Report looked at the potential influence of his sons at stud in New Zealand, Staphanos at Novara Park and the shuttler Satono Aladdin at Rich Hill Stud, and the latter, in particular, has continued to flourish, most notably via his son Tokyo Tycoon, winner of the G1 Sistema Stakes at Pukekohe last Saturday.
But the excitement in that part of the world this week has been for Profondo, a horse that had looked like being a superstar for trainer Richard Litt, only to mix his form and fall short of expectations, somewhat like the same handler’s dual Group 1-winner Castelvecchio three or four years ago.
Profondo was a AU$1.9 million yearling at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale in 2020, having been offered by Arrowfield Stud whose supremo John Messara has long been a fan and backer of Deep Impact and Japanese breeding in general. But many a high-priced, well-bred colt has failed on the track, so for Profondo to have won the G1 Spring Champion Stakes so impressively at only his third start was justification indeed.
Deep Impact would be proud!
Profondo blitzes them in the Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes.
A first Group 1 for jockey Robbie Dolan @ZRKD. pic.twitter.com/4zg6A85A28
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) October 9, 2021
The ease of that win suggested a new star was in the making, but that was as good as it got. Sure, he was third to the champion Anamoe in the G1 Winx Stakes back in August last year, but he never really came close to winning another race and even put in a handful of headscratchers, including when last in both the G1 Cox Plate and the G3 Liverpool City Cup at his last two starts.
But his pedigree and the memory of that Spring Champion, a race that proved his latent athletic brilliance, are what have so enthused Mapperley Stud and Windsor Park Stud about their partnership agreement to stand the stallion.
As Messara said: “Profondo has the attributes you look for in a stallion; physique, genetics and performance. Importantly he is from a stallion-making family.”
Sons of Deep Impact in Australia include Coolmore’s Saxon Warrior, Tosen Stardom and Fierce Impact, while shuttlers from Japan feature Mikki Isle, Real Impact and Real Steel.
In Europe, as well as Saxon Warrior, his sons at stud have included Study Of Man at Lanwades in England, Martinborough in France, Italy’s leading sire Albert Dock, and Barocci who has sired several crops in Sweden, while Satono Ares stands in Turkey and Danon Platina is at stud in South Africa.
Among Deep Impact’s top-level sons still racing is Shahryar, all set to defend his G1 Dubai Sheema Classic crown at Meydan next week. He would be another strong addition to Deep Impact’s stallion son legacy but with no more Deep Impact crops to come, the Satono Flag and Profondo deals are looking like good business for Argentine and New Zealand breeders.
New Zealand could be fertile ground for Deep Impact’s boys
