THERE was no fairytale end to Auguste Rodin’s career in Japan at the weekend. Rather, it was the race favourite Do Deuce (Heart’s Cry), coming off his Group 1 Tenno Sho (Autumn) triumph, who claimed his fifth Group 1 victory in this year’s Japan Cup, adding to his success in the Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes at two in 2021, the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) in 2022 and the Arima Kinen in 2023.

This was trainer Yasuo Tomomichi’s 21st JRA Group 1 win while jockey Yutaka Take claimed his 83rd. For Tomomichi, this is his second Japan Cup title after his win in 2017 with Cheval Grand, (also a son of Heart’s Cry), while Take increased the record of the most Japan Cup titles won by the same jockey to five, adding to wins with Special Week (1999), Deep Impact (2006), Rose Kingdom (2010) and Kitasan Black (2016).

With his career winnings now approaching £11,000,000, Do Deuce has fully justified the $1 million investment made by Katsumi Yoshida at the Keeneland November Sale in 2016 for the Vindication (Seattle Slew) mare Dust And Diamonds. She was sold in foal to Pioneerof The Nile (Empire Maker), and four years earlier Dust And Diamonds had realised $900,000 when she was nearly at the end of her racing career.

At the time of her sale to Mr Yoshida, Dust And Diamonds’ first offspring, a then two-year-old daughter Legallini (Hard Spun) had run once and been unplaced. She later won, and has since found her way to Japan where her son Tin Tin Deo (Drefong) is a winner this year. Dust And Diamonds had a then yearling filly (Amada Rafaela (Distorted Humor) who won at three) and colt foal on the ground. The latter, by Pioneerof The Nile, sold for $600,000 at the same sale. At the time it appeared that Mr Yoshida had bought well, but time has shown that he did very well indeed.

Dust And Diamond’s sixth produce is the five-year-old Heart’s Cry (Sunday Silence) colt Do Deuce. Bred at Northern Farm, he was unbeaten in three starts at two, and his victory in the Group 1 Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes at Hanshin earned him the honour of being crowned champion two-year-old in Japan. That year he also won the Listed Ivy Stakes.

Though he did not remain unbeaten, as a three-year-old Do Deuce won the Group 1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), and he was sent to contest the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe where he beat just one home. As 2023 drew to a close Do Deuce won a third Group 1 when he captured the Group 1 Arima Kinen, adding this to an earlier win in the Group 2 Kyoto Kinen. Last year’s Arima Kinen was a quality field comprising eight Group 1 winners, and they included the three most recent winners of the Japanese Derby.

While victory in the Arima Kinen has often signalled the retirement to stud of the winner, not so with Do Deuce. He had a poor start to his year, but has come good in his two most recent starts, both Group 1 contests.

Dust And Diamonds’ first six foals have won, with the $600,000 foal buy I mentioned earlier, named Much Better, going on to win back some $350,000 of what he cost with seven wins and a couple of Grade 3 placings. He is still racing as an eight-year-old, and is a winner this year in the USA.

More glory

Much Better’s full-sister, Fulleran (Pioneerof The Nile), was born in Japan and she has won four times there. She was followed by Lonsdaleite (Deep Impact) who won on his second start at three and added another victory at the age of five. Kieffers Co Ltd, the owners of Do Deuce, spent the equivalent of $665,000 last year on a now two-year-old half-brother to Do Deuce by Real Steel (Deep Impact), and he has been named Ender Dragon. Dust And Diamonds foaled a filly last year by Silver State (Deep Impact).

Dust And Diamonds raced on 11 occasions and she won six times, half of them in stakes company. Her victories include the Grade 2 Gallant Bloom Handicap at Belmont and a Grade 3 at Gulfstream Park, and she was a fine second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint on dirt at Santa Anita 11 years ago. She raced for most of her career for Padua Stables and Richard Santulli, though her victory in the Grade 3 Sugar Swirl Stakes was her sole run in the ownership of Borges Torrealba Holdings and Three Chimneys Farm.

Stakes winner

The best of six winners from dual winner Majestically (Gone West), Dust And Diamonds is a granddaughter of Darling Dame (Lyphard), a multiple stakes winner in the USA and later responsible for five winners at stud. One of these was the minor stakes winner Majestic Vintage (Cuvee).

Darling Dame was an own-sister to the stakes-placed Grand Door Prize (Lyphard) and a half-sister to the unraced Lovely Martha (Storm Bird). The latter mare went to stud and produced Sand Springs (Dynaformer) whose nine victories included the Grade 1 Diana Handicap. She sold for $2.7 million in 2007 and has become a stakes producer.

Heart’s Cry raced for Shadai Farm and was champion in Japan as a four-year-old, that year having also run second in the Group 1 Japan Cup, just beaten in a close finish by the Luca Cumani-trained Alkaased. At the time the majority of the best races in Japan only carried listed status as they were not open to foreign runners.

Classic-placed at three, Heart’s Cry won the Group 1 Arima Kinen at four, a victory that is forever remembered as the only time that Deep Impact suffered a defeat in Japan.

As a five-year-old the son of Sunday Silence (Halo) travelled to the UAE and won the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic, the second Japanese winner of the race, and then Heart’s Cry was third, beaten two half-lengths by Hurricane Run and Electrocutionist, in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.

Group 1 wins

At stud Heart’s Cry is responsible now for a dozen Group 1 winners, and quite a few have gained success at that level outside of Japan. Lys Gracieux has won four Group 1s, two in Japan and two in Australia, the latter comprising the Cox Plate and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. Yoshida, repatriated to Japan, won twice at Grade 1 level in the USA, Admire Rakti captured the Caulfield Cup, while one of Just A Way’s two Group 1 wins included the Dubai Duty Free Stakes. Last year, Heart’s Cry’s son Continuous won the Group 1 St Leger for Ballydoyle and Coolmore.

The Japanese champion racehorse Heart’s Cry died at the age of 22 in March last year. The son of Sunday Silence had stood at Shadai Stallion Station since his retirement from racing in 2007. At the news of his death, Shadai Farm’s Teruya Yoshida said: “He produced so many top horses as a stallion, and he was also the horse who helped to break through the barriers and anxieties of overseas racing trips. After retiring from stud duties, he spent his time comfortably in the field.”

Retired

The sire of 68 individual stakes winners, Heart’s Cry retired from stud duties at the age of 20 and he has also become a respected broodmare sire. His daughters have produced the Group 1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) winner and now Shadai stallion Efforia (Epiphaneia).

Do Deuce is the second of Heart’s Cry’s sons to capture the Arima Kinen after Lys Gracieux, the second to win the Group 1 Asahi Hai Futurity as Salios won it five years ago, and he has now sired three winners of the Group 1 Japan Cup, Suave Richard and Cheval Grand being the others.

When Do Deuce won the Japanese Derby, he became the second of just two horses to ever defeat Equinox. Do Deuce had earlier run third in the Group 1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) to Geologist and Equinox, the world’s best runner in 2023.