American Pharoah to shuttle to Japan for upcoming breeding season

Triple Crown winner American Pharoah will shuttle to stand the upcoming 2026 breeding season in Japan, where he has been immensely successful, before returning to Kentucky next summer, the international Coolmore group, which stands the stallion, has announced.

American Pharoah, now 13, is based at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky. He will spend his season aboard at the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association’s Shizunai Stallion Station on the island of Hokkaido. His groom from Ashford Stud will accompany him, and he will return to Kentucky in July 2026, the farm said in a release issued Thursday evening in Kentucky time – Friday morning in Japan, with social media lighting up with excited commentary from breeders and fans.

“We have worked very closely shuttling stallions with the JBBA in the past and are delighted that their members will now have access to his bloodline,” Ashford Stud manager Dermot Ryan said in the release.

American Pharoah, by Pioneerof the Nile, is represented by 58 winners from 88 starters to date in Japan. Those are led by champion dirt horse Cafe Pharoah, two-time winner of the prestigious Grade 1 February Stakes. American Pharoah’s son Luxor Cafe won this year’s Hyacinth Stakes and traveled to finish 12th in this year’s Kentucky Derby. June Blair was second in this Grade 1 Sprinters Stakes this year, and is expected to be part of the Japanese contingent traveling to the upcoming Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar.

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American Pharoah’s other notable runners in Japan include Japan Dirt Derby winner Danon Pharoah and stakes winners Advance Pharoah, Per Aa, and Reframe. Further showing his popularity in the country, the stallion’s European champion juvenile Van Gogh and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Four Wheel Drive both now stand in Japan.

“There has been interest from Japan for the past number of years in purchasing the horse, and we’ve come up with a compromise that suits both parties,” Ryan said.

Coolmore’s statements seem to recognize both the business realities of placing a stallion where he will be most successful, while also recognizing American Pharoah’s place in American history as the first Triple Crown winner in 37 years when he swept the series in 2015 – not to mention, a fair bit of success in this country. Coolmore also stands the other living American Triple Crown winner, 2018 hero Justify, at Ashford Stud, and also recently made statements to that effect regarding his career. Although Justify is successful in America, he is the sire of European classic winners City of Troy, Ruling Court, and Scandinavia. There has been conjecture that the son of Scat Daddy could relocate to Coolmore’s Irish base to help fill the void left by the recent passing of Wootton Bassett, as both are outcrosses to Coolmore’s preponderance of Galileo mares. But Coolmore’s M.V. Magnier rebuffed that suggestion in recent comments to the Racing Post.

“Being realistic, Justify will stay in America,” Magnier said. “He’s an incredible stallion, what he’s doing worldwide – be it [Europe], Australia, or America, on grass or dirt – he’s just doing it everywhere.

“America is the right place for him,” Magnier continued. “I’d say he belongs in Kentucky – he’s a U.S. Triple Crown winner. I’m not saying we’d never bring him back, but I’d say it’s unlikely.”

Trained by Bob Baffert, American Pharoah was the 2015 Horse of the Year following his Triple Crown sweep, and was a divisional Eclipse Award champion in 2014 and 2015. In addition to the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes, he won five other Grade 1 races, including the Breeders’ Cup Classic. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in his first year of eligibility.

Overall, American Pharoah is the sire of 63 stakes winners worldwide to date; he is the sire of seven Northern Hemisphere crops, including current 2-year-olds, and five crops from several years of shuttling to Coolmore Australia for Southern Hemisphere seasons. In the U.S., the versatile sire’s runners are led by dirt Grade 1 winners American Theorem and As Time Goes By, and turf Grade 1 winners Harvey’s Lil Goil and Marketsegmentation. He is also the sire of French Group 1 winner Above the Curve; a pair of Victoria Derby winners in Australia in Goldrush Guru and Riff Rocket; and Canadian champion Skygaze.

American Pharoah stood for an advertised fee of $45,000 at Ashford this year – he entered stud for an advertised $200,000 in 2016 – and covered 168 mares, according to The Jockey Club’s Report of Mares Bred. The JBBA, in posting Shizunai’s fees Friday, announced that the champion will stand for 4 million yen, approximately $26,203 in U.S. funds at current conversion rates – a seeming bargain for a horse the market has expressed excitement for.

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