Can Titleholder end Japanese racing's long wait to win a first Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe

For a long time through 2022, anyone who checked the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe antepost market will have seen Japanese raider Titleholder in pole position and wondered, 'who?'.

Days away from Europe’s middle-distance climax, there is only a little bit of shame in admitting you are none the wiser (guilty!). The important thing is you are ready, willing, and actively about to educate yourself on the elusive Japanese star.

Titleholder arrives in Paris off the back of a hat-trick of wins, two in Grade 1 company. He earned his first Grade 1 in the Japanese St Leger over a mile and seven furlongs but proved he was more than a one-trick stamina-laden colt when taking the Grade 1 Takarazuka Kinen run over a mile and three furlongs in track-record time.

A colt with the class to win three Grade Ones, the speed for a mile and a quarter and stamina for two miles, is a very rare weapon in equine form indeed. The memory drifts to greats like Sea The Stars, Nijinsky or even Camelot who came so close to Triple Crown glory when thinking of European stars with such diversity.

They are few and far between, and before this one graces our presence, we ought to find out how he came to be.

The Dubawi to Dubai Millennium and Dandy Man to Mozart, Titleholder’s Japanese 2020 Champion First Crop Sire Duramente (King Kamehameha) sadly passed away just eight months after earning his crown.

With only two crops of three-year-olds to race so far, each with their own Grade 1 winner to represent him, his premature passing is something of a tragedy to the Japanese stallion ranks.

Duramente was a homegrown Japanese Champion Three Year Old out of their 2004 Champion older mare Admire Groove, who it won’t surprise you to learn is by the late great Sunday Silence, a world-renowned breed-shaper who was imported from America.

The regard in which the Japanese Racing Authority hold the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is no secret. For decades they have been heavily investing in the best European and American bloodstock they can source with a multitude of goals, one being Europe’s crowning middle-distance finale. Titleholder is a prime example of their commitment to that goal, and perhaps their best opportunity to score.

Titleholder’s dam Mowen was a yearling purchase from Tattersalls October Book One in 2009. Costing just 30,000gns, she was from the second crop of Derby winner Motivator. Whilst Motivator has not scaled the heights one might have hoped for a Derby winning son of Montjeu, he has notable familiarity with the first Sunday in October as the sire of dual Arc winner Treve.

Treve came up two and a quarter lengths short against Golden Horn in her bid for a historic three wins in the race, a colt whose name will crop up again later on.

What Motivator failed to do as a sire, he suggests he may negate any shortcomings as a broodmare sire. Titleholder leads an esteemed group of 13 stakes winners to date who range from Norfolk winner A’Ali (Society Rock) to May Hill winner Fleeting (Zoffany), the latter a neck second on Arc day herself in the Prix de l’Opera to Villa Marina in 2019.

Titleholder is undoubtedly Motivator’s most accomplished grandson in this role with fellow Japanese globetrotter Vin de Garde (Deep Impact), just a nose short of Group 1 glory to Lord North in the Dubai Turf.

Mowen was purchased from Newmarket and brought straight to Japan where she won five of her 22 starts. The majority of her racing was done of turf, 21 out of 22 starts to be precise though she did shed her maiden at her first and only attempt on dirt in January of her three-year-old season.

In six attempts at stakes, her best finish was fourth in a 10-furlong Listed on going described as firm. Her relevant form is diverse, she won on soft and firm turf and from six to a mile and five furlongs. While class was not entirely in abundance, she performed respectively in Graded stakes and showed above average ability as well as durability as she won or placed in 13 out of 22 starts.

Japanese raiders have been invading Longchamp with varying degrees of success for years, including with twice runner-up Orfevre (Stay Gold). So what was it about Titleholder that captured our intrigue so early on?

His style of racing, exceptional stamina and apparent speed are obvious, but his back pedigree is what really catches the eye. Golden Horn’s (Cape Cross) 2015 Arc win will live long in the memory of everyone who witnessed it whilst Baaeed (Sea The Stars) will have to be at his brilliant best if he’s going to replicate Cracksman’s (Frankel) demolition of a competitive Champion Stakes.

Like Titleholder, 2019 Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare (Declaration Of War) has Group 1 form over much shorter trips, but managed to stay all of two miles in Australia’s most coveted prize.

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What is the relevance of these superstars who have etched their names into racing history books? Each one shares the same ancestors as Japan’s newest star. Their rare brilliance is just that - rare.

Yet look at Titleholder’s pedigree and you will find an Arc and Derby winner in Golden Horn, a dual Champion Stakes winner in Cracksman, Melbourne Cup winner Vow And Declare as well as rapid sprinter Habibti (Habitat), who also demonstrated her family’s liking for Longchamp in the Prix de l’Abbaye of 1983. Not forgetting Motivator’s association with the race through Treve, and it appears as though very few ingredients are missing.

Chink in his armour? There is only one. Unraced on ground worse than good, confidence it won’t hold him back can be found in his dam’s race record. If you really want to take a leap of faith, some of Motivator’s best progeny have shown more than a liking for rain-softened turf. Stakes winners Treve, Hamish, Pallasator and Monty are just a handful.

When Titleholder takes to foreign turf for the first time, the weight of decades of Japanese ambition rests on his back. The value of international form is always difficult to correlate cross border, but has he got the pedigree to do it? Absolutely.

Who dares wins, and the Japanese have dared enough now. Surely their time has come.

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