| Victoire Pisa | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Sire | Neo Universe |
| Grandsire | Sunday Silence |
| Dam | Whitewater Affair |
| Damsire | Machiavellian |
| Sex | Stallion |
| Foaled | 31 March 2007 |
| Country | Japan |
| Colour | Dark Bay or Brown |
| Breeder | Shadai Farm |
| Owner | Yoshimi Ichikawa |
| Trainer | Katsuhiko Sumii |
| Record | 15: 8-1-2 |
| Major wins | |
| Kyoto Nisai Stakes (2009) Radio Nikkei Hai Nisai Stakes (2009) Yayoi Sho (2010) Satsuki Shō (2010) Arima Kinen (2010) Nakayama Kinen (2011) Dubai World Cup (2011) | |
| Awards | |
| JRA Award for Best Three-Year-Old Colt (2010)[1] Japanese Champion Older Male Horse (2011)[2] | |
Victoire Pisa (Japanese:ヴィクトワールピサ) is a retired JapaneseThoroughbred racehorse and activesire. After winning three of his four starts as a juvenile, the colt won theSatsuki Shō atNakayama Racecourse in April 2010. After an unsuccessful campaign in Europe he returned to Japan to win theweight-for-age invitationalArima Kinen in December. In the following spring he was sent toDubai where he raced for the first time on asynthetic track in theDubai World Cup. He defeated an international field to become the first Japanese-trained horse to win the world's most valuable race. His subsequent career was restricted by injury problems and he was retired at the end of 2011.
Victoire Pisa is a dark bay horse bred at theShadai Farm inHokkaido. His sireNeo Universe, a son of the thirteen-timeleading sire in JapanSunday Silence, was a successful Japanese performer, winning the Satsuki Shō and theTokyo Yūshun, the first two legs of theJapanese Triple Crown in 2003. At stud he has sired the Satsuki Shō winner Unrivaled and the Tokyo Yūshun winner Logi Universe.[3] Victoire Pisa's dam Whitewater Affair was a successful British racehorse who won theJohn Porter Stakes and thePrix de Pomone as a four-year-old in 1997.[4] At stud in Britain she bred theYasuda Kinen winner Asakusa Denen, and was then exported to Japan where her other foals included the Group Three winner Swift Current. The colt was prepared for racing byKatsuhiko Sumii, the trainer ofDelta Blues andVodka.
Victoire Pisa opened his racing career with three races atKyoto Racecourse in late 2009. On 25 October he ran in a nine furlong event for unraced horses in which he finished second toRose Kingdom, a colt who went on to win theJapan Cup. Two weeks later he recorded his first win in a ten furlong maiden race. On 28 November Victoire Pisa started the1/2 favourite for theKyoto Nisai Stakes and won by one and a halflengths. On his final start of the year he was moved up in class for the domestic Group ThreeRadio Nikkei Hai Nisai Stakes atHanshin Racecourse on 26 December. Starting the 3/5 favourite he took the lead near the finish and won by a neck from Cosmo Phantom.[5]
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Victoire Pisa began his three-year-old season in March atNakayama Racecourse in the Hochi Hai Yayoi Shō, a trial race for the Satsuki Shō. Despite having to be switched to obtain a clear run he took the lead 50 yards from the line and won by half a length from Eishin Apollon. In the Satsuki Shō a month later he started the 1.3/1 favourite in a field of eighteen three-year-old colts. Ridden byYasunari Iwata he again struggled to get a clear run in the straight before accelerating through a gap along the rail to take the lead inside the final furlong and win fromHiruno d'Amour,Eishin Flash and Rose Kingdom.[6] On 30 May Victoire Pisa started 11/10 favourite for theTokyo Yushun over one and a half miles atTokyo Racecourse. Yet again, he had a troubled passage, and was in eighth place two furlongs from the finish. Despite making steady progress in the closing stages he finished third behind Eishin Flash and Rose Kingdom.
Victoire Pisa was then sent to Europe where he was trained with thePrix de l'Arc de Triomphe as his main objective. He finished fourth behindBehkabad in thePrix Niel atLongchamp Racecourse in September and then finished seventh of the nineteen runners behindWorkforce in the Arc a month later.[7] On his return from Europe, Victoire Pisa was made a 27/1 outsider for theJapan Cup at Tokyo on 28 November. In a controversial race the colt took the lead in the straight but was overtaken byBuena Vista inside the final furlong and lost second place on the line to Rose Kingdom. An inquiry by the racecourse stewards saw the winner disqualified for causing interference to the runner-up.[8] Victoire Pisa was one of fifteen horses invited to contest the Arima Kinen on 26 December at Nakayama. Ridden for the first time by the ItalianjockeyMirco Demuro he started at odds of 7.4/1 in a field which included Buena Vista, Eishin Flash,Dream Journey and Oken Bruce Lee. In front of a crowd of 120,813 Victoire Pisa was always among the leaders and moved up quickly to take the lead entering the straight.[9] He held off the late challenge of the favourite Buena Vista to win by a nose.[10] Demuro described the winner as "a fantastic horse" with a "great heart".[9]
At the end of the season, Victoire Pisa was voted Japanese Champion Three-year-old colt.[1]
On his first appearance as a four-year-old, Victoire Pisa started the 2/5 favourite for the Nakayama Kinen over nine furlongs on 27 February. He took the lead in the straight and won comfortably by two and a half lengths from Captain Thule. The colt was then sent to theUnited Arab Emirates to contest theDubai World Cup atMeydan Racecourse on 26 March. The race was run over ten furlongs on a syntheticTapeta footings surface and attracted runners from Britain, Ireland, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and the United States. Demuro restrained the colt in last place before moving up to join the leaders half a mile from the finish of a slowly run race. He took the lead in the straight and held off the challenge of his fellow Japanese challenger Transcend by half a length withMonterosso in third andCape Blanco in fourth.[11] Victoire Pisa became the first Japanese-trained horse to win the "world's richest race".[12][13] The victory was an emotional one for the Japanese contingent, coming less than three weeks after the country had been struck by anearthquake and tsunami: Demuro returned to the winner's enclosure in tears, whilst Katsuhiko Sumii said that he felt that "the whole country was behind me."[13] Victoire Pisa was sent to Europe again but did not contest any races after sustaining a series of leg injuries.[14]
Victoire Pisa returned to Japan at the end of the year but was unable to reproduce his early season form. He finished thirteenth behind Buena Vista in the Japan Cup and eighth behindOrfevre in the Arima Kinen. He was retired from racing at the end of December.[15] Sumii commented on the colt's retirement by saying that "I feel I should apologise to him because I couldn't get him back to his best but at least I am happy that I can send him to the stud without any further accidents".[14] Victoire Pisa was namedJapanese Champion Older Male for 2011.[2]
Victoire Pisa was retired from racing to become a breeding stallion at theShadai Stallion Station. He made an immediate impact by siring theOka Sho winnerJeweler in his first crop of foals.
In December 2017, Victoire Pisa was moved from Shadai Stallion Station to the Breeders Stallion Station,[16] where he stood stud for three seasons before being sold to Turkey along with Kluger, another Japanese-bred stallion.[17][18]
| Sire Neo Universe (JPN) 2000 | Sunday Silence (USA) 1986 | Halo | Hail To Reason |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cosmah | |||
| Wishing Well | Understanding | ||
| Mountain Flower | |||
| Pointed Path (GB) 1984 | Kris | Sharpen Up | |
| Doubly Sure | |||
| Silken Way | Shantung | ||
| Boulevard | |||
| Dam Whitewater Affair (GB) 1993 | Machiavellian (USA) 1987 | Mr. Prospector | Raise a Native |
| Gold Digger | |||
| Coup de Folie | Halo | ||
| Raise the Standard | |||
| Much Too Risky (GB) 1982 | Bustino | Busted | |
| Ship Yard | |||
| Short Rations | Lorenzaccio | ||
| Short Commons (Family:8-d)[20] |
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