We often bemoan the loss of stallions like Sunday Silence to Japan, but think of what a difference that made. In Japan, he was the major influence on their breeding program, or so it seems to me, and the best of his influence rose to the top partly because of sheer numbers. Now, Sunday Silence is almost an outcross to the rest of the world, and there are some very high quality horses from his line. Because of the success and popularity of the Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector Lines here and their preponderance as stallions, who knows if Sunday Silence would have been more than a watered-down blip on the breeding radar if he had stayed in this country?
By standing in Japan, Shanghai Bobby may have a bigger impact on Thoroughbreds than he would have had in the U.S., whether or not that is a good thing.
