Japanese marvel Almond Eye has given birth to her first foal, a colt by Shadai Stallion Farm’s rising stallion Epiphaneia, Northern Racing announced on Twitter on Thursday.

The daughter of Lord Kanaloa and Fusaichi Pandora, winner of the Sunday Silence Queen Elizabeth II Memorial Cup, won ten races for Sakae Kunieda during a magnificent racing career, nine of them at the top level.

Some of the big wins on his resume include the Dubai Turf, two Japan Cups, the Japanese Oaks, the 1000 Guineas and the Victoria Mile. She was the highest rated mare or filly in the world in 2020, on a rating of 124.

The seven-year-old has been retired to the breeding paddocks following her second Japan Cup success, in which she beat Japanese triple crown hero Contrail.

Almond Eye is the sixth foal of Japanese Oaks runner-up Fusaichi Pandora and is a half sister to Listed mare Unakite from Johannesburg and is closely related to two winners. Fusaichi Pandora meanwhile comes from a close relative of El Gran Senor and Try My Best.

Welcome little boy! #almondeye#epiphany pic.twitter.com/kFJpKWkefJ

– Lemaire Christophe (@christo68914587) January 13, 2022

Epiphaneia is the sire of top Daring Tact, the 2020 Triple Tiara heroine who won the Japanese versions of the 1,000 Guineas and the Oaks plus the Shuka Sho.

Son of three-year-old Japanese champion Symboli Kris S, who won two Grade 1s, Epiphaneia, the boiling one, has sired 24 Stakes performers to date, including four individual group winners.

They include new 2021 Japanese Horse of the Year Efforia, last month’s Hanshin Juvenile Fillies scorer Circle Of Life and American Jockey Club Cup and Japanese St Leger runner-up Aristoteles.

Epiphaneia will support the next breeding season for a fee of 18,000,000 JPY (about £115,000/€138,000).

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FIRST POSTED AT 3:48 PM, JANUARY 13, 2022