The leading sire in Japan for 2022—which includes statistics from regional racing supervised by the National Association of Racing —was the late Deep Impact, who claimed his 11th consecutive title. The stallion's progeny earned ¥4,618,491,000 in total (US$34,957,589) for the year.
The sire died in July of 2019 after a cervical spine injury. He has only 12 foals from 2020, which was his 13th and final crop. Six of them are trained in Europe, including Auguste Rodin, who won the 2022 Futurity Trophy Stakes (G1) at Doncaster Racecourse. The remaining six 3-year-olds are trained in Japan.
Lord Kanaloa finished second with earnings of ¥4,360,663,000 ($33,006,076). The son of King Kamehameha was runner-up to Deep Impact for the third year in a row.
While the margin between the top two stallions was ¥3,693,818,000 ($27,958,693) in 2020, and ¥2,958,844,000 ($22,395,638) in 2021, it was only ¥257,828,000 ($1,951,513) in 2022. Thus, Lord Kanaloa is rapidly approaching Deep Impact, and it will be a major focus for Japan in 2023 to see if Deep Impact can extend his winning streak to 12 or if Lord Kanaloa will break his long-held leadership.
The leading sire of 2-Year-Olds was Duramente, who died in August of 2021 due to acute colitis, and the leading freshman sire was the New York-bred Mind Your Biscuits. King Kamehameha was the leading broodmare sire for a third consecutive year.
