Catching Up With Johannesburg

Johannesburg, 2001 champion 2-year-old in the U.S. and Europe, is now an international sire of sires. (Photos courtesy JBBA unless noted)
When Demi O’Byrne paid $200,000 on behalf of Coolmore for a Hennessy colt from the female family of Tale of the Cat, both stallions they stood at their Ashford base, it wasn’t surprising. Named Johannesburg, the colt was sent to Ireland to join Coolmore’s main trainer Aidan O’Brien at the famous Ballydoyle training yard to prepare for his racing career.
A precocious horse, Johannesburg was ready to race in May of 2001 and was entered in a Fairyhouse Race Course maiden, easily winning by 3 ½ lengths. The was followed by a Group 3 Norfolk Stakes win at the prestigious Royal Ascot and a win streak that had him win his next four starts, including three Group 1 races, by a combined 13 ½ lengths.
After winning prestigious group 1 races in England, France and Ireland all that was left to do in the colt’s 2-year-old season was an American raid.
There were no 2-year-old turf races in the Breeders’ Cup at the time so if his connections wanted to run him at the event, he had to go on dirt. As a European-based horse Johannesburg had never raced on the surface but his pedigree said that he should be able to handle dirt even better than he’d run on turf.
Going off for the first time in his career as something other than the race favorite (he was the third choice), Johannesburg was last for a few jumps out of the gate but Mick Kinane hustled him closer to the leaders, putting him behind the two leaders as they dueled around the Belmont Park track.
In early stretch, Johannesburg looked like he was blocked behind horses but when switched to the outside he unleashed a powerful kick. In only a few strides he passed everyone and won by 1 ¼ lengths to not only win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile but U.S. 2-year-old colt honors on top of the Cartier 2-year-old colt award he won as Europe’s top 2-year-old.
2001 BREEDERS’ CUP JUVENILE

Video courtesy of Breeders’ Cup World Championships
"He's been a champion every step of the way through the year," Kinane told ESPN after the Breeders’ Cup win. "We always believed what he was doing on turf was a bonus. He was meant for the dirt."
The option was left open for Johannesburg to return to the U.S. for the Kentucky Derby the next year though the connections said he could also go for one of the English classics. Prepping for both options in the Group 3 Gladness Stakes in his first start as a 3-year-old, Johannesburg was nosed out by 4-year-old filly Rebelline.
His connections decided to point to the Kentucky Derby off of that effort and he shipped to Kentucky for the race. Gary Stevens was given the mount with Kinane staying in Europe for the English 2,000 Guineas held on the same day.
JOHANNESBURG WINS THE JUVENILE

Photo by HorsePhotos.com
This race didn’t go as well as the Juvenile for Johannesburg. He ran in mid pack about 5 ½ lengths behind the leaders in the early stages but at a mile was falling farther behind the wire-to-wire leader War Emblem, ending up in eighth, 13 lengths behind War Emblem at the wire.
After the Kentucky Derby, Johannesburg returned to Royal Ascot to try and get another win at the meet. But it didn’t work out with him finishing ninth in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes. After the race, O’Brien warned that it was probably Johannesburg’s last start.
"We gave him a break after Kentucky but when he came back ready to start working again our ground was so bad I was afraid to risk working him, to see whether he was the same horse" O'Brien told Blood-Horse, referring to prolonged wet weather in Ireland. "I'm being realistic. When you bottom a horse like him, it's hard to get him back. It's very possible he won't run again. Why would you ask him to go and do that again when he's just not the horse he was last year?"
Later that summer, it was announced that Johannesburg was officially retired and would stand at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Versailles, Ky.
JOHANNESBURG'S CONFORMATION

From that first crop came Johannesburg’s two best U.S. stallion sons in Scat Daddy and Teuflesberg. Scat Daddy led the group that helped Johannesburg win the 2006 first-crop sires race with seven stakes winners and $1,765,064 in earnings.
In 2009, Coolmore was approached by the Japanese Bloodhorse Breeders Association about purchasing Johannesburg and before long he was on his way to Japan where he has done well at stud.
“It was absolutely wonderful for us that he became champion freshman sire in Japan in 2013, and it seems like breeders’ expectations for [JBBA] have risen as a result,” said Dr. Shigeki Yusa, JBBA’s stallion manager. “The last time we had a champion freshman sire here at the JBBA was King Glorious in 1993.”
Even though Johannesburg is laid back most of the time, Yusa said that he is the leader among the stallions at the farm and is the first to go out to the paddocks. That concession is no problem for the farm staff who love the stallion and affectionately call him “Joha” (pronounced yo-ha).
JOHANNESBURG

The stallion is in good health and is popular with breeders, covering 153 mares in 2014 and around 100 mares in 2015. He has proven to be a successful cross with many of Japan’s mares, including the very prevalent Sunday Silence line that is seen in many Japan-bred horses.
“Johannesburg seems to work well with the major female lines in Japan, especially the Sunday Silence mares,” Yusa said. “His success, we're sure, contributed in part to Henny Hughes, also by Hennessy, being imported into Japan. So he has already had a good amount of impact on Japanese breeding.”
As for Johannesburg’s impact on the North American breeding program, his sons have already found success with their offspring.
Scat Daddy, who stands at Ashford, has had major success as a stallion in Chile and is also often in the news as a top stallion in North America. He is the sire of horses such as Lady of Shamrock, El Kabeir, Frac Daddy and No Nay Never in addition to having the top spot on the leading 2-year-old sires list with 20 2-year-old winners and five 2-year-old stakes winners so far this year.
Johannesburg’s son Teuflesberg was able to do something his sire hasn’t been able to do yet when siring a Breeders’ Cup winner in his first crop. Teuflesberg is the sire of 2012 champion sprinter and Breeders’ Cup Sprint winner Trinniberg. Trinniberg’s first crop was born this year.
Just like Johannesburg impacted many countries during his tour de force as a 2-year-old, it’s looking like he’ll do the same thing as a sire and sire-of-sires for years to come.