Details
| Name / Japanese | Dancing Brave / ダンシングブレーヴ |
| Birth Year | 1983 |
| Birth Country | USA |
| Sex | horse |
| Sire | Lyphard |
| Dam (Sire) | Navajo Princess (Drone) |
| Other Site Link | JBIS Stallion Reports / en.netkeiba Progeny Stats |
As a Racehorse Briefly
- He was born in the United States and spent his racehorse life in England.
- He won his first G1 race in the 2000 Guineas Stakes, defeating Green Desert.
He lost the Epsom Derby by 1/2 length to Shahrastani, and won the Eclipse Stakes and the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
He later won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France.
He retired with four G1 race wins and a total of eight wins from 10 starts. - He is often praised as the best horse in Europe in the 1980s, and some say the greatest of all time.
As a Stallion
- His track record naturally led him to begin his stallion career with high expectations.
However, he developed Marie’s disease, an incurable disease, in the autumn of 1987 when he began his career as a stallion at Dalham Hall Stud.
Marie’s disease afflicted the legendary horse Dancing Brave and changed its fate dramatically.
Due to the poor performance of his first yearlings and the difficulty of handling the disease, Dalham Hall Stud sought a buyer for Dancing Brave in 1991.
The JRA considered purchasing him, and there was some controversy over concerns about his disease, but in the end the JRA purchased him and donated him to the JBBA. - Later, his European foals included the successful Commander in Chief and White Muzzle.
Because of this, the decision to sell Dancing Brave was often criticized. - He suffered very much from Marie’s disease.
Medication for him became indispensable to alleviate the pain of enlarged bones, inflammation of joints and muscles, and accompanying fever.
After arriving in Japan, his health was stable for a while, but once again Marie’s disease took its toll on him.
Since the spring of 1995, his room has been kept at a constant temperature with air conditioning, and the staff and veterinarian in charge of him have been on duty 24 hours a day to prepare for any sudden changes in his condition.
The generous treatment he received may be attributed to JBBA, which can be considered a subordinate organization of JRA.
(Some believe that if JRA had not purchased him he might have been euthanized.) - He continued to stud in Japan, although he suffered from a disease that prevented him from breeding many more.
However, he continued to breed in constant numbers until the last years of his life. - He died on August 2, 1999, after a sudden change in health.
It is said that at the end of his life, he died a spectacular death, remaining standing on his four legs, as if he had realized that he could no longer stand up once he was lying down.
It is an episode that shows his great spirit of perseverance and his inherent vitality.
Foals
- His foals were successful, and Erimo Chic, Kyoei March, King Halo, and T.M. Ocean won the G1 races in Japan.
- His foals showed good versatility, with the speed to run on light Japanese tracks and the power to run on heavy tracks.
He had good results at AEI. - His previous foals before coming to Japan, Commander in Chief, White Muzzle, Wemyss Bight, Ivanka, and Cherokee Rose, won the G1 races in Europe.
He was the second leading sire in Europe in 1993, after Sadler’s Wells.
Foals that won the G1 races
- 1993
Erimo Chic - 1994
Kyoei March - 1995
King Halo - 1998
T.M. Ocean
Sire Line
- Commander in Chief and White Muzzle came to Japan to become stallions and they were successful as stallions.
But because of their arrival in Japan, Dancing Brave sire line never developed in Europe. - Commander in Chief, White Muzzle, and King Halo did quite well as stallions.
- There were six stallions in Dancing Brave sire line that were active in 2022, of which Bandwagon was the most sired 12 times.
The number of breeding and the quality of the broodmares are low so that Dancing Brave sire line is on the verge of extinction. - Ingrandire went to Korea and became a successful stallion there, sired Jigeum I Sungan, a Double Crown winner in Korea.
Jigeum I Sungan also produced a Korean G1 winner as a stallion. - Recently, King Halo has been gaining attention as a dam-sire due to the success of Equinox, Deep Bond and Pixie Knight.