Details
| Name / Japanese | Real Shadai / リアルシャダイ |
| Birth Year | 1979 |
| Birth Country | USA |
| Sex | horse |
| Sire | Roberto |
| Dam (Sire) | Desert Vixen (In Reality) |
| Other Site Link | JBIS Stallion Reports / en.netkeiba Progeny Stats |
As a Racehorse Briefly
- The colt, whose dam is Desert Vixen, was sold at the auction by Yoshida Yoshiya, head of the Shadai Group.
He was later named Real Shadai and raced in France.
(Desert Vixen was a great horse who was inducted into the American Horse Racing Hall of Fame in the year she produced Real Shadai.) - Real Shadai won the Grand Prix de Deauville, a G2 race, by 1+1/2 lengths over second-place finisher No Attention.
(No Attention was later imported to Japan and became famous as the sire of Super Creek.)
In G1 races, Real Shadai failed to win, finishing second in the French Derby, third in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, and fifth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
He moved to an U.S. stable but did not race in the U.S. and retired.
As a Stallion
- Originally, Zenya Yoshida purchased Real Shadai for the purpose of turning him into a stallion, so he became a stallion in Japan starting in 1984.
In particular, Real Shadai was expected to be a good match for Northen Taste, the leading stallion at Shadai Farm at the time.
Northern Taste is by Northern Dancer, and his pastern was characterized by a slightly horizontal bend and softness.
In contrast, Real Shadai was not bred by Northern Dancer and had pastern that looked vertical and hard. - He took the title of leading sire in Japan in 1993 from Northern Taste.
Since then, however, he has been pushed out of the mainstream of Japanese stallions by the stallions who have produced speedy foals, such as Sunday Silence. - In Japan, stallions from the Royal Charger sire line and the Turn-to sire line have been pretty successful for a long time, but not explosively popular.
With the success of Real Shadai, stallions of the Hail to Reason sire line, a branch of the Royal Charger sire line, became popular in Japan.
He became the originator of the Hail to Reason sire line in Japan, which led to the current prosperity of the Roberto sire line and Sunday Silence sire line in Japan.
Until then, Japanese horse racing’s sire lines had followed the world’s mainstream sire lines, but Real Shadai can be seen as a pioneer in the development of a uniquely Japanese sire line. - He retired from stud in 2000 and died in 2004.
In 2009, a statue of him was erected along with Northern Taste at Shadai Stallion Station.
Foals
- Many of his early foals were fast-growing short-distance horses, but his later foals were slower-growing long-distance horses.
The strength of Real Shadai’s foals in long-distance races is widely known to Japanese horse racing fans.
This is symbolized by the fact that three Real Shadai’s foals, Rice Shower, Stage Champ, and Hagino Real King, dominated the top three places in the 1995 Tenno Sho (Spring). - His foals were often injured, probably due to the shape and stiffness of their legs as mentioned above.
Rice Shower, one of his best-known foals, also ended his life due to an injury sustained during a race.
(In Rice Shower’s case, his dam sire, Maruzensky, is also well known as a stallion with many injured foals.) - The fact that dirt races, which were less stressful on the legs than turf races, were less popular at the time may have been one of the reasons why his foals were injured and lacked success.
Dirt racing champions such as Copano Rickey, Omega Perfume, Chuwa Wizard, and Le Vent Se Leve have the name “Real Shadai” on their pedigree charts.
Foals that won the G1 races
- 1986
Shadai Kagura - 1988
Ibuki Maikagura - 1989
Rice Shower
Sire Line
- With the death of Rice Shower, who was supposed to be the most promising, there were few successors to him, and the sire line disappeared early.
- Today, his offspring are rarely seen in turf races, but as mentioned above, there are occasional horses that do well in dirt races.
Desert Vixen, a famous American mare, died at the age of 12 and did not produce many foals, but thanks to Real Shadai, her name will remain on pedigree charts mainly in Japan.