Top class Japanese performer

Roc de Cambes to stand at The Oaks in 2010

The Oaks Stud adds Roc De Cambes to its 2010 stallion roster, joining Sakhee’s Secret, Darci Brahma, Bachelor Duke, Spartacus and Keeninsky. 

Well known to The Oaks Manager Rick Williams, Roc de Cambes was bred and raised at the stud, selling at the 2006 Sydney Easter Yearling Sale to prominent Japanese owner and breeder Katsumi Yoshida for (Aus)$130,000. 

Mr Katsumi Yoshida, owner of Japan’s famed Northern Farm, is best known in Australasia as the man who quinella’d  the 2006 Melbourne Cup with Delta Blues and Pop Rock.

A son of star sire and sire-of-sires Red Ransom, Roc de Cambes was rated by the Japanese as a super-star in the making, showing huge potential and earning NZ$2.8 million in racings toughest arena for middle distance and staying horses.

Four straights wins and 3^rd in the Japanese St Leger

Roc de Cambes quickly established himself as one of Japan’s most promising gallopers - winning his first four starts (1800m – 2200m), including the Jpn.2 St.Lite Kinen and the Jpn.3 Radio Nikkei Sho.  A crowd favourite, he went on to run third in the Jpn.1 Japanese St Leger (3000m) before taking on the very best of Japan’s gallopers in the country’s biggest race - the $4 million Gr.1 Arima Kinen.

110,000 Japanese racefans pack Nakayama to watch the Arima Kinen

Raced over 2500m, the 2007 Arima Kinen featured seven individual group 1 winners and attracted a crowd of 110,000 spectators to the Nakayama racetrack.  Starting fourth in the betting, with top international jockey Mick Kinane riding, Roc de Cambes unleashed his trademark powerful finishing run to race into fourth place behind Matsurida Gogh with Group One winner Daiwa Scarlet second and four-time Group One winner Daiwa Major third. 

Testament to Roc de Cambes gallant effort, finishing behind him were Pop Rock (3-times Gr.1 placed and 2^nd in the Melbourne Cup), Cosmic Bulk (winner of the Gr.1 Singapore Airlines International Cup & placed  2^nd in the Gr.1 Japan Cup), Vodka (champion racemare & 6-times  Gr.1 winner), Meisho Samson (twice a Gr.1 winner), Delta Blues (Gr.1 Melbourne Cup winner, Japanese Gr.1 winner, and placed 3^rd in the Japan Cup), Dream Passport (4-times Gr.1 placed), and Gr.1 Japanese Derby placegetters High Game and Infi Raimi.   

Kinane rates Roc de Cambes ‘up with the best’

Post-race, an enthused Kinane rated Roc de Cambes Arima Kinen effort as ‘worldclass,’  advising trainer Noriyuki Hori that the horse had the class to compete in the top level in the UK and Europe, and recommending the Gr.1 King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot as ideally suited.

International Federation of Horseracing Authorities makes Kinane’s rating ‘official’

Roc de Cambes extraordinary race-talent demonstrated at three years received international endorsement with him being rated 115 on the World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings and with the Japan Racing Association ranking him as second-equal (Rating 115) behind champion filly Vodka (117) on the 2007 Japanese 3YO Turf Rankings.  Vodka, in winning that year’s Japanese Derby had became the first filly in 64 years to achieve the feat.  She trained on to win a total of six Group 1’s including the 2009 Japan Cup and was named Japanese Horse of the Year, retiring as the greatest racemare in Japans history and the world’s second highest stakes earner with $19 million in prizemoney.  

At four years much was expected of Roc de Cambes, and he resumed from his spell finishing an unlucky third in the Jpn.2 Meguro Kinen over 2500m.  Next-up, at just his eighth race, Roc de Cambes started as second favourite in the $3.2 million Gr.1 Takarazuka Kinen over  2200m. 

A good effort in the Takarazuka was to have  seen Roc de Cambes head to either the Gr.1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes or France for the Gr.1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.  This was not to be, with Roc de Cambes galloped-on during the running, resulting in a torn ligament on his near hind leg and his immediate retirement from racing. 

Though devastating news for connections and for his thousands of racefans, the injury did afford The Oaks its opportunity to stand the horse.  Had he raced-on, realising his full potential, Roc de Cambes would now be standing in Japan.

With Roc de Cambes no longer a racing proposition, The Oaks Stud secured an option to stand the horse at stud with his owners Mr & Mrs Yoshida retaining breeding rights and planning to support the horse with their southern hemisphere based mares.

“I’d followed Roc de Cambes career with great interest and when Mr Yoshida made us the offer to stand him we gratefully accepted,” said Williams. 

 “On sheer potential Roc de Cambes was rated as a budding ‘superstar’ in Japan.  What he’d achieved in his short career was phenomenal, especially when we consider that as a southern hemisphere bred he was racing against horses six months older than himself at two and three, and when he raced in the Arima Kinen it was the equivalent of taking a spring 3YO out of New Zealand to take on Japans best older gallopers.”

“As a sire prospect he appeals as a horse capable of leaving early maturing stayers that can target the Oaks and Derbys and then progress to the cups as older horses,” Rick Williams.

By popular international sire Red Ransom, Roc de Cambes is out of The Oaks Fairy King mare Fairy Lights, making him a half-brother to John Wheeler’s dual Group 2 winner Keyora and the New Zealand Derby runner-up Roman Chariot.

“It’s one of the best family’s in the world,” reveals Williams. 

'Fairy Lights dam Gay Fantastic is the mother of Germano, and Moon Solitaire etc, and her grand-dam Gaily, acts as the third dam of the champion European Racehorse Pilsudski, who is rated by many as one of the outstanding racehorses of all time.'

As Williams explains, Fairy Lights is by Fairy King, a son of the legendary Northern Dancer, and a full brother to the outstanding sire Sadler's Wells.

Fairy King - the celebrated sire of the Australian Champion stallion Encosta De Lago - is also the sire of successful stallion Shinko King (Bramble Rose, Eskimo Queen, & C'est La Guerre) and Helissio (sire of the multiple Gr.1 winner Helenus).

Roc de Cambes stands his first season at The Oaks at a fee of $7,000+GST.

For test matings see TEST MATING OPTION

Click here to download pedigree (.pdf file)  

For further info please contact Rick Williams ph 021 737 905, or Karl Mihaljevich ph 021 737 905