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Sunday Silence may be gone, but his influence is still a very present factor. The recently published Leading Sires Table for Japan shows the great son of Halo a clear winner by more than $9 million. What is particularly significant, however, is the the domination of the rest of the top 10 by sons of Sunday Silence. Second and third are Agnes Tachyon and Dance in the Dark. Fuji Kiseki is third, with Special Week eighth and Admire Vega tenth. Incidentally, these horses' achievements might have been predicted from their TrueNicks ratings, which give an A++ scores to Agnes Tachyon and Special Week, an A+ to Fuji Kiseki and Admire Vega, and a B+ to Dance in the Dark.

It also appears that the Sunday Silence influence is going to be effective outside of Japan. Divine Line, a French-based son of Sunday Silence, sired Natagora, Europe's top 2-year-old filly of 2007, from a handful of first crop foals; and Bubble Gum Fellow, Fuji Kiseki, and Tayasu Tsuyoshi all have grade I winners sired from foals conceived in Australia.

This year, U.S. breeders are going to have a chance to breed to two well-qualified first-year sons of Sunday Silence in Silent Name (TrueNicks, SRO), who retires to Adena Springs, and Hat Trick, who will begin his stud career at Walmac. Silent Name, out of the Danehill mare Danzigaway, is an A++ TrueNick, based on the Sunday Silence/Danehill cross, which has also produced the brilliant Australian filly Sunday Joy. Bred by the Wertheimer brothers - who if memory serves right had two stakes winners from the four European foals they bred by Sunday Silence - Silent Name was a multiple stakes winner in France. Last year at 4, he won the Arcadia Handicap (gr. II) and was twice grade I placed, and this year, he took the Commonwealth Breeders' Cup Stakes (gr. II) on Turfway's all-weather track in sensational style, and earned another grade I placing. Silent Name has one cross of Northern Dancer, through his broodmare sire, Danehill, but that horse also brings in a half sister to Northern Dancer, so Northern Dancer seems to be a natural here.

Hat Trick was foaled in Japan, and was that country's champion miler at 4 when he won the Kyoto Mile Championship (gr. I), while setting a new Japanese record for the distance, the Sports Nippon Sho Kyoto Kimpai Handicap and Tokyo Shimbun Hai (both gr. III), as well as traveling to Hong Kong to defeat an international field for the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile (gr. I).

Despite being foaled in Japan, Hat Trick has a pedigree which is entirely North American, as his dam is the speedy Lost Code mare Tricky Code, a three-time stakes winner, including the Santa Ynez Breeders' Cup Stakes (gr. II), and also grade I-placed. Like Silent Name, Hat Trick is a TrueNicks A++ scorer, this time on the basis of the Halo/Lost Code cross. Hat Trick is completely free of Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector (and Raise a Native), and among the broodmare sires which give a good score here is one of his Walmac predecessors, Nureyev.

Filed under: Sire Lines