BIG Brown’s growing reputation a ‘global sire’ was reinforced after he sired his second winner at Japan – his 17th 2YO winner overall – on the weekend.

The Kentucky Derby/Preakness Stakes champion will end the Northern Hemisphere breeding season as one of the most promising young sires on the international roster with winners in North America, Europe and Asia.
His most recent winner, Keiai’s Eight, proved too strong for his rivals in a 1200m 2YO Mdn held at Nakayama on December 8.
The colt is out of a mare named Andmoreagain, herself a daughter of US Champion Distorted Humor who stood in Australia for a brief time.
Keiai’s Eight is Big Brown’s second winner in Japan following on from Apollo Sonic’s win in in a Tokyo 1400m 2YO Maiden in mid-November.

“Racing in Japan is extremely competitive, most of the fields have 16 or 18 runners of very well bred, well trained up horses so it’s not an easy place to win,” Vinery’s Conor Phelan said from Hong Kong.
“Japanese horses have quinellaed a Melbourne Cup in the past and we saw as recently as Sunday night what their sprinters are capable of when Lord Kanaloa won the International Sprint here at Sha Tin.
“On top of that, if owners and trainers in Japan were to chase Big Brown’s progeny at the sales, it would have a dramatic effect on what they sell for. It’s an incredibly strong market and stallions whose progeny succeed in Japan become highly sought after. The Japanese racing public love their champions and Big Brown was one of those rare horses that had a world wide following and I think that’s why his progeny are being spread around the globe, everyone remembers what he did on the track,” Phelan added.

Big Brown’s current tally of winners may come as a surprise to come given that the horse rose to prominence in his own three-year-old year, but those closest to the grandson of Danzig were always confident that he would garner his share of juveniles.
“Big Brown won his one and only start as a 2YO by almost 12-lengths and it happened to be on the turf before his switch to dirt,” says Phelan.
“He also throws nice, big strong bodied horses and being a grandson of Danzig gives them a sense of precocity and early speed. But in light of what the horse himself did at 3, you can only imagine what is going to happen next year and when a few of the unraced horses are produced. It’s a very exciting time for everyone involved with the stallion.”

Australian buyers will have their first opportunity to secure a Vinery-conceived Big Brown at the 2013 Magic Millions Yearling Sale which starts on January 9 at the Gold Coast where 25 of his sons and daughters will go under the hammer.
“The Big Brown’s that went through the weanling sales sold particularly well but he hadn’t proven himself as a sire at that stage. Since then he has done so much with his first crop and I am sure it won’t be lost on the buyers here. He was a horse with a big reputation but now he has the figures to back up the hype,” Phelan concluded.