Southern Lights: The perfect marriage of speed and strength

The Australasian breeder is always seeking to breed a better animal - faster, stronger, more resilient. The careful blend of pedigree from sire and dam seek to reinforce key traits in a horse’s lineage, but there comes a time where new blood offers another dimension to a pedigree page.

The blood of Southern Lights (Jpn) offers Australasian breeders the ultimate combination of an outcross pedigree free of Danzig (USA) and Mr Prospector (USA), and a lineage of commercially appealing sprinting power. He might just be the key to taking Australasian racing to the next level.

A dynasty of record-breaking speed

When Japan sends horses to Australia, they come to win. Obamburumai (Jpn) (Discreet Cat {USA}) visited in the spring of 2023 to take out the $10 million Golden Eagle and his victory has helped to propel that race to Group 1 status for the 2026/27 racing season.

There is no such thing as an easy Group 1 race to win and in the notoriously tough jurisdiction of Japan, the competition is tougher still with every high class colt pitted at the same goals. Southern Lights’s pedigree is anchored by the presence of two of Japan’s most influential speed icons; his sire Sakura Bakushin O (Jpn) and his grandsire Sakura Yutaka O (Jpn).

Bred by Shadai Farm, Sakura Bakushin O remains regarded as one of the greatest sprinters Japan has ever seen, scoring 11 wins in 12 starts at 1400 metres or less and emerging victorious in back to back editions of the G1 Sprinters Stakes - the race also won by Silent Witness (El Moxie {USA}) and Takeover Target (Celtic Swing {GB}), as well as influential sire Lord Kanaloa (Jpn).

In 1994, he set a national 1200-metre record in his second Sprinters Stakes of 1:07.1s, a time that wouldn’t be beaten for three years and remained the course record at Nakayama until 2001. His G2 Swan Stakes win in a time of 1:19.9s set a new benchmark, marking the first time a horse in Japan had run a 1400-metre race in under 1:20.0s.

While Sakura Bakushin O was undoubtedly at his best over sprint trips, he was tenacious enough to perform over further, running second in the G1 Mile Championship to North Flight (Jpn) (Tony Bin {Ire}) and third in the 1600-metre G3 Keisei Hai Autumn Handicap. He ran fourth at a further three starts, including in the 1600-metre G1 Yasuda Kinen and the 1800-metre G2 Mainichi Okan.

Part of this endurance can be credited to his own sire, Sakura Yutaka O, whose six wins at stakes level came over 1800-metre and 2000-metre distances, topped by the G1 Tenno Sho (Autumn). One of Japan’s most prestigious races, he shares this honour role with highly successful Arrowfield Stud shuttler Maurice (Jpn), leading Japanese sire Kitasan Black (Jpn), and champion Equinox (Jpn).

The pedigree of Southern Lights offers more than just raw speed; Sakura Yutaka O could sustain that high cruising speed out to a G1 Cox Plate distance, setting national records for 1800 metres and 2000 metres, the latter time of 1:58.3s being faster than the Australian national record of 1:58.73s set by Makybe Diva (GB) (Desert King {Ire}) in 2005.

Southern Lights has epitomised both of these greats of Japanese racing in his own career; recording 39 starts over five seasons of racing, he won at three, four, five, and seven, and critically notched these wins between 1200 metres and 1600 metres. He also finished in the placings a further 10 times over the same distances, reaffirming the tenacity that has characterised his family.

The best of Southern Lights may not have been seen on the track; while he primarily campaigned on turf, his win out at 1600 metres came on the dirt, and his jockey noted at the time of the win that he had the stamina to be competitive over 2000 metres. It is these traits he will and has passed down to his offspring.

Successful blood, strategic outcross

What Southern Lights offers in the rest of his pedigree is twofold. First, he is free of Northern Dancer’s (Can) two most prolific descendants in Danzig and Mr Prospector, both stallions who have had an enormous influence in the Australasian broodmare population.

The influence of Northern Dancer is instead felt through his sons Northern Taste (Can), damsire of Sakura Bakushin O, and Northern Sea (USA) and Nijinsky (Can) on the damline.

This offers a fresh angle to breeders looking to utilise hybrid vigour to strengthen their pedigrees in a market heavily saturated with Danzig and Mr Prospector, both in the sirelines available and in the mare population.

However, the pedigree is not completely alien. Southern Lights’ third dam is a valuable genetic link to some of the world’s most desirable blood, being the great matriarch Fairy Bridge (USA) (Bold Reason {USA}). Second dam Fairy Dancer (USA) (Nijinsky {Can}) was a stakes-performed three-quarter-sister to Sadler’s Wells (USA) and Fairy King (USA), whose son Encosta De Lago has sprung forth a particularly potent sireline in Australia.

Sadler’s Wells needs little introduction for his global influence, both as a sire of sires and how desirable his blood remains in broodmares. This connection to one of the world’s most elite families is all part of the appeal. What is new about Southern Lights is exciting in the outcrosses it offers, but at the same time, it holds a direct line to a family still coveted and still producing great horses in both hemispheres.

As a sire, Sakura Bakushin O has been very successful to date when crossed with the Sunday Silence (USA) and Halo (USA) sireline, as well as with Woodman (USA) - the latter two appear in the immediate pedigree of influential broodmare sire More Than Ready (USA). He has also performed well when mated to the Sadler’s Wells line, reinforcing the cross that has created Southern Lights - and what he has to offer at stud.

The living proof

From limited opportunities at stud so far, the progeny of Southern Lights have shown they have a potential to keep replicating the power promised by their DNA. Star Minerva (NZ), a 3-year-old filly in the training of Ciaron Maher, is putting the theoretical side of the pedigree into practice.

Star Minerva is the first foal out of Star Astraia (NZ) (Swiss Ace), a half-sister to the Listed Dalrello Stakes and Listed Recognition Stakes winner Absalon (Mossman) and a full sister to the dam of New Zealand Horse Of The Year Sharp ‘N’ Smart (NZ) (Redwood {GB}), the winner of six stakes races - three at Group 1 level - from 1400 metres to 2400 metres.

Star Astraia’s third dam Dance Machine (GB) (Green Dancer {USA}) was a Listed winner as well as the producer of dual G1 Eclipse Stakes and dual G1 York International Stakes winner and sire Halling (USA), who was the world’s top-rated 4-year-old in 1996.

Star Minerva has yet to race, but has demonstrated her sire’s attributes in how she has matured without any physical issues and has handled every step of her preparation to date with the maturity of an older horse.

In her most recent trial on July 27, Star Minerva finished third under a steady hand, ahead of $400,000 yearling and fast work partner Mirrors (I Am Invincible). She picked up towards the line and will continue towards her debut in the opening weeks of the new racing season.

What Star Minerva represents is the untapped potential that the Southern Lights blood has to offer. Her clean action and good condition offer the vision of the physically strong and able athlete, waiting to be unleashed onto Australian racing.

What the Australasian industry values is speed and tenacity, and what it needs is the resilience, forged on Japan’s toughest tracks, to create an athlete who can continue to perform season after season.

What the Australasian industry needs is an injection of these traits blended into one animal that can expand our genetic pool and further strengthen the breed.

What the Australian industry is looking for is the right horse to light the way.

Breeders can secure themselves the opportunity to access this bloodline through the purchase of a Lifetime Breeding Right in Southern Lights, who is currently located in central New Zealand. The purchase of each LBR grants breeders a LBR in Southern Lights’ successor, rising 2-year-old Golden Mars (NZ), a descendant of triple Listed-winning sprinter Joan’s Best (Gold Brose) out of a Captain Rio (GB) mare who will forge this legacy’s next chapter on the racetrack in the coming seasons.

Interested parties can contact k.hidari@tailwind.global for more information.