Cape Blanco relocating to Japan for 2015

Turf champion and young sire Cape Blanco will relocate to Japan for the 2015 breeding season, Racing Post reports.

The 7-year-old son of Galileo was previously based at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky., during the Northern Hemisphere breeding season. He will ship directly to the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association’s base in Hokkaido, Japan after completing the current Southern Hemisphere season at Cambridge Stud in New Zealand.

Cape Blanco’s first foals are yearlings of 2014. He covered 141 mares during this year’s breeding season.

Bred in Ireland by Jack Ronan and Des Vere Hunt Farm Co., Cape Blanco was a $482,229 yearling purchase by the Coolmore partnership, and went on to win nine of 15 starts in five different countries for earnings of $3,855,665.

He was undefeated in five starts in Ireland, with top-level wins in the Irish Derby and Irish Champion Stakes, as well as the Group 2 E.B.F. Futurity and Group 3 Tyros Stakes. He continued his run of European success in England, winning the Group 2 Dante Stakes and finishing second in the Group 1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Cape Blanco made three trips to the U.S. as a 4-year-old to secure Eclipse Award honors, with all three of those efforts coming in Grade 1 races – the Arlington Million, the Man O’ War Stakes, and the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational. An injury ended his campaign, and he entered stud at Ashford for the 2012 breeding season.

Cape Blanco is out of the winning Presidium mare Laurel Delight, who was named Ireland’s Broodmare of the Year in 2010. She is the dam of six winners from 10 foals to race, also including multiple Grade 2 winner Mr O’Brien.