Coolmore stakes winner Japonisme bred on the same Choisir x Encosta de Lago cross as Proisir.
Japonisme (Choisir x Haiku by Encosta De Lago) extended his sire's influence taking out the Gr.1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (pictured) at Flemington in yet another triumph for the Chris Waller stable.
Waller pulled off a stunning coup in the 1200m race with Japonisme wearing the famous Ingham Bloodstock cerise silks to a half length victory over Keen Array with his Counterattack, a stablemate of the winner, third ahead of the short-priced favourite Exosphere.
The win was Waller's third straight Coolmore Stud Stakes victory after his victories with Zoustar (Northern Meteor) in 2013 and Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible) in 2014 and the eighth Gr.1 win already this season for the Sydney trainer.
The Coolmore Stud Stakes has been a stallion making race with the likes of Sepoy, Northern Meteor, Zoustar and Brazen Beau among recent past winners but no such prospect will beckon for the gelded Japonisme.
Significantly it was Waller's first Gr.1 for the Ingham family, who also bred Japonisme.
"We pinch ourselves and as the owners knocked back a sizeable amount of money for Japonisme. I put myself on the line and told them he is a Group One horse," Waller said.
"He would not have been a Group One winner if he wasn't a gelding."
"He will go for a spell now and we will do what we did with Brazen Beau last year."
Brazen Beau was sent to spell after the Coolmore Stud Stakes last spring and returned to finish runner-up in the G1 Lightning Stakes before winning the G1 Newmarket Handicap and then travelling to the UK for a second at Royal Ascot.
Japonisme (Choisir x Haiku by Encosta De Lago) has now won five of his ten starts with three placings for $600,615 prizemoney.
Japonisme's dam Haiku is a half-sister to Gr.2 Silver Slipper Stakes winner Plagiarize (Stravinsky) and NZ Oaks winner Tapildo (Rhythm).
Japonisme has an unraced two-year-old half-sister by Stryker and a yearling brother who was sold as a weanling for $10,000.
Haiku was purchased for $50,000 at the 2014 Australian Broodmare Sale by James Harron Bloodstock and is in foal to The Factor.
Haiku's sire Encosta De Lago is making his mark as a broodmare sire with his daughters producing 41 stakes winners to date. They include the South African Gr.1 winner Musir.
RACINGANDSPORTS.COM.AU
