Japan Cup 2009 in the books

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(Vodka on right - chestnut Oken Bruce Lee on left from Reuters)

The year of the mare continues as the mare Vodka won the 2009 Japan Cup by a whisker over the fast closing Oken Bruce Lee who had to come from dead last at the top of the stretch in the eighteen horse field. What a finish as another filly Red Desire finished third. The five-year-old Vodka becomes the first Japanese female to top the $10 million mark in career earnings and will most likely retire. It's always exciting watching the Japan Cup in Japanese. The crowd at one point looks an American football crowd waving their little souvenirs. One of the owners of Vodka breaks down when the photo finally comes up (it took an eternity according to some). You will never be able to convince me this is not an emotional sport (in any language). Jockey Christophe Lemaire thought he had lost it at the wire but the photo proved otherwise. Vodka was not a descendant of the Dancer but Oken Bruce Lee and Red Desire were. I will leave their earnings for the race in Yen and let you do the conversion - staggering purses in Japan.

1) Vodka 293,000,000 yen
2) Oken Bruce Lee 106,000,000 yen Great Great Grandson (X3)
3) Red Desire 53,000,000 yen Great Great Granddaughter (X2)

Great Japanese HQ video of the race
http://www.videohighlights.net/29112009-japan-cup-2009-horse-racing/

My previous post about the Dancer's International Impact by classic race (before Japan Cup run)
http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/lets-jump-ahead-to-today-nov-12-2009.html

The Dancer - Review

This is a quick review of the blog so far in terms of my original book published in 2008 but started in 2005. I wanted to put the chapters in their original order with links back to their position in the blog. The blog has just built on the original data from 2005 and I think continues to show the impact Northern Dancer has had on his sport. This year has been a good one to come in for a snapshot of the sport as we head into a new decade and to celebrate the anniversary of his death by revisiting Windfields Farm before it becomes another subdivision. From any of these links you can just keep hitting the newer links to get the 2009 perspective and home to get back here. You can always click on the blog archive on the bottom right of the blog which have the blog posts listed in the order they were posted.

Chapter 1
A New National Hero (May 2, 1964)
http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/chapter-1.html

Chapter 2
Our Hero Has Become A Legend (Oct 29, 2005)
http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/chapter-2.html

Chapter 3
Nijinsky (Sept 12, 1970)
http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/chapter-3.html

Chapter 4
The Dancer's International Impact (Dec 31,2005)
http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/chapter-4.html

Chapter 6
The Dancer's Place In History
http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/chapter-6.html

Chapter 8
A Champion Becomes A Legend - Makybe Diva (Nov 1, 2005)
http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/chapter-8.html

Chapter 9
Inaugural World Rankings (Nov 2005)
http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/chapter-9_22.html

Chapter 39
A Sentimental Journey to Windfields Farm (Feb, 2006)
http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/chapter-39.html

The Latest World Rankings

Here are the latest world rankings from the International Federation of Horse Racing. Just as it was in 2005 - all but one of the top 30 are direct descendants of Northern Dancer. I added the lifetime earnings for each horse - they are approximate. Eighteen of the thirty are direct male descendants.



Link to World Rankings
http://www.horseracingintfed.com/resources/2009Rankings/2009_1108_WTR.asp

Latest Numbers on Leading Sires of 2009

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Here are the latest numbers on International Sires earnings up to November 20,2009 for only descendants of our little Dancer. As always these days the Japanese purses tend to dominate the International earnings list with their huge prize money but there are several countries represented here. I had to use a staggered year to bring in the Australian and New Zealand numbers since their season runs July to June.

I used the top 100 according to bloodhorse.com and found 75% were descendants of Northern Dancer and added another 10 from the Australian/New Zealand list. In just these 86 sires we have over 640 million dollars in earnings in less than one year of racing.

Notice who is sitting on the list with $5.4 million in offspring earnings - the Dancer's retired son, Sadler's Wells. All Sadler's Wells has done over his stallion career is lead Britain's sires list 14 times since 1990 with 13 of those years in a row from 1992-2004 (he finished 2nd in 1991). He also led the French list 3 times and the North American list once. (click on them to enlarge a chart)




Bloodhorse Leading International Sires
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/thoroughbred-breeding/sire-lists/international

Let's refresh that 2005 leading sires chart

I will not have complete data for 2009 for a while so here is the chart for 2008. Click on the chart to enlarge it - you may have to click it twice.

International Cataloguing Standards from the Jockey Club Information Systems

http://www.tjcis.com/pdf/icsc00/frontmaterial.pdf

Let's add another page of races

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(click on chart to enlarge)

As I researched this year's classics I had to pass over some big races so I thought I would add another page. There were some big purses in here. There was only 1 of these 36 top 3 finishers who was not a descendant of the Dancer. Even I was surprised how solid the 2009 results were. I honestly thought we could see a slight decline by now. The impact of this extraordinary character is staggering.

Let's jump ahead to today - Nov 12, 2009

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(click to enlarge charts)

Here are the same two charts to this point in 2009. The earnings here are just approximations again and probably on the low side (and converted to $US). I will always use earnings as a relative form of measurement in this sport, if for no other reason than it emphasizes the impact this one little thoroughbred had on his sport. It also reflects the relative health of the sport which definitely has had its ups and downs over the years.

Of the 25 races I have been following since 2005 there are 3 that have not taken place yet this year. I will update the last 3 races when they run. Of the 66 top 3 finishers in the books all but 2 of them were descendants of Northern Dancer and more and more seem to have mutliple links. We are talking about 14 different countries here on 5 different continents.