NEWS
Two-time Japan Cup Dirt winner Kane Hekili retires
Posted: Tuesday, September 07, 2010 6:39 PM
Kane Hekili, a winner of a stakes race in each of the past five years he has competed, has been retired after bowing tendons in both his forelegs—the last in a long-line of injuries for the two-time Japan Cup Dirt (Jpn-G1) winner.
The eight-year-old Fuji Kiseki horse made his first start in more than 13 months when second in the Teio Sho to begin his season. He then won the Mercury Cup by five lengths before finishing second in the Breeders’ Gold Cup on August 12 in what would be his final start.
Kane Hekili rose to prominence as a three-year-old in 2005, capping his most lucrative season with the first of his Japan Cup Dirt wins by a nose over Seeking the Dia. He raced just three times in 2006 before bowing a tendon in his right foreleg.
A stem-cell operation helped him return to the races more than 29 months later and won his second Japan Cup Dirt in his second start off that layoff before adding successive wins in the 2008 Tokyo Daishoten and ’09 Kawasaki Kinen.
“He has already earned his place in history, so I can’t ask him to do anymore,” trainer Katsuhiko Sumii said. “He showed us such spirit—a never-say-die attitude. I will never forget him.”
Kane Hekili is scheduled to stand the 2011 season at Yushun Stallion Station in Nikappu Hokkaido. He retires with 12 wins from 23 starts and earnings of $8,240,465. Northern Farm bred him in Japan out of the unraced Deputy Minister mare Life Out There.
