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Arrowfield Stud is celebrating its connections with the first three horses home in Japan’s premier mile race the G1 Yasuda Kinen in Tokyo on Sunday.

The Yasuda Kinen, first held in 1951 and elevated to international G1 status in 1993, is high on the list of the world’s top rated Group 1 races.

Arrowfield stands two distinguished past winners - Real Impact became the first 3YO to win the race in 2011 and Horse of the Year Maurice won it in 2015.

This year’s contest was run before a 74,000-strong crowd keen to see 2018 Horse of the Year Almond Eye, a daughter of the 2013 Yasuda Kinen winner Lord Kanaloa, take on a quality field headed by Danon Premium (Deep Impact), Aerolithe (Kurofune), Indy Champ (Stay Gold) and Stelvio (Lord Kanaloa).

The race lived up to the hype without delivering the widely expected sixth consecutive G1 victory for Almond Eye after she was badly hampered immediately after the start.

Indy Champ got the better of a brave Aerolithe, who set a strong pace in front and deserves credit for the sensational new race record time of 1:30.9, with Almond Eye sprinting her last 600m in 32.4 to miss victory by a neck and a nose. 

The result is a notable triumph for Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Racing which bred all three placegetters and the Yoshida-managed ownership syndicates Sunday Racing (Aerolithe) and Silk Racing (Indy Champ and Almond Eye).

Arrowfield connections begin with Indy Champ’s dam Will Power (King Kamehemeha) as she is a half-sister to Deep Impact’s dual G1-winning son and Arrowfield shuttle sire Real Impact.

His first Arrowfield-conceived 2YOs race next season.

Aerolithe’s dam Asterix (Neo Universe) is a half-sister to the dam of dual G1 winner and fellow Arrowfield sire Mikki Isle whose first Australian yearlings sell next year.

Asterix herself has had four foals in Australia for Arrowfield’s joint venture with Northern Farm.

She has produced a city-winning 3YO filly Achondrite (Lord Kanaloa), stakes-placed 2YO filly Akari (Snitzel), a Redoute’s Choice yearling colt bought by Katsumi Yoshida for $400,000 at the Easter sale in Sydney and a weanling filly by Snitzel.

Arrowfield has sold seven yearlings by Almond Eye’sire Lord Kanaloa over the past three years and is selling a pair of his fillies out of the Japanese mares Dream Tiara (Heart’s Cry) and Orgueil (Deep Impact) at this week’s Magic Millions National Yearling Sale.

The Japanese influence in Arrowfield Stud’s final yearling draft of 2019 does not end there as the Gold Coast sale feature four colts and a filly by Real Impact.

Fifth placed Sungrazer was the closest of Deep Impact’s four runners in the race but the seven-time champion sire is once again in charge of Japan’s General Sires’ Premiership with prizemoney of almost $A50 million – more than twice the earnings of his nearest challenger Stay Gold.