Real Impact’s sibling defeats Japanese champion

While Real Impact was impressing breeders at Arrowfield’s Stallion Open House over the weekend, his three-quarter brother Neorealism was busy defeating Japanese champion Maurice in Sunday’s ~$1.7 million Sapporo Kinen 2000m G2.

Neorealism (by Sunday Silence’s champion 3YO son Neo Universe) had previously won five of his 11 starts at three & four, and earned black type status in February when third in the Kokura Daishoten G3 over 1800 metres. The 5YO chestnut entire was having his second start this campaign while Maurice, Japan’s 2015 Horse of the Year and this year’s Hong Kong Champions Mile G1 winner, was resuming after a mid-summer break.

Neorealism began well, went straight to the front, and maintained a steady tempo until the home straight where he kicked clear to score by two lengths from Maurice in 2:01.07 with Rainbow Line a neck away in third. 

Watch Neorealism win the Sapporo Kinen G2 – he’s No. 13 & Maurice is No. 15.

Neorealism’s jockey Christophe Lemaire said, “I thought there would be no front runner in this race so the plan was for him to go to the front and set a relaxed pace.

“He didn’t hate the soft ground and Maurice has excellent speed as the miler so we had to set the pace. I am sure that he has the potential to win a Grade 1. Maurice is so strong but today we defeated him.” Maurice currently holds a 124 rating, fifth-equal on the Longines World’s Best Racehorse Rankings.

Like Real Impact, Neorealism was bred by Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm and is trained by Noriyuki Hori for the racing club U. Carrot Farm. Their dam Tokio Reality (by Meadowlake) has built a formidable record as the dam of eight winners, including a third stakes-winning colt, I’ll Love Again (by Kingmambo’s Japan Cup-winning son El Condor Pasa), also Group 1-placed.

Now 22, Tokio Reality’s latest matings have all been with sons and grandsons of Sunday Silence. She has a 4YO son Realista (by Stay Gold; 4 wins in Japan), an unraced 2YO filly named Veritable (by Danon Chantilly) and a yearling filly (by Zenno Rob Roy).

Real Impact, by Japan’s supersire Deep Impact, won two of the world’s highest-rated races, the ATC George Ryder S. 1500m G1, defeating Criterion & Kermadec, and Japan’s big mile, the Tokyo Yasuda Kinen G1. He is among the 25 Group 1 winners from the first seven crops of Deep Impact who is heading towards his fifth Japanese General Sires’ Premiership with current prizemoney of ~$60 million – ~$20 million ahead of his nearest rival King Kamehameha.