Mikki Isle

Mikki Isle (, foaled 12 March 2011) is a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. After winning two of his three starts as a juvenile he emerged as a top-class performer in 2014 when his wins included the Nikkan Sports Sho Shinzan Kinen, Arlington Cup, NHK Mile Cup and Swan Stakes. He failed to win as four-year-old but ran well in defeat in major races such as the Takamatsunomiya Kinen and the Sprinters Stakes. He reached his peak in 2016 when he won the Hankyu Hai and ran second in both the Takamatsunomiya Kinen and the Sprinters Stakes before recording his biggest win in the Mile Championship. At the end of the year he took the JRA Award for Best Sprinter or Miler. He was a front-running racehorse and was often vulnerable to fast-finishing opponents. Background Mikki Isle is a bay horse with no white markings bred in Japan by Northern Farm. In 2012 he was consigned to the Japan Racing Horse Association Sale of Yearlings and Weanlings and was bought for ¥79,800,000 (about $954,000) by Mizuki Noda. The colt was sent into training with Hidetaka Otonashi and was ridden in most of his races by Suguru Hamanaka. He is from the fourth crop of foals sired by Deep Impact, who was the Japanese Horse of the Year in 2005 and 2006, winning races including the Tokyo Yushun, Tenno Sho, Arima Kinen and Japan Cup. Deep Impact's other progeny include Gentildonna, Harp Star, Kizuna, A Shin Hikari and Makahiki. His dam Star Isle was bred in Ireland but raced in Japan where she won two minor races as a three-year-old in 2007. Her dam, Isle de France was a granddaughter of My Juliet, and was therefore related to Winona, Snaafi Dancer Lyphard's Special and Old Rosebud. Racing career