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IRL:Sunday Silence

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Sunday Silence
サンデーサイレンス

Silks
Romaji Sandee Sairensu
Foaled March 25, 1986
Died August 19, 2002
Sire Halo
Dam Wishing Well
Sex Stallion
Color Dark Bay
Trainer Charlie Wittingham
Race Record 14: 9-5-0
Earnings 4,968,554 USD
Major wins
San Felipe Handicap (1989)
Santa Anita Derby (1989)
Kentucky Derby (1989)
Preakness Stakes (1989)
Super Derby (1989)
Breeders' Cup Classic (1989)
Californian Stakes (1990)


Sunday Silence
Sunday Silence

Every now and then it's hard to face
There is no easy-going in life's race
And when I'm feeling down and in defeat
The sounds of Sunday Silence sure is sweet
Sunday Silence song, by Arthur Hancock III[1]


Sunday Silence was an American racehorse who was active from 1988 to 1990. After his retirement due to an injury during his four-year-old season, he initially struggled to garner attention from breeders until he was exported to Japan, where he would become Japan's leading sire for a record-breaking thirteen years from 1995 to 2007[2]. He would also sire many famous Japanese racehorses, many of whom would also sire famous racehorses of their own.

Name Origin

Racing career

Before debut

Sunday Silence was born on March 25th, 1986 at Stone Farm in Paris, Kentucky. In his early years, Sunday Silence escaped death twice. The first time was when he was a weanling, where he survived a severe case of diarrhea. The second time was when Sunday Silence was two years old, when the driver of a truck Sunday Silence was traveling in experienced a heart attack and flipped the truck over, killing every horse on board except for him.

As a yearling, Sunday Silence was bought back twice by his owner, Arthur B. Hancock III, after showing little promise to potential buyers in the sales ring. The first buy-back was for 17,000 USD, and the second buy-back was in California for 50,000 USD as a two-year-old in training. However, the truck crash prevented him from being shipped to Kentucky following this, so Sunday Silence remained in California. Hancock later sold half of Sunday Silence's share to his trainer, Charlie Whittingham, who sold half of that share to Ernest Gaillard.

2 years old season (1988)

Sunday Silence debuted late into his 2 year old season. In his first two starts, he finished second in his first maiden race in Santa Anita, before he achieved his first victory in his second maiden race at Hollywood Park. His third start came from an allowance race at Hollywood Park, where Sunday Silence once again placed second.

3 years old season (1989)

4 years old season (1990)

Sunday Silence only made two starts as a four-year-old, both starts being at Hollywood Park. Sunday Silence won the G1 Californian Stakes, however finished second behind future Horse of the Year Criminal Type in the G1 Hollywood Gold Cup.

After his loss in the Hollywood Gold Cup, he was planned to compete in the Arlington Challenge Cup at Arlington Park; however, he suffered a career-ending injury, forcing him to be retired.

Retirement, Breeding Career and Death

Despite his exceptional performance in races, Sunday Silence was not popular in the American breeding industry, as commercial breeding had its own rules. As a cheap yearling with noticeable problematic conformation, an unimpressive female line, and a notorious temperament (inherited from his sire, Halo), he failed to inspire confidence. In contrast, his rival Easy Goer had received a lot of attention due to his pedigree, despite achieving less than Sunday Silence on the tracks.

Arthur B. Hancock III, the owner of Sunday Silence, received a call from a representative of Zenya Yoshida from Shadai Farm. Yoshida expressed interest in buying Sunday Silence, offering $250,000 per share. Due to piling debts, Hancock made the decision to sell him away. Sunday Silence was then sold to stand at Shadai Stallion Station in Shiraoi, Hokkaido. According to Hancock, the decision was not made lightly, as he loved Sunday Silence, admitting that he cried when the van that Sunday Silence was in drove away.[3]

Sunday Silence then became an extremely successful sire in Japan, having sired many G1-winning children, including international G1 races. His bloodline was so potent that he was even called the "sire of sires" as even his grandchildren went on to win G1 races. Though, this had a catastrophic consequence in the breeding industry of Japan. As most horses had Sunday Silence on their pedigree, making it hard to not be involved in inbreeding. Despite having only raced on dirt during his career, Sunday Silence had produced a magnitude of children that ran well on turf as well as dirt.

Sunday Silence died on August 19, 2002. He had been treated for laminitis for the previous 14 weeks and had developed an infection in one leg as well. He had been given a stronger dose of a different painkilling medication the previous day to provide him relief, and become comfortable enough to lie down for the first time in a week. The following morning, he couldn't stand up by himself, and while veterinarians were discussing what to do, he died from a heart failure.

Awards & Honors

  • United States Horse of the Year (1989)
  • U.S. Champion 3-Year-Old Colt (1989)
  • U.S. Racing Hall of Fame (inducted in 1996)

Relationships

Relatives

Stablemates / Friends

  • Mejiro McQueen - He and Sunday Silence were known to best friends when they were standing stud at Shadai Stallion Station.

Race Records

Race data sourced from netkeiba.
Date Racecourse Race Grade Distance Gate Odds Fav. Fin. Time Margin Jockey Winner (Runner-Up) Other Umamusume
1988/10/30 Santa Anita Maiden Race Maiden D 1300m 1 2 0.0 P.Valenzuela Caro Lover
1988/11/13 Hollywood Park Maiden Race Maiden D 1200m 1 1 1:09.4 P.Valenzuela (Moment of Time)
1988/12/03 Hollywood Park Allowance Race D 1300m 1 2 2 0.0 A.Gryder Houston
1989/03/02 Santa Anita Allowance Race D 1300m 5 1 1 1:15.4 P.Valenzuela (Heroic Type)
1989/03/19 Santa Anita San Felipe Handicap G2 D 1700m 5 2 1 1:42.6 P.Valenzuela (Flying Continental)
1989/04/08 Santa Anita Santa Anita Derby G1 D 1800m 4 2 1 1:47.6 P.Valenzuela (Flying Continental)
1989/05/06 Churchill Downs Kentucky Derby G1 D 2000m 2 1 2:05.0 P.Valenzuela (Easy Goer)
1989/05/20 Pimlico Preakness Stakes G1 D 1900m 7 2 1 1:53.8 0.0 P.Valenzuela (Easy Goer)
1989/06/10 Belmont Park Belmont Stakes G1 D 2400m 1 2 P.Valenzuela Easy Goer
1989/07/23 Hollywood Park Swaps Stakes G2 D 2000m 2 1 2 P.Valenzuela Prized
1989/09/24 Louisiana Downs Super Derby G1 D 2000m 7 2 1 2:03.2 P.Valenzuela (Awe Inspiring)
1989/11/04 Gulfstream Park Breeders' Cup Classic G1 D 2000m 8 2 1 2:00.2 0.0 C.McCarron (Easy Goer)
1990/06/03 Hollywood Park Californian Stakes G1 D 1800m 2 1 1 1:48.0 P.Valenzuela (Stylish Winner)
1990/06/24 Hollywood Park Hollywood Gold Cup Handicap G1 D 2000m 4 1 2 0.0 P.Valenzuela Criminal Type

Pedigree

Horse pedigree of Sunday Silence (USA)
Sire
Halo (USA) 		Hail to Reason (USA) Turn-To (IRE) Royal Charger (GB)
Source Sucree (FR)
Nothirdchance (USA) Blue Swords (USA)
Galla Colors (USA)
Cosmah (USA) Cosmic Bomb (USA) Pharamond (GB)
Banish Fear (USA)
Almahmoud (USA) Mahmoud (FR)
Arbitrator (USA)
Dam
Wishing Well (USA) 		Understanding (USA) Promised Land (USA) Palestinian (USA)
Mahmoudess (USA)
Pretty Ways (USA) Stymie (USA)
Pretty Jo (USA)
Mountain Flower (USA) Montparnasse (ARG) Gulf Stream (GB)
Mignon (ARG)
Edelweiss (USA) Hillary (USA)
Dowager (USA), (Family: 3-e)


Trivia

  • His son, Manhattan Cafe, was noted to look exceptionally similar to him, to the point it could be said they look alike. Due to this, he was chosen to portray his father in the drama Fortunate Encounter: The Dream for Thoroughbreds.[4]
    • Unlike Sunday Silence, who was highly aggressive and ferocious, small and lean, had crooked hind legs, has a sock on his right hind leg had a wider white blaze on his face and was more resilient, Manhattan Cafe was more quiet, obedient and gentle, much larger, did not have his sires crooked legs or sock, and the white blaze on his face was less prominent and more narrow.
    • Surprisingly, Sunday Silence produced another son that looked even more like him than Manhattan Cafe, that being Black Tide, the sire of Kitasan Black.
  • He was named as "the horse who bit down and ate his tough fate" due to all the hardships he had endured and overcame along the years when he was a foal, before debut, during his career and after retirement.
  • Despite being labelled as a "dark bay" Sunday Silence was a true black stallion.
    • Registration of a horse's coat color is usually based on a visual inspection rather than a DNA test. And since most black thoroughbreds are exposed to sunlight, their black coats break down, bleaching out into a rusty, brownish, or yellowish color. Due to this, registries like the Jockey Club or the JRA will just register the horse as a dark bay just to be safe.
    • This is also why many of Sunday Silence's children who share his black coat and are true blacks like Fuji Kiseki, Manhattan Cafe and Black Tide, are all labelled as dark bays, the same designation as those like Special Week, who didn't inherit the black coat.
  • While he was standing stud at Shadai Farm, he became best friends with Mejiro McQueen, who also stood stud at Shadai Farm.
    • Though, when Sunday Silence first met McQueen, he was intimidated by his large size and tried to boss him around like he did with other horses, but McQueen ignored him. Eventually, Sunday Silence would grow fond of his neighbor, and the both of them got along in the end. They were so close that a rule was set in the farm, Sunday Silence must go in the pastures after McQueen, as he would get mad if McQueen wasn't there first.
    • People joked that they were lovers, though the both of them were stallions. In a twist however, their bloodline merged when Sunday Silence's son, Stay Gold, mated with McQueen's daughters, Point Flag and Oriental Art. The horses produced out of this combination left remarkable results, including Dream Journey, Orfevre and Gold Ship.
      • This specific combination is referred to as the "Golden Combination", due to the highly successful careers of the horses that this combination would produce.
      • It is also referred to as the "Sutema Combination", after the sire Stay Gold and the damsire Mejiro McQueen.
  • Some consider Sunday Silence's temperament to not only be inherited from his sire, Halo, but also a result of him narrowly surviving from the truck accident that killed all horses on board but him, leading him to become skittish, hyper vigilant and distrustful.
  • Due to his immense dominance as lead sire, Sunday Silence is within the pedigrees of over 70% of Japan's thoroughbred population.
    • However, Sunday Silence's grandsire, Hail to Reason, is even more ingrained in Japan's thoroughbred gene pool, as not only Sunday Silence, but several of his descendants came to Japan, mostly those from the Halo branch, which includes Sunday Silence, Goodbye Halo (King Halo's dam), and Taiki Shuttle (son of Devil's Bag), and those from the Roberto branch, which includes Real Shadai (Rice Shower's sire), Brian's Time (sire of Narita Brian, Mayano Top Gun, Tanino Gimlet, Dantsu Flame, Furioso and No Reason), Kris S (Symboli Kris S' sire) and Silver Hawk (Grass Wonder's sire), which can total to over 90% of Japan's thoroughbred population that has Hail to Reason in their pedigree.
    • Sunday Silence has produced at least one G1 winner in all of his crops, which includes a promoted G1 win from Fusaichi Pandora.
      • This achievement was replicated by his son, Deep Impact.
  • As of Daiwa Major's death on January 20th, 2026, the currently only alive and active direct high profile progeny of Sunday Silence left is Black Tide, who is still breeding, albeit limited due to his fertility going down with his age.
    • As of January 28th 2026, while there are at least 8 other high profile children of Sunday Silence that are still alive: Suzuka Phoenix, Matsurida Gogh, Daiwa en Cielo, Peace of World, Heavenly Romance, Admire Moon and To The Victory, they are all retired from breeding duties, leaving Black Tide as the sole direct source of Sunday Silence's genetics.
  • Sunday Silence never finished a race below second place throughout his career. This feat was repeated by his granddaughter, Daiwa Scarlet, who also never finished a race below second place.

Notes


References

  1. ↑ YouTube
  2. ↑ https://en.netkeiba.com/db//horse/sire_leading.html?sort_key=prize&year=2025
  3. ↑ https://www.racingpost.com/bloodstock/features/named-halo-but-far-from-a-saint-the-shark-eyed-stallion-who-shaped-the-breed-az1rb7Z13V4K/ "I hated to sell him, but nobody wanted to breed to him." " I walked down that lane as the van left and – I’m not ashamed to say it – the tears just came."
  4. ↑ https://www.ponycanyon.co.jp/visual/PCBE000051296
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