'He just suits the market' - Tosen chosen for global Stardom by Zenith Stallions

It's a tricky business launching a new stallion on to the scene, especially when the marketplace is crowded. 

How best to garner the attention and business required to turn a promising venture into a successful career? Sometimes the simplest way is to provide something out of the ordinary.

In Tosen Stardom, the team behind Zenith Stallion Station definitely offers an eyecatching alternative. The Japanese-bred Group 1 winner is one of only a handful of sons of the extraordinary Deep Impact at stud in Europe and initial indications suggest that, in their own ways, the breed-shaping stallion's sons will make a deep impact on European racing and breeding.

Two of them enjoyed a very successful 2022 with their first crops; Saxon Warrior's debut group contained three Group winners headed by the Grade 1 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Victoria Road, while in Italy Albert Dock was crowned leading sire last season with a first-crop winner of the Group 2 Premio Lydia Tesio and is now that country's most expensive stallion. 

This year Study Of Man's first runners will take to the racecourse, and in France Group 1 NHK Mile Cup winner Keiai Nautique begins his breeding career at Karwin Farm.

Then there is Auguste Rodin; the Group 1 winner and Classic favourite is a stunning reminder of Deep Impact's brilliance.

All in all it's an auspicious year to introduce a son of the outstanding stallion to the Irish market and that is exactly what Tom Wallace, Ali Farooq and Hamad Al Kadfoor are doing with Tosen Stardom, who shuttles from Woodside Park Stud in Victoria for the first time.

"You'd love to stand a stallion but getting into stallions in Ireland in particular and getting a stallion you could say justifies becoming involved in that area is difficult," says Wallace of Lemongrove Stud, where Tosen Stardom is standing his first Irish breeding season.

Damian Lane and Tosen Stardom win at Caulfield on Guineas day in October 2017Credit: Scott Barbour (Getty Images)

"It's very easy to find Listed and Group 3-winning horses that people want you to stand but, realistically, you know you are not going to get mares for them. If you are going to stand a horse, you want to stand something that you like yourself and are going to get mares for."

Tosen Stardom fits the bill when it comes to pedigree, performance and good looks. Bred by Northern Racing, he sold for Y250,000,000 (£1.55m/€1.75m) as a yearling and won both of his juvenile starts, including the Listed Kyoto Nisai Stakes.

His two successes as a three-year-old were in Group 3 contests and then as a four-year-old he was sent to Sydney for the Spring Carnival, where he finished runner-up in the Group 1 Ranvet Stakes on his debut in Australia. Back to Japan he added another Listed success to his resume before his purchase by a consortium including Australian Bloodstock led to a permanent move to Victoria.

He made 12 starts for his new connections, earning Group 1 triumphs in the Emirates Stakes and Toorak Handicap, and he was second in successive editions of the Futurity Stakes. His trip versatility adds to his appeal as his Group 1 victories came at a mile and at ten furlongs, while the Futurity Stakes is a seven-furlong race.

Subsequently, Tosen Stardom was retired to stand at Woodside Park in 2018 and was retained for the stud's roster when the Victorian farm was purchased by Eddie Hirsch two years ago. He will fly back to Australia for this year's southern hemisphere breeding season.

His first Australian crop are three-year-olds and already contain the impressive performer Shuriken, who was fourth in the Group 2 Sandown Guineas, an effort which caught the eye of Hong Kong owners who subsequently bought him privately to race there.

The connection between County Westmeath and Victoria was made by Farooq, who had been on the hunt for a stallion with international appeal to stand in Europe. Through an initial conversation with Ken Carroll of Lewinstown Stud, the deal to bring Tosen Stardom to Ireland sparked into life.

Brave Smash (white cap) leads home stablemate and fellow Japanese-bred Tosen Stardom (left) in the FuturityCredit: Vince Caligiuri (Getty Images)

Although Tosen Stardom is the first stallion Wallace has stood at the Westmeath farm, he lacks for nothing when it comes to experience in that aspect of the business. He managed the stallion barn at Watercress Farm, the Kentucky stud where Shamardal was bred and where Cigar underwent fertility treatment.

Naturally, Wallace engaged in due diligence before committing to standing Tosen Stardom and his research returned positive results.

"The people in Australia I have spoken to about him, like him because he gets you a good-looking horse and a horse with a sound mind," he says. 

"Yes, he is a big horse, but when you see him walk or move, he doesn't walk or move like a big horse. When you're doing anything with him in the box, he doesn't feel like a big horse."

That is the advantage of standing a horse who, while new to the market in Ireland, already has stock on the ground. Those youngsters are exhibiting all the physical attributes that appeal to buyers.

"He's a sound, hard-knocking horse and really good-looking," says Wallace. "We all know that when you go to the sales you need a big foal to sell and they have to have a nice walk. Foals need to be athletic and with a lot of size, which he brings. 

"He is dark bay and I believe all his foals so far are all bays. He just suits the market. "

Tosen Stardom's pedigree also offers a variation on the usual theme. Deep Impact's success with Galileo mares is no secret with 15 per cent stakes winners to runners - Saxon Warrior, Auguste Rodin and Snowfall are all bred on that cross, while Prix de Diane winner Fancy Blue has Sadler's Wells as her broodmare sire. 

The experienced Tom Wallace has become Tosen Stardom's stallion master at Lemongrove

That suggests Tosen Stardom should work with the large proportion of the mare population which has Sadler's Wells blood.

His female family combines lines of Mr Prospector and Northern Dancer that are a little less familiar than those which gained prepotency in Europe.

Tosen Stardom's dam Admire Kirameki is inbred to both those sires; she is a daughter of End Sweep, who was champion first-season sire in North America with a then world record 33 winners, from just 74 named foals, prior to his purchase by Japanese and Australian interests. He stood between the Shadai Stallion Station and Arrowfield Farm for just three seasons before his premature death in 2002, but left behind Admire Moon.

End Sweep shares his sire Forty Niner with Distorted Humor.

Admire Kirameki won four times, including over six furlongs as a two-year-old, and in addition to Tosen Stardom has foaled his sister, the Group 2 Sankei Sho All Comers winner Centelleo and their half-brother, the Listed Hanshin Marguerite Stakes third Neo Stardom.

Her own half-brother, Tosen Jordan, won the Group 1 Tenno Sho and three Group 2 contests, and was twice placed in the Japan Cup. Another half-brother, Tosen Homareboshi, by Deep Impact, was a Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed, while their Harbinger half-brother Tosen Basil was second in the Group 1 Underwood Stakes and third in the Hong Kong Vase.

In all, Tosen Stardom's second dam Every Whisper foaled five black-type performers from six winners and is a Northern Taste sister to the multiple Japanese Listed winner Big Shori and to Very Brilliant, dam of Group 1 winner Company. 

Third dam Crafty Wife, by Crafty Prospector, was a six-time Listed winner in the United States.

The unfamiliar names and races on his page have attracted comment, but Wallace cites the greatest influences in the modern thoroughbred as precedence.

"I know a few people have brought up that his pedigree is all American and Japanese bloodlines, but most of the best horses that worked in the past here were American - Northern Dancer and Mr Prospector themselves - so it's not really anything new," he says.

Different but in many ways not altogether removed from the familiar. It may be the way for Tosen Stardom to make an impact on the stallion market in Ireland.

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