Sunday Silence

Sunday Silence

Sunday Silence (March 25, 1986 – August 19, 2002) was an American-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and Sire. In 1989, he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes but failed to complete the Triple Crown when he was defeated in the Belmont Stakes. Later in the same year, he won the Breeders' Cup Classic and was voted American Champion Three-Year-Old Colt and American Horse of the Year. Sunday Silence's racing career was marked by his rivalry with Easy Goer, whom he had a three to one edge over in their head-to-head races. Easy Goer, the 1988 American Champion Two-Year-Old Colt finished second to Sunday Silence in the Kentucky Derby by 2+1⁄2 lengths and the Preakness by a nose then in the Breeders' Cup Classic by a neck. Easy Goer prevailed by eight lengths in the Belmont. Both horses were later voted into the American Hall of Fame. After his retirement from racing, Sunday Silence attracted little support by breeders in the United States and was exported to Japan. He was the Leading Sire in Japan on thirteen occasions, surpassing the previous record of ten titles by Northern Taste. Although the relatively insular nature of Japanese racing at the time meant that Sunday Silence's success was initially restricted to his home territory, his descendants have in recent years won major races in Australia, France, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, the United States and Dubai. Blood-Horse pedigree expert Anne Peters speculated, "Had Sunday Silence retired in Kentucky, it's almost certain he would have tanked commercially and been exported in disgrace, but he found his perfect gene pool and thrived instead." He was also the leading broodmare sire in North America in 2016 due to his grandson Lani’s qualification of entry in the Kentucky Derby that year with a Grade II win in Dubai, followed by off the board finishes in the Derby and Preakness, and a third-place finish in the Belmont. Once qualified to appear on the broodmare sire list, Sunday Silence then got enhancements from his Japanese runners, where there is a substantial disproportion between North American purses and the significantly higher purses in Japan.In the Blood-Horse magazine List of the Top 100 U.S. Racehorses of the 20th Century, Sunday Silence was ranked #31.

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