For most of 2005, Heart's Cry had been easy to recognize and difficult to predict. He usually settled well behind the leaders, waited for the straight, and tried to settle the race with one sustained run. The method had taken him close to major victories, but close was becoming a familiar result.
He had finished second in the Japanese Derby as a three-year-old. At four, he was second in the Takarazuka Kinen and second again in the Japan Cup. Then came the Arima Kinen on December 25, 2005, against an undefeated Triple Crown winner named Deep Impact.
Christophe Lemaire changed the script. Heart's Cry did not wait at the back. He raced near the leaders, entered the final turn already within striking distance, and made Deep Impact chase him.
That tactical decision produced the most famous victory of his career. It also revealed a version of Heart's Cry that would soon travel far beyond Japan.
From Kyoto to the Japanese Derby
Heart's Cry was foaled on April 15, 2001, at Shadai Farm in Hokkaido. He was a son of Sunday Silence, the American champion whose stallion career transformed Japanese Thoroughbred breeding, and Irish Dance, a daughter of 1989 Japan Cup winner Tony Bin.
The pedigree combined two stallions that had enormous influence in Japan, but Heart's Cry was not an immediate juvenile star. He did not make his racing debut until January 2004, when he won a 2,000-meter newcomer race at Kyoto. Trainer Kojiro Hashiguchi quickly moved him toward the Classic route.
Heart's Cry won the Wakaba Stakes in March, finished a disappointing 14th in the Satsuki Sho, and then recovered three weeks later in the Kyoto Shimbun Hai. Racing over 2,200 meters, he defeated Suzuka Mambo and earned his first graded-stakes victory.
That made him a serious contender for the Tokyo Yushun, the Japanese Derby, but the 2004 generation contained a colt whose acceleration had already transformed the season. King Kamehameha had won the NHK Mile Cup and was attempting the unusual mile-to-Derby double.
Heart's Cry came from behind at Tokyo and finished second. King Kamehameha beat him by one and a half lengths in a record 2:23.3. The Derby established Heart's Cry as one of the better colts of his generation, but it also established a pattern that would follow him into the next season: he could finish extremely strongly without necessarily reaching the winner in time.
Three Major Seconds
Heart's Cry's four-year-old campaign in 2005 was filled with evidence that he belonged at G1 level. Victory, however, remained elusive.
He finished second to Sunrise Pegasus in the Sankei Osaka Hai and fifth in the Tenno Sho (Spring). In June he contested the Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin, where Sweep Tosho defeated him by a neck. The mare became the first female winner of the race in decades; Heart's Cry collected another major placing.
After a summer break, he returned in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) and finished sixth. Christophe Lemaire then retained the ride for the Japan Cup, and Heart's Cry produced one of his best performances to that point.
The 2005 Japan Cup was exceptionally fast. Britain's Alkaased, trained by Luca Cumani and ridden by Frankie Dettori, completed the 2,400 meters at Tokyo in 2:22.1. Heart's Cry charged from well back and reached the winner almost exactly at the finish. The official margin was a nose.
He had now been second in the Japanese Derby, Takarazuka Kinen and Japan Cup. His record entering the final race of 2005 stood at fifteen starts and three victories, with the Kyoto Shimbun Hai still his only graded win.
The horse awaiting him at Nakayama could hardly have presented a more difficult opportunity to change that record.
Deep Impact Arrives at Nakayama Unbeaten
Deep Impact had entered Japanese racing history during 2005. He won the Satsuki Sho, Japanese Derby and Kikuka Sho without defeat, becoming Japan's first undefeated Triple Crown winner since Symboli Rudolf in 1984.
His racing style was spectacular. Yutaka Take could allow him to settle toward the rear before unleashing an acceleration that overwhelmed the field. By the time of the Arima Kinen, Deep Impact had won all seven of his starts and was the overwhelming favorite.
Heart's Cry was fourth choice at odds of 17.1. His recent form was excellent, but attempting to beat Deep Impact with another late run created an obvious problem. If both horses waited and accelerated, Heart's Cry would be trying to defeat the unbeaten champion at the part of racing that had made Deep Impact famous.
Lemaire chose another approach.
The Tactical Change in the 2005 Arima Kinen
The difference was visible almost immediately. Heart's Cry, normally seen much farther back, took a position close to the pace. At the first corner he was among the horses immediately behind the leaders, while Deep Impact settled near the rear.
Cosmo Bulk led the field around Nakayama. Heart's Cry remained close enough that he did not need to produce a long run merely to reach contention. At the fourth corner, he was already near the front.
Deep Impact still had considerable ground to recover.
Heart's Cry moved past the leaders in the straight and Lemaire asked him to finish the job. Deep Impact accelerated from behind and began reducing the advantage, but the finish arrived first. Heart's Cry stopped the clock at 2:31.9 and defeated Deep Impact by half a length.
It was Heart's Cry's first G1 victory. It was also Lemaire's first JRA G1 victory.
For Deep Impact, the result became an unusual entry in an extraordinary career. He later lost overseas in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe before being disqualified from that race, but after the Arima Kinen he returned to Japan and won every remaining domestic start. Heart's Cry therefore remained the only horse officially to defeat Deep Impact on Japanese soil.
The importance of the race for Heart's Cry extended beyond the identity of the runner-up. The Arima Kinen had shown that he did not have to be ridden as a deep closer. Used closer to the pace, his stamina and finishing ability could become a different kind of weapon.
Nad Al Sheba, March 25, 2006
Three months later, Heart's Cry appeared at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse in Dubai for the Dubai Sheema Classic. The Group 1 race over 2,400 meters brought together an international field of fourteen.
He drew gate 13, but the Arima Kinen had changed the tactical possibilities available to Lemaire. Rather than dropping Heart's Cry behind the field, the jockey allowed him to move forward.
Heart's Cry soon led.
That position was no emergency measure. He travelled comfortably in front, and when his rivals tried to challenge in the final part of the race, Lemaire still had horse beneath him. Heart's Cry accelerated away in the straight without requiring the desperate late pursuit that had characterized so many of his races in Japan.
He defeated Collier Hill by four and a quarter lengths in 2:31.89. The Emirates Racing Authority's record describes him as having led early, quickened clear when challenged and won comfortably.
It was also a notable result for Japanese racing internationally. Stay Gold had won the Dubai Sheema Classic in 2001 when the race held Group 2 status. Heart's Cry's victory was the first by a Japanese horse after the race had been promoted to Group 1.
Japan enjoyed an exceptional evening at Nad Al Sheba. Hashiguchi also trained Utopia, winner of the Godolphin Mile, giving the trainer two victories on the same Dubai World Cup program.
Heart's Cry Goes to Ascot
After Dubai, Heart's Cry did not return immediately to Japanese competition. His next assignment was one of Europe's major summer races: the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on July 29.
The field was small but formidable. Hurricane Run had won the 2005 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Electrocutionist had won the Dubai World Cup earlier in 2006. Heart's Cry arrived as the Arima Kinen and Dubai Sheema Classic winner.
He again raced prominently rather than waiting at the rear. The three major international horses fought out the finish, with Hurricane Run defeating Electrocutionist and Heart's Cry taking third.
The result was a defeat, but it placed Heart's Cry directly among elite European and international middle-distance horses. His Dubai performance also earned him a rating of 123 in the international rankings published in May 2006.
The Final Japan Cup
Heart's Cry did not race again until the Japan Cup on November 26, 2006. The meeting with Deep Impact attracted obvious attention: the two horses had not faced each other since the previous year's Arima Kinen.
This time there was no repeat.
Deep Impact won the Japan Cup, while Heart's Cry finished tenth, 2.6 seconds behind him. The performance was far below the level Heart's Cry had shown at Nakayama, Dubai and Ascot.
A throat problem was subsequently identified. Heart's Cry did not race again, and his retirement was announced. He finished his career with 19 starts, five victories, four seconds and three thirds, including his two G1 wins in the Arima Kinen and Dubai Sheema Classic.
His race record was relatively short for a horse whose influence would eventually extend across several racing countries.
A Different Branch of Sunday Silence
Heart's Cry entered stud at Shadai Stallion Station. As a son of Sunday Silence, he joined a breeding landscape increasingly dominated by descendants of the great American stallion, most notably Deep Impact himself.
Heart's Cry nevertheless developed his own powerful branch.
One and Only won the 2014 Japanese Derby. Nuovo Record won the Japanese Oaks. Cheval Grand won the 2017 Japan Cup, while Suave Richard won the Osaka Hai and later the 2019 Japan Cup. Salios became a champion two-year-old, and Do Deuce won the Japanese Derby before adding the Arima Kinen, Tenno Sho (Autumn) and Japan Cup.
Several of his offspring also achieved major results outside Japan. Admire Rakti won Australia's Caulfield Cup. Yoshida became a rare Japanese-bred Grade 1 winner on both turf and dirt in the United States. Continuous, bred in Japan and trained in Ireland, won the 2023 St Leger at Doncaster.
Two of Heart's Cry's most internationally recognizable children demonstrated the range of his influence particularly well. Just a Way won the Dubai Duty Free by more than six lengths in 2014 and reached the top of the international racehorse rankings. Lys Gracieux developed into Japan's Horse of the Year in 2019 after winning the Takarazuka Kinen, Australia's Cox Plate and the Arima Kinen.
By August 2026, JBIS statistics listed 1,603 registered offspring by Heart's Cry in Japan, including 63 graded-stakes winners. His major winners covered sprint-to-middle distances, Classic races, international turf racing and, in Yoshida's case, top-level American dirt racing.
From Heart's Cry to Do Deuce
The later years of Heart's Cry's stallion career produced one final Japanese superstar. Do Deuce, foaled in 2019, won the Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes as a two-year-old and defeated Equinox in the 2022 Japanese Derby.
He later won the 2023 Arima Kinen and completed a major autumn double in 2024 with victories in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) and Japan Cup. Through horses such as Do Deuce and Suave Richard, Heart's Cry's influence also moved into another generation of Japanese breeding.
Heart's Cry was pensioned from stallion duty after the 2020 breeding season. He remained at Shadai Stallion Station and died on March 9, 2023, at the age of 22.
Two Races That Changed His Career
The official record of Heart's Cry contains 19 starts and five wins, but the sequence that defined his peak is unusually clear. On November 27, 2005, he came from behind and missed Alkaased by a nose in the Japan Cup. Four weeks later, Lemaire placed him close to the pace in the Arima Kinen and defeated Deep Impact. Three months after that, the same horse went to the front in Dubai and won the Sheema Classic by four and a quarter lengths.
Those races did not require a reinvention of Heart's Cry's ability. They required a different way of using it.
The consequences lasted much longer than his racing career. The horse who beat Deep Impact at Nakayama became a Group 1 winner in Dubai, competed against Europe's best at Ascot, and then established a sire line represented by Japanese Derby winners, international champions and major winners in Australia, Britain and the United States.
For Heart's Cry, the decisive stretch of his career began not with a faster closing run, but with a change of position before the real racing had even started.
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