REMEMBER the name. Daring Tact. At the weekend this three-year-old filly, a first crop daughter of Epiphaneia (Symboli Kris S), stretched her unbeaten record to three when she effortlessly won the first classic of the year in Japan, the Group 1 Oka Sho-1000 Guineas.

Winner of her only outing at two, Daring Tact was impressive on her seasonal bow in the Listed Elfin Stakes back in February and she went into everyone’s notebook after that. She will now step up in trip for the Japanese Oaks, and few will oppose her chances of recording a classic double. She is already quite the bargain buy as she was sold for the equivalent of about $110,000 as a yearling.

She is the sole stakes winner to date for her sire who was a leading runner in his native country. Undefeated in three starts at two, his victories included Group 3 and listed wins over a mile and a quarter. Runner-up in both the Japanese 2000 Guineas and Derby, he got a well-deserved classic success in the Group 1 Kikuka Sho-St Leger.

At the age of four he had his biggest success when he beat Just A Way in the Group 1 Japan Cup, leading to hopes that he would prove able on the international scene. He had earlier that year travelled to Hong Kong where he finished fourth to Designs On Rome in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup. Kept in training at five, with the stated aim of running in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, he finished last of nine in the Group 1 Dubai World Cup on what was to be his sole outing of 2015. He suffered an injury and went to stud in 2016 at Shadai Stallion Station.

Such was the impression that his first runners made in 2019 that his fee for this year was doubled to €43,000. That first crop already numbers 43 individual winners and in addition to Daring Tact, includes six other stakes-placed winners, four of them at group level. Epiphaneia was the second leading first season sire in 2019.

Epiphaneia is the best son of the Japanese champion three-year-old colt Symboli Kris S (Kris S). That American-foaled colt, bred by Takahiro Wada, won both the Arima Kinen and the Tenno Sho twice, and like his son he too was runner-up in the Japanese Derby. He was twice named Japanese Horse of the Year and he was retired from stud duties last November.

Daring Tact is the second produce and first runner for her dam Daring Bird, a daughter of King Kamehameha (Kingmambo). That mare was unplaced on her only start and she has an unraced two-year-old full-sister to the classic winner, named Maono Zenith, and a yearling own-sister too. Her first foal was not named.

Daring Bird is a full-sister to a two-year-old winner and a half-sister to a couple of other minor winners. They are all out of Daring Heart (Sunday Silence), a Group 3 winner who was runner-up in the NHK Mile Cup and third in the Japanese 1000 Guineas. She joined fellow Japanese Group 3 winner Pit Fighter (Pulpit) and Ecton Park as stakes winners from the unraced Daring Danzig (Danzig).

Ecton Park (Forty Niner) became the leading sire in Korea in 2018, dethroning his great racing rival Menifee whose reign at the top of the table stretched to six consecutive years. Last year the now deceased Menifee regained the crown, with Ecton Park back in third.

As a racehorse, Ecton Park ran 12th in the 1999 Kentucky Derby, which was won by Charismatic with Menifee second. That same year Ecton Park went on to win the Grade 2 Jim Dandy Stakes at Saratoga and the Grade 1 Super Derby at Louisiana Downs and he retired to stud with six victories, four in stakes, and earnings of more than $1.5 million.

Ecton Park was imported to Korea in 2009. Even before his first Korean crop hit the ground, he had made an impact on Korean racing with his 2007 produce Mister Park, who was imported in-utero, scoring a record-breaking 17 consecutive race victories between 2009 and 2011. Prior to that Summit Party won the JRA Trophy and Segye Ilbo Cup, while another filly, Miss Ecton, won the Busan Ilbo Cup in 2008.

Ecton Park has been standing privately at Isidore Farm since arriving in Korea and his success has been hard won, competing for mares with the KRA stallions. He also finished second on the leading sire table in 2015 and 2017 and third in 2016. Triple Nine has been his biggest earner, while he also sired the talented Indie Band, who won the President’s Cup and Grand Prix Stakes at three before injury curtailed his career.

Daring Tact’s fourth dam was the multiple stakes winner Impetuous Girl (Briarctic). She won the Grade 2 Matron Handicap and half of her six winners did so at stakes level. Best of the trio was Banker’s Lady, a hugely talented racemare who won eight of her 10 starts, three of them achieved in Grade 1 races. They were the Ladies Handicap, Top Flight Handicap and the Shuvee Handicap. In the latter she gave weight and a beating to the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby heroine Winning Colors.

At stud Banker’s Lady’s best offspring was Banker’s Gold (Forty Niner), a multiple Grade 2 winner who narrowly missed out on a big win, running second in both the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap and Carter Handicap. What Banker’s Lady failed to do was achieved by her half-sister Devil’s Dispute (Devil’s Bag), breed a Grade 1 winner.

Devil’s Dispute bred a couple of stakes winners at stud, the best of which was the Grade 1 Jenny Wiley Stakes winner Daisy Devine (Kafwain). She sold as a filly in training in 2013 to Flaxman Holdings for $1,300,000. This is also the family of the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks winner Personal Diary (City Zip) and she is now in Japan where her first two produce are a two-year-old colt and a yearling filly, both by Deep Impact (Sunday Silence).