Silk Racing President Masashi Yonemoto reported that nine-time group 1 winner and two-time Japan Racing Association Horse of the Year Almond Eye is currently in foal to exciting young stallion Kitasan Black.
Almond Eye, a winner of 11 of 15 lifetime starts for earnings of ¥1,915,263,900 (US$17.6 million) for Silk Racing, retired as the all-time leading money earner in Japan. Her mate, Kitasan Black, is a seven-time group 1 winner and the JRA Horse of the Year in 2016 and 2017. He is the second-leading money earner with a bankroll of ¥1,876,843,000 (US$16.57 million).
Kitasan Black has already proven himself early in the breeding shed, begetting the brilliant Equinox from his first crop of runners. Silk Racing's Equinox, last year's JRA Horse of the Year, trounced his foes in the March 25 $6 million Dubai Sheema Classic (G1) at Meydan Racecourse.
Almond Eye's first foal, a colt by Shadai Stallion Farm's Epiphaneia, was born last year. The bay colt will run carrying the silks of Silk Racing, as did his mother, and shares in the colt will be on the market through Silk Racing in July.
The 8-year-old daughter of Lord Kanaloa delivered a colt by 2015 JRA Horse of the Year and notable sire Maurice this spring.
