Mikki Isle’s first stakeswinner impresses in Japan
Mikki Isle, seen here at Arrowfield with Stallion Manager Joe Hickey, has lately made racing & sale-ring news in Japan & Australia. (PHOTO: Bronwen Healy)
Just about everything went against 2YO filly Meikei Yell in Japan on Sunday but she overcame it all to become Mikki Isle’s first stakeswinner in the ¥59 million Kokura Nisai S. 1200m G3. (She’s No. 8 with the gold cap and races widest of all in the race.)
Bred by Northern Farm, Meikei Yell was purchased from the 2019 JRHA Select Yearling Sale for ¥28.08 million (~$350,000) by Nagoya Keiba and achieved Group-winning status a fortnight after her debut win at Kokura.
She is the first foal of Shiroinger (by Danehill’s Group 1-winning son Harbinger), an unplaced member of a prolific winning family descended from US Grade 2 winner and excellent producer Storm and Sunshine.
With four winners of 5 races and prizemoney of ¥75.7 million, Mikki Isle now holds third spot on Japan’s First Season Sires’ table, behind his fellow Arrowfield shuttler Maurice (who had a quinella at Niigata on Sunday) and Duramente.
**UPDATE, Tuesday 8 September: Maurice’s daughter I Love Lucy (ex Lustrous by Flying Spur) wins the first Sydney 2YO trial of 2020/2021, over 735 metres at Randwick this morning. I Love Lucy was a $150,000 buy for Lee Curtis and is raced by a group of owners led Francis & Christine Cook, with breeder & vendor Arrowfield retaining a share in her.
A second Maurice 2YO, the Bjorn Baker-trained colt Maurice’s Medad (ex Presslist by Librettist) is runner-up in the second trial.
Japan’s Champion Sprinter-Miler of 2016, Mikki Isle is the second Deep Impact son to shuttle to Arrowfield after Real Impact (first-crop 3YOs this season) and before Real Steel (first foals this Spring). Like Maurice, his first Australian juveniles debut this season.
The global pandemic has kept all four stallions at home in 2020, but the gates of Arrowfield remain open to them and the Stud’s racing team already includes promising Japanese-Australian talent, notably bluebood 3YO colt Bucharest (Deep Impact-Miss Finland by Redoute’s Choice), winner of his first two starts and nominated for the Caulfield Guineas G1.
