3 minute read

If there was ever a “Where are they now?” column for past Singapore Airlines International Cup winners, most would have thought 2007 alumnus Shadow Gate has long been retired, be it in a green paddock or the other fields in the skies.

Well, at the sprightly age of 10, the old Japanese warhorse is still alive and kicking - and racing! And he has resurfaced in the most unlikely place to continue his career - Ireland.

Two months after he scored at his Irish debut in Dundalk for his new trainer, little-known Curragh-based Japanese trainer Takashi Kodama, the son of White Muzzle is crossing over to England to line up in this Saturday’s Listed Quebec Stakes (2000m) at Lingfield for his second UK start.

Previously handled by trainer Yukihiro Kato when he scored a game win in the $3 million Group 1 SIA Cup (2000m) in May 2007, the S$4 million earner has thereafter not quite climbed to the pinnacle of racing, whether domestically or overseas, but surprisingly never lost his zest for racing.

Shadow Gate, who also boasted the Grade 3 Nikkan Sports Sho Nakayama Kimpai (2007) and Grade 3 Nikkan Sports Sho Nakayama Kimpai (2007) to his name, did not revisit the winner’s circle in 17 more races after his SIA Cup win until he snapped the long run of outs in the Grade 3 Toyota Sho Chukyo Kinen (2000m) almost three years later, on March 13, 2010.

That renewed spark prompted connections to have another go at the SIA Cup, but the daring bid for a heroic comeback came unstuck in the most anti-climatic fashion when an unruly Shadow Gate broke through his gate and was later scratched from the glamour event, which was eventually won by South Africa’s Lizard’s Desire.

Shadow Gate’s statistics flatlined again when he ran another nine times in ‘Black Type’ events back home without success. The glory days of that night in Kranji seemed like a distant memory when Shadow Gate ran a distant 10th in the Grade 3 Chunichi Shimbun Hai (2000m) at Kokura on December 10, 2011(which was to be his last race in Japan).

The crack in the “gates” of retirement was widening, but the Shadow Gate Syndicate was not about to give up on their ward when they decided against all odds to seek success under other skies again, although this time it was not a hit-and-run foray, but more of a permanent relocation.

They sent him to Ireland in a bid to resurrect their ward’s flagging career, and the move proved inspired when he scored at his very first start, in a 2100m race at Dundalk Stadium in Ireland on October 19, defeating the Aidan O’Brien-trained Ernest Hemingway (16th in the Arc this year), who is seven years his junior, by 2 ½ lengths.

The now eight-time winner will now cross the Irish Sea to test his mettle in Lingfield for his 48th career start where he will face 11 rivals whose average age is half his, but the SIA Cup winner certainly looks like he still has plenty of fight left in him.