The late Deep Impact produced the crowning achievement of his stud career when Auguste Rodin won the Epsom Derby – but he wasn’t too shabby as a racehorse, either. Nicholas Godfrey with memories of a personal favourite
As a supposedly hard-headed horserace writer, borderline jaded and cynical, you shouldn’t really fall in love with a horse. Sober realism and objective appreciation ought to come with the territory; it isn't appropriate to allow yourself to get too emotionally attached.
But not always. The thing is, if you don’t sometimes fall in love with a horse, then you’re probably in the wrong game.
How Japanese legend Deep Impact conquered the bloodstock world – Nancy Sexton appreciation
And that’s where we get to the mighty and magnificent, the late and lamented Deep Impact, the Japanese superstar whose crowning achievement in the breeding shed arrived posthumously on Saturday when Auguste Rodin – one of just 12 foals in his final crop – won the Derby.
Deep Impact had long since earned legendary status in Japan as supreme racehorse and supersire, but here was the cherry blossom on the cake away from home in Europe, in what is still the world’s premier Classic on Epsom Downs, where they’ve been doing this sort of thing for nearly 250 years. Deep Impact’s progeny had won British Classics before, but never the most significant, the one that truly matters above all others.
What is more, this was a race to endure in the memory, not least via a stroke of palpable genius from trainer Aidan O’Brien, who outdid even himself four weeks after what can legitimately be called a complete flop in the 2000 Guineas. While we’re at it, let’s not overlook Roger Varian and rank outsider King Of Steel, who nearly won on his seasonal debut. Fine work, sir.
However, this isn’t an op-ed piece about trainers – nor for that matter, a stallion, or not really. It is about a racehorse first and foremost.
While this writer will always remember a visit to Japan’s horse island Hokkaido shortly after Deep Impact retired, it was as a racehorse – an outrageously talented, utterly thrilling racehorse – that he won my heart in a way few others have. Maybe only Zenyatta since.
The horse Japan had been waiting for
Trained by Yasuo Ikee, Deep Impact was the horse Japanese racing had been waiting for. A son of Sunday Silence, the founding father of the nation’s formidable breeding industry, as a three-year-old he became Japan’s first unbeaten Triple Crown winner for 21 years, establishing his reputation via a series of electrifying last-to-first bursts down the stretch under regular partner Yutaka Take.
Though he was to suffer a notorious agonising defeat under baffling riding tactics in the Arc, this equine phenomenon ended his career with a record-equalling seven JRA (Japan Racing Association) G1 wins after exhilarating victories in the Japan Cup and Arima Kinen.
Official handicappers undervalued the Japanese star’s claims – maybe something was lost in translation from the Japanese representative, maybe they’d finished their work in Hong Kong and for political reasons didn’t fancy making the Arima Kinen number one.
Still, thanks to his three-length victory in that end-of-season grand prix over Christmas he was the top-rated horse on Racing Post Ratings in 2006, in effect their world champion. He would also have been a clear #1 on Thoroughbred Racing Commentary’s Global Rankings had they existed.
From 2019: Deep Impact – how our rankings stats illustrate his greatness
To suggest that Deep Impact is ‘arguably’ the greatest horse in Japanese racing history is like saying Frankel is ‘arguably’ the greatest in British racing history, or Secretariat is ‘arguably’ the best in US racing history. The sort of caveat journalists use to cover themselves – and necessary at times, or you can end up in discussions that may be fascinating or tedious as the mood takes.
Be that as it may, when I submitted a feature for this website a few years ago under the heading ‘The ten greatest Thoroughbreds in Japanese racing history’, that qualifying word ‘arguably’ was notable only for its absence.
Love at first sight on the racing road
Please indulge me and I’ll explain why. I first laid eyes on Deep Impact in April 2005 at the Satsuki Sho, the Japanese version of the 2000 Guineas at Nakayama, near the beginning of a once-in-a-lifetime world tour that ended up in a book entitled On The Racing Road.
However, the blunt truth is that I was visiting Nakayama chiefly for the Grand Jump, the idiosyncratic sort-of steeplechase that sometimes features on the European radar. While the locals treated that richly endowed race as something of a novelty event – if not an outright excrescence – for me Deep Impact was merely an added bonus the day before.
Sent off a heavy odds-on favourite, he triumphed with a startling finishing burst to spark an amazing reaction on course among those fervent Japanese racefans. I was hooked – on Japanese racing, and Deep Impact in particular.
As my global jaunt continued amid threadbare backpacks and dwindling funds, Deep Impact continued his winning ways. securing his Triple Crown with a sequence of memorably explosive come-from-behind victories.
In the hope that he would run in that season’s Japan Cup, I went back to Tokyo in November 2005. In the event, Deep Impact did not run, but I bought a fluffy toy and a replica shirt in his racing colours from the wonderfully kitsch ‘Turfy Shop’ at Tokyo racecourse – and Frankie Dettori won a thriller on Luca Cumani-trained Alkaased, so all was not totally in vain.
Minor blip on unsullied record
After I’d gone home to the decompression chamber in London, Deep Impact suffered the first of only two career defeats, a previously unsullied record sustaining a blemish as estimable Japan Cup runner-up Heart’s Cry beat him in that year’s Arima Kinen.
It was only a minor blip, as it turned out. Deep Impact was to be even better as a four-year-old as a series of dynamic successes in the first half of 2006 – at distances from 11 furlongs up to fully two miles – added to his towering status. (In fact, stop reading this and just have a look at some of the embedded videos you’ll get the picture.)
Then came that fateful day in Paris in the autumn. Given that the horse didn’t win, this isn’t necessarily my favourite memory of him, but it certainly evokes vivid recollections of an Arc day unlike any other. Deep Impact’s supporters followed their idol from Japan in their thousands, arriving on the Bois de Boulogne more in expectation than hope.
It was an amazing scene: Longchamp was a place transformed. They wore their replica Deep Impact silks; they waved national rising sun flags; they hit a Japanese-language pari-mutuel booth specially installed for the occasion, and they hit it hard. Deep Impact was sent off 1-2 favourite on the tote, a remarkable (and faintly ridiculous) price as he was 9-4 with British bookmakers.
And frankly, in hindsight it’s hard not to think the whole venture turned into a bit of a cock-up. Deep Impact wasn’t given a prep race and he didn’t have a pacemaker. The latter point presumably accounts for the Yutaka Take’s decision to change tactics and ride much closer to the pace – and it probably accounts for why, after leading into the straight, Deep Impact could stay on at only one pace to finish third, beaten a length behind Rail Link.
Embarrassment came heaped upon disappointment when he tested positive for a banned substance used for respiratory complaints.
Stripped of even his third place, Deep Impact went home, overwhelmed his rivals with a wide late surge in the Japan Cup before that tour de force career climax in the Arima Kinen. Take just had to shake him up and give him a tap before he won eased down in what was probably his greatest performance as he treated G1 rivals with utter disdain.
Equine icon
Already a national equine icon, he went off to stud for that second career, which is where I ran into him again at a snowbound Shadai Stallion Station on Hokkaido. Every barn there was horse heaven but you would have struggled to miss Deep Impact, security guard standing sentinel outside, kitted out with various good-luck charms from besotted fans, plus a litter of kittens as semi-permanent residents.
They say never meet your heroes but perhaps that advice need not extend to horses. There he was, waiting placidly, happy to pose for the odd photo from a British hack, curiously unimposing in the flesh – a pony compared to his neighbour, the massive Symboli Kris S.
My hosts confirmed he was indeed blessed with a lovely nature. “People say Sunday Silence was a bit tough," explained the Shadai spokesman at the time. "But it wasn't that he really wanted to attack people, he just couldn't help doing something, nosing around or biting.
“Deep Impact isn't like that,” he went on. “He is quite sensible, very smart. Sometimes you think he is more like a human than an animal, and he is very interested in people, he watches them all the time. But he knows he is special.”
Indeed he was, although others are much better qualified to talk about his accomplishments as a sire before his premature death aged 17 in July 2019. Suffice it to say here that he went on to produce a veritable gamut of top-class performers, often easily identified by their dark bay colouring and trademark white splash on their faces.
Rather like that eminently worthy horse who won the Derby. Thanks Auguste Rodin – and thanks Deep Impact. Gone, yes, but never likely to be forgotten.
• Visit the Japan Racing Association website and the Epsom Derby website
How Japanese legend Deep Impact conquered the bloodstock world – Nancy Sexton appreciation
How Frankel overcame the burden of expectation to become world #1 sire – Nancy Sexton appreciation
Epsom Derby: Ten greatest winning performances of the last 50 years
View the latest TRC Global Rankings for horses / jockeys / trainers / sires