If the importation of Sunday Silence took Japanese breeding to a whole new level, it has been his son Deep Impactwho has been most responsible for extending Sunday Silence's impact worldwide. That trend still continues. For example, last weekend Aidan O'Brien named Deep Impact's son Auguste Rodin as "...probably the most exciting we've ever had..." after an impressive victory in the Vertem Futurity Trophy Stakes (G1). And this past weekend Moon Ray took the Prix Miesque (G3) to become the second group winner and third stakes scorer from the first crop of 2-year-olds by Saxon Warrior, a horse bred on the same Deep Impact/Galileo cross as Auguste Rodin, and whom O'Brien saddled to win an English classic, the QIPCO Two Thousand Guineas (G1).
The real star of the weekend for the Sunday Silence line, however, was Kitasan Black, who with just two crops of runners on the ground was represented Oct. 29 by the 2-year-old filly Ravel, successful in the Artemis Stakes (G3), and on Sunday, by Equinox, who became his sire's first winner at the highest level, with a victory in a thrilling renewal of the Autumn Tenno Sho-Autumn Emperor's Cup (G1).
This was only the fifth start for Equinox, and his first against older horses. It was also his first outing since the end of May, when he missed by a neck in the Tokyo Yushun-Japan Derby (G1). Equinox has won two other races, including the Tokyo Sports Hai Nisai Stakes (G2), and also taken second in the Satsuki Sho Japanese Two Thousand Guineas (G1).
A grandson of Sunday Silence, Kitasan Black is not by one of that stallion's most storied sons, but instead, by Black Tide, a far less accomplished brother to Deep Impact. Foaled the year before Deep Impact, Black Tide was destined to race in the shadow of his two-time Horse of the Year sibling.
Some way removed from Japanese Triple Crown winner and two-time Horse of the Year Deep Impact's level of performance, Black Tide did show a measure of durability to stand up to 22 starts, racing to the age of 7. Considering that statistic, it comes of something of a surprise to find that Black Tide did almost all his best work in his first five starts. Successful over 10 furlongs on his debut at 2, Black Tide finished fourth in the Radio Tampa Hai Nisai Stakes in his only other start. Successful first time out at 3, Black Tide then took second in the Kisaragi Sho (G3), with the subsequent Nakheel Dubai Sheema Classic (G1) winner Heart's Cry in third.
On his third start of the year, Black Tide gained a stakes victory when taking the Fuji TV Sho Spring Stakes (G2), with Daiwa Major, later to become a multiple grade 1 winner and major sire, one place behind. After this good effort, Black Tide proved unable to replicate the same level of form, and although he went on to make a further 17 starts over four more seasons, he never again visited the winner's circle, although he did show flashes of form with two more seconds in black-type events, and a third in a graded contest.
Given a chance at stud, due more to the deeds of his younger brother than his own merit, Black Tide has sired 11 stakes winners, six of them graded, including one real standout in Kitasan Black. A foal of 2012, Kitasan Black was out of the Japanese-bred Sugar Heart. A daughter of the Japanese-bred Sakura Bakushino, Sugar Heart's dam was the Judge Angelucci mare Otome Gokoro, a Japanese-foaled half sister to Cee's Tizzy, the sire of Tiznow.
Although he won the Kikuka Sho-Japanese St. Leger (G1) and two other graded stakes at 3, it was at 4 and 5 that Kitasan Black really flourished, earning honors as Horse of the Year for both 2016 and 2017, and taking a Japan Cup (G1), an Arima Kinen Grand Prix (G1), the Autumn Tenno Sho (G1), and two runnings of the Spring Tenno Sho (G1).
Equinox's dam, Chateau Blanche, is also dam of the graded stakes-winning 4-year-old Weiss Meteor, a son of King Kamehameha. Chateau Blanche herself was a talented runner, taking the Mermaid Stakes (G3). Her sire, King Halo, could do no better than four listed wins in 27 starts but boasted an impressive pedigree, as he was by Dancing Brave, out of Goodbye Halo, successful in seven grade 1 events, including the Kentucky Oaks (G1), Mother Goose Stakes (G1) and Coaching Club American Oaks (G1).
Chateau Blanche's dam, Blancherie, was foaled in Japan and by the imported Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) captor Tony Bin, out of Maison Blanche, a North American-bred daughter of Alleged who was black-type placed while racing Japan. Maison Blanche's dam, Blanche Reine, was foaled in France. She was half sister to Run and Deliver, a Danzig son who earned grade 1 honors in Peru, and to three French stakes winners. The most notable of those was Lyphard's Son, a four-time group winner who was rated the second best 2-year-old in France in 1978. Subsequently he would become a significant factor in pedigrees through his grandson Linamix, twice Leading Sire in France.
The family goes back to the foundation mare Pearl Maiden, a foal of 1918 who is ancestress of numerous important horses, among them Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe victor Molvedo; Pearl Cap, who took the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches-French One Thousand Guineas, Prix de Diane-French Oaks, and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (the first filly to win that race); another Poule d'Essai winner, Bipearl; Pearl Diver, winner of the Epsom Derby; Prix du Jockey-Club-French Derby scorer Pearlweed; Tourment, who landed both the Poule d'Essai des Poulains-French Two Thousand Guineas and Prix Royal-Oak-French St. Leger; Fine Pearl and Lypharita, both successful in the Prix de Diane (G1 in the case Lypharita); Belmez, winner of the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1); Epsom Oaks heroine Sleeping Partner; the brilliant Australia multiple classic winning filly Triscay; and an earlier Japanese star in Bitto Chidori, whose successes included the Ouka Shou-Japanese One Thousand Guineas.
Through Sunday Silence and Goodbye Halo, Equinox is inbred 4x4 to Halo. The pedigree patter is more complex than that, however, due to the presence of Drone and Sir Ivor in the pedigree of his broodmare sire, King Halo. Halo is by Hail to Reason, by Turn-to, out a mare by a son of Pharamond II, and his second dam, Almahmoud, is by Mahmoud. Drone is by Sir Gaylord, by Turn-to, out of a mare by a grandson of Pharamond II, with a second dam by Mahmoud, and Sir Ivor is by Sir Gaylord, by Turn-to out of a mare by a son of Mahmoud, with a second dam by Pharamond II.
