Five-year old Lemon Pop (USA) (Lemon Drop Kid {USA}) was much the best in Sunday’s G1 February S. at Tokyo, handing breeders Olly and Amber Tait another elite-level victory.

Olly and Amber Tait of Cootamundra’s Twin Hills Stud admitted to being “super proud”, after Lemon Pop notched his maiden Grade 1 success in Sunday’s February S. (1600 metres) at Tokyo.

The 5-year-old entire has a truly international backstory. Lemon Pop is out of Unreachable (USA) (Giant’s Causeway {USA}) – a sister to the great sire Danehill(USA), as well as the Grade 2 winner Eagle Eyed (USA) and the Group 3 victor Shibboleth (USA), and is a half-sister to the stakes-placed First Word (USA) (Chester House {USA}) and the American stallion Redesdale (USA).

This is also the family of Dundonnell (USA) (First Defence {USA}) – a Group 3 winner in England, a Listed winner in Hong Kong and Group 3 placegetter in Dubai.

On behalf of the Taits, Blandford Bloodstock went to 165,000gns (AU$303,000) for Unreachable from the Juddmonte draft at the 2012 Tattersalls December Mares Sale and bred her to the Grade 1 winner and producer Lemon Drop Kid (USA), who stood at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky, until 2021 when he was pensioned.

Lemon Pop was raised for the Taits in Kentucky by Padraig Campion, before selling as a weanling for US$70,000 (AU$101,400) at the 2018 Keeneland November Sale. Godolphin Japan President, Harry Sweeney, purchased the chestnut in the name of Paca Paca Farm.

“It’s a big thrill to breed a Group 1 winner, it’s not an occurrence that happens every day,” Olly Tait told TDN AusNZ.

“He’s always been a very promising horse, he’s shown a lot since day one and his record suggests that, but he’s been interrupted by the looks of things and never really had a good clear run at a number of races in a row, so it was good that he was able to do that and win a good one.”

The Hiroyasu Tanaka-trained Lemon Pop is the 10th top-level winner for his sire and and his second elite-company scorer out of a Giant’s Causeway (USA) dam.

Lemon Pop joins the likes of Cafe Pharoah (USA) (American Pharoah {USA}), Inti (Jpn) (Came Home {USA}) and Agnes Digital (USA) to win the race as a 5-year-old and it was A fourth consecutive American-bred winner of the ‘Win and You’re In’ qualifier for the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Sweeney said: “Lemon Pop has been invited to Dubai, but we won’t be making a decision on this for some time yet. Thrilled that Lemon Pop has won a Group 1 race at his first attempt and won in good style. We are relieved that he now has a JRA Group 1 on his curriculum vitae which will be very important for his next career whenever he finishes racing.”

The victory was the second at Group level and first in the elite class for Lemon Pop.

Lemon Pop was handled by Ryusei Sakai, who spent some time riding in Australia a few years ago. Sakai picked up the ride after Keita Tosaki, who had ridden Lemon Pop to each of his seven previous wins, opted for Dry Stout (Jpn) (Sinister Minister {USA}), who placed fourth.

“(We) were shocked to read in the sports papers just two weeks ago that Keita Tosaki had decided to get off Lemon Pop to ride another horse,” Sweeney explained. “We then had to scramble to find a replacement and we are delighted with Sakai-san’s performance. It was a pressure ride for him too as he was riding Lemon Pop, the favourite, for the first time and in a Group 1 race.”

Sakai added: “I am grateful to be given the chance to ride such a strong and favored horse and am happy we won. He responded well and pulled away strongly all the way to the wire.”