Kizuna

Kizuna (foaled 5 March 2010) is a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse who won the Tokyo Yushun in 2013. Background Kizuna is a brown horse with a small white star and white socks on his hind legs, bred in Japan by the North Hills Co Ltd. He was sired by the outstanding Japanese racehorse Deep Impact out of the Canadian-bred mare Catequil. Deep Impact was the Japanese Horse of the Year in 2005 and 2006, winning races including the Tokyo Yushun, Tenno Sho, Arima Kinen and Japan Cup. Catequil had previously produced the Japanese champion filly Phalaenopsis. She was also a half-sister of Pacificus, the dam of Narita Brian and Biwa Hayahide, both of whom were named Japanese Horse of the Year. Koji Maeda, head of North Hills, named the horse Kizuna, which is a Japanese word meaning "bond", after he was touched by the warm words he was given by others around him when he was visiting Dubai for the 2011 Dubai World Cup that was held two weeks after the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, which coincided with Kizuna just turning 1 year old. Racing career