Dowsing to stand in Indiana

Dowsing, a son of leading Japanese sire Deep Impact from the Niarchos breeding program, will enter stud at Holden Thoroughbred and Running Quarter Horse Farm in Greenfield, Ind., for the 2017 breeding season, where he will stand for an advertised fee of $10,000.

The Japanese-bred 4-year-old was sent to France to run under the colors of the Niarchos family’s Flaxman Holdings, but a tendon injury kept him from making a start. Farm co-owner Jay Holden said Flaxman Holdings has retained some breeding rights to the stallion.

Dowsing will be the first son of Deep Impact, himself a son of Japanese breed-shaping stallion Sunday Silence, to stand in the U.S. He joins fellow Holden Farm resident Victor's Cry as Indiana's top stallion by advertised fee for the 2017 season. Next closest are Majestic Harbor at Swifty Farms and Sahara Sky at R Star Stallions, who each debut this season at $4,000. Holden said the pricing on the five-figure stallions was aimed to increase the quality of mares they receive.

“We were the first Americans to own and stand a son of Sunday Silence [Eishin Masamune], so we are already huge fans of Sunday Silence, which meant we have followed Deep Impact since his [Japanese] Triple Crown run,” Holden said. “Deep Impact's offspring have an unbelievably quick turn of foot when asked. They are some of the greatest milers going and tend to carry it further if asked.”

Dowsing is out of the winning French-bred Caerleon mare Forest Rain, whose four winners from eight runners include Freedonia, who won the Group 2 Prix de Pomone in France and finished second in the Grade 1 Joe Hirsch Turf Classic in the U.S.

His extended family features 2002 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Domedriver and French Group 3 winners D’Arros and Tau Ceti.

“Dowsing is from one of the best blue-hen families out there, with [fourth dam] Sex Appeal, [fifth dam] Best In Show, and her dam, Stolen Hour,” Holden said. “Dowsing is one of the most correct and elegant horses I have ever seen. His foals should be very good at the sales.”

Holden said he expected Dowsing’s pedigree to mesh well with the direction of the Indiana breeding program but said the stallion’s global bloodlines could give him a further-reaching appeal.

“Indiana has one of the best statebred programs in the country and one of the cleanest,” he said. “Deep Impact's offspring have very little reason to leave Japan because of the great opportunities there, but they have won Group 1 races in Australia, France, Hong Kong, and Dubai, where drug policies are strict. As the U.S. continues to add stricter drug rules, the Deep Impact blood should excel.”

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