Lani puts big race credentials to the test

Way back in 1986 a little filly foal was born who would in the passage of time be destined to have an affect on the horse racing and breeding programme in far away Japan.

The filly bred by Newmarket’s Swettenham Stud was named First Act. For a while to come it appeared that her contribution to racing may well be zero. She did not make it to the racetrack herself but she was sent to the breeding sheds and produced two foals by the fairly ordinary stallion Sure Blade.

Her offspring didn’t amount to much either. Suntara, trained by the top-class Barry Hills, achieved a lowly rating of just 73 after winning a maiden race at Brighton which is one of the lesser tracks in England.

A total of eleven races did not see her improve that figure. First Act’s next offspring, Stage Fright won three moderate long distance chases on the northern jump circuit for the trainer Ferdy Murphy.

Not exactly what His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, had in mind when he sent his Sadlers Wells mare, First Act, to stud.

Wind the clock forward ten years and up pops the now fourteen-year-old mare First Act in Japan producing a filly foal by the outstanding stallion Sunday Silence.

A winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes Sunday Silence had, like many before and since, missed out on the Triple Crown when bombing out in the Belmont-to Easy Goer.

He had been exported to Japan from the US after his retirement and was an outstanding success there. Initially his progeny were confined to home ground but now the name Sunday Silence appears in pedigrees worldwide.

Suffice to say that at last First Act was bred to the best available the resulting foal named Heavenly Romance turned out an admirable race mare running thirty-three times for eight wins including a Group 1 and two Group 2’s and no less than $3.5 million (Dh12 million) in prize money.

Rather more than her half siblings back in the UK. But the story is far from finished.

Now a brood mare herself, she currently has three of her foals on the track: Amour Briller, her daughter by Smart Strike, has won six races in Japan, the latest only in December; and the very smart Awardee, by Jungle Pocket, is the winner of five races, two of which were Group 3’s.

But of course it’s her third foal we are most interested in, the enigmatic and beautifully named 2016 UAE Derby winner Lani. His name is Hawaiian for Heavenly and once again he is brightening up the morning darkness at Meydan.

Lani likes to make a solo appearance and looks relaxed as he canters easily around the Meydan dirt circuit and completes the gate practice with minimal -for Lani- fuss. In fact it’s only as he is leaving and sees other horses around that he feels the need to make his presence felt with an out burst of guttural noises.

Like most high-class athletes, Lani has a certain eye-catching air of importance about him but hopefully the pretty grey colt whose wayward reputation precedes him has started to mellow with maturity.

I wondered what it was that made his dam catch the eye of the Japanese breeders and realised that it’s there in the pedigree, albeit back a bit.

The Grand-dam of Lani was herself out of a Niarchos family mare named Arkadina, and while she herself never raced she bred the very useful Vincent O’Brien-trained Group 1 and 2 winner Dark Lomond. These being the Irish St. Leger and the Pretty Polly Stakes.

So some astute studying unearthed the natural ability hidden away but waiting to be brought back out with the correct mating program.

All respect to owner Koji Maeda who came to racing forty year ago and has a huge breeding programme in Japan. I expect in due course Lani himself will be enhancing the already very strong Japanese Stud Book.

I myself am looking forward to a ‘Heavenly’ result on Super Saturday when Lani contests the Maktoum Challenge Round 3 as a prep run for Dubai World Cup.

— The author is a former trainer from the UK and the mother of leading international jockeys James and Sophie Doyle.