Races for 2-year-olds at the Japan Racing Association started June 1 and first-season sire Nadal is making an electric start. The unbeaten winner of the 2020 Arkansas Derby (G1) has sent six runners by June 16, three of them made successful racecourse debuts and two of them finished second.
Nadal started to stand at Shadai Stallion Station in 2021, when his fee was ¥4 million (about US$25,267). He covered 150 mares and 103 foals by Nadal were born in 2022. As they were broken and pre-trained, positive words were heard from training facilities.
Though the first runner for Nadal, Teio Musashi, was beaten eighth in a 1,600-meter (about one mile) turf maiden at Tokyo June 1, second runner Calderite finished second in a 1,400-meter (about seven furlongs) turf maiden at Tokyo the following day.
The first winner for Nadal was Hideno Blue Sky, who won a 1,000-meter (about five furlongs) turf maiden at Hakodate June 8. The following day at Kyoto, Port de La Mer won a 1,200-meter (about six furlongs) turf maiden and became the second winner for Nadal. While all four starts for Nadal were dirt races, he has sent two turf maiden winners.
June 15 at Tokyo, Clay King won a 1,400-meter dirt maiden while Persuade finished second, completing a Nadal-sired exacta.
While Nadal is a big horse, Clay King, whose body weight was 478kg (about 1,054 pounds), is the biggest of six runners by Nadal so far.
