American Pharoah gets a Grade 1 winner in Japan

Triple Crown winner American Pharoah recorded his third Grade/Group 1 winner as a sire, and first on dirt, as when Cafe Pharoah won the February Stakes Sunday in Japan. The colt is bred on the same cross as the stallion’s first son to stud, new Japanese resident Four Wheel Drive, and could give that one a bit of added attention early in his career.

This was the fourth career stakes victory, but first at the top level, for Cafe Pharoah, who has raced exclusively on dirt in Japan. The colt, who has won five of seven outings overall, took last year’s Group 3 Sirius Stakes, Group 3 Unicorn Stakes, and the Hyacinth Stakes.

Cafe Pharoah is out of the graded stakes-winning More Than Ready mare Mary’s Follies. He is bred on the same cross as Four Wheel Drive, who is American Pharoah’s first son to stud, privately purchased by the Thoroughbred Breeders Club in Monbetsu, on the island of Hokkaido. Four Wheel Drive, who is out of the stakes-winning More Than Ready mare Funfair, won three stakes as a juvenile, including the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Santa Anita, then a Grade 2 event in its second running. He was the top earner for American Pharoah, who stands for the international Coolmore group, as the stallion finished as North America’s leading freshman sire of 2019. American Pharoah continued on to be the leading second-crop sire of 2020.

American Pharoah’s other top-level winners have been Harvey’s Lil Goil in the U.S. and Van Gogh in France, respectively. Harvey’s Lil Goil became the first Grade 1 winner for her sire when she took the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup on Oct. 10 at Keeneland. The versatile filly, also a Grade 1-placed stakes winner on dirt, subsequently finished third in the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Two weeks after the Queen Elizabeth, American Pharoah’s son Van Gogh won the Group 1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud. He was later honored as the Cartier Award European champion 2-year-old male of 2020.