Hall Of Fame - Shatterproof

Original article written by Danny Warren posted 12 years 3 weeks ago

Which two words, when put together, create more arguments and discussions than any other.
Those two words are “What if ?”

For example.
What if Adolf Hitler had been admitted for his talent as a painter by the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts who rejected him twice, instead of joining the army ?
We’ll never know of course whether he instead would have become known as one of the worlds great artists or not, but just think of the possibilities and how that could have affected how the world is today. Just think of what could have been avoided if a young artist had been given that little bit of encouragement.

One of the very biggest “What if” questions that will never be answered definitively surround one of the true greats of the “old” SIM in Shatterproof.

Every SIM owner/trainer dreams of owning the next big name and it would mean even more if they are a homebred. Robin Tan had the great fortune to own a stallion and a mare who were big names in their own right, but when matched together produced Shatterproof.

Shatterproof’s Sire was the unbeaten superstar router Crystal Night, who ran rampant through Europe and Asia in a career which saw him earn over $8,000,000 for Robin who was in his first year at stud and saw just 13 mares at the time of Shatterproof’s conception.
Dam Eliza’s Night Out had been an honest, if not spectacular racehorse until she won the Prix de l’OperaHotel du lac Barierre which catapulted her earnings to nearly three quartes of a million dollars. She was already regarded as a fantastic broodmare with multi-millionaire Storm of Applause and millionaire Freak of Nature running around. Robin decided that her great mare should support her freshly retired wonder horse and the result was a stunning looking black colt with a big wide, white blaze right down his handsome face.

The young colt was no giant, but he grew into a ball of muscle and Robin settled on the name Shatterproof before entering him into his first race, the 7f Prix de la Salamandre where his opponents included future millionaires Capture My Heart and Audience as well as the much maligned Zipless, who never finished within 8 lengths of the second last horse and had some truly spectacular losses of epic proportions. Shatterproof stayed in touch with the leaders most of the way, before shooting clear for the win.
Across to England to tackle the Dewhurst Stakes and a very highly rated youngster named Storm Trader, but even he could not make a contest and Shatterproof won in a canter before doing much the same to his four opponents in the Champagne Stakes.

Robin decided to give her impressive young colt a final run for the year in Japan in the Hakodate Sansai Stakes against a similar field to the one he had just destroyed. Again Rightsideupsidedown was left trailing in Shatterproof’s wake as he finished the year with a four and a half length win.

Having spent his first year as a sprinter, Robin felt that the best was to come from Shatterproof once he got over some more ground and chose the mile of the Emirates Prix du Moulon de Longchamp to begin his three year old campaign. Shatterproof dispensed with his rivals even more easily as he had been with a powerful six and a half length win.

The calendar was a lot different then to what we know now and Shatterproof now had the chance to something very rare and win the Gr.1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe over the mile and a half before any of the three year old classics. Up against Shatterproof were three horses who each won well in excess of $3,000,000 once their racing days were due in Shipwrecked, Bravo and Beam and even though the field may have been small, there was no doubting the quality. When Shipwrecked surprisingly gave up at the turn, followed by Bravo soon after, it was left to a straight long duel to the post between Beam and Shatterproof, with neither horse letting up at any stage. They hit the line together with few on course prepared to say that one horse had bested the other. When the result was posted, Shatterproof had won by just a head, the closest contest he’d ever had.
Taking a similar path to last year, Robin sent the little champ to London, this time to run in the 2000 Guineas back over the mile. Capture My Heart was once again forced to watch the hind quarters of Shatterproof tearing away as Robin’s new hero won his seventh straight race.
Mixing his distance again, Shatterproof comfortably picked up eight out of eight over the mile and a half of the Irish Derby before Robin again decided to finish his year in Japan in the Japan Cup. Here he would meet old foes like Bravo and Ignited, but this race would also mark the start of a three race feud with another of the SIM’s early superstars in Dreams In Flames. The race was run at a very even tempo and Shatterproof settled towards the back of the field. Behind a wall of horses at the turn, Shatterproof found it difficult to get clear running, but flashed home late, although not soon enough as he finished just a length behind Dreams In Flames.

Having tasted defeat for the first time, Shatterproof again began his next season of racing in France, this time in the Prix du Jockey Club and a date with the undefeated three year old Exit. Exit looked home and hosed with a furlong to go, but Shatterproof arrived like a thunderclap and rocketed past to eventually win by three and a half lengths.

A letter arrived in dramatic fashion to Robin’s door. A limousine appeared and out came four veiled beautiful ladies who threw petals on the ground all the way to the door, being closely followed by a suited man who simply knocked three times, handed over the gold leaf envelope on a silver tray, turned and left, followed by the women. A little baffled, Robin opened the letter which said that Shatterproof had been chosen to be one of a selected few to be invited to run in the $2,000,000 Desert Sheema Classic Invitation Only. The mighty Storm Trader was also invited along with Chilean champion Crystal Palace II and the unbeaten Faith Justified. The field of four spent much of the mile and a half waiting to see who would make the first move. Crystal Palace II tried to make a break upon straightening, but was under pressure immediately from Faith Justified and Storm Trader with Shatterproof on the outside edging closer. These three had the huge crowd at full voice with none giving in, but after a titanic struggle, it was Faith Justified who defeated Shatterproof by a half length, with Storm Trader just three quarters back on the inside.

The black horse had been beaten twice in three starts, but that wouldn’t happen again this year. Going back to cooler London, Shatterproof annihilated those against him in the Coral-Eclipse Stakes by six lengths before rounds two and three of his feud with Dreams In Flames. In the Irish Champion Stakes, Dreams In Flames used the same tactics as before and swept to the lead down the straight, but he had got there too early and Shatterproof was able to reel him in and win by a length.

Robin was determined to have Shatterproof avenge his defeat in the previous Japan Cup, but apart from Dreams In Flames, also had a new challenger in the new Epsom and Irish Derby winner in Le Dauphin Noir as well as Capture My Heart. Capture My Heart watched on as Dreams In Flames whooshed past, while Le Dauphin Noir and Shatterproof ran on together to challenge. Le Dauphin Noir wasn’t quite seasoned enough and it was left to Shatterproof and Dreams In Flames to sort out once and for all who was better. Dreams In Flames was gallant, but it was the black flash of Shatterproof who stormed over the top and win the day.

Robin had achieved her goal of winning the Japan Cup and thought long and hard about whether Shatterproof should have another season of racing. She decided to press on and the heroic little stallion headed back to Paris once again to try and go back to back in the Prix du Jockey Club against Exit and Tejano Dream. Robin was left wondering if she’d made the right choice and Shatterproof didn’t finish with his usual burst of acceleration when finishing second behind Exit albeit by just half a length, with Tejano Dream barely a nose behind.
Shatterproof went back to Dubai for a run in the lucrative Desert Duty Free and a sigh of relief could be heard from feet away as Shatterproof found his form to win by a length.
The King George VI and Queen Elizabeth in London looked like as easy a top race as you would find, with just three rivals, including the ever present Capture My Heart, but it took everything he had for Shatterproof to get the better of Capture My Heart in a driving finish.
Shatterproof went to defend his Irish Champion Stakes title and had two new challengers in the well travelled Crown Royal and Medal of Honour, who had spent his early races on dirt, before switching to turf. Amazingly, no footage or race report remains from this race after a nationwide blackout just before start time meant that only the judges eye and a stopwatch were used to determine the result and time, but Shatterproof won the race.

The Japan Cup would be Shatterproof’s swansong, with Robin knowing that he had shown enough signs that he wanted to retire. Tejano Dream broke from the scramble of horses to establish a break, but Shatterproof, as if knowing this would be his last hurrah, gave everything he could in chase. The post was too close though and Tejano Dream relegated Shatterproof to a last start loss.

Shatterproof thus retired with fifteen wins and four seconds from 19 starts and was the winner of $10,428,000 and the knowledge that he would be one of the most sought after new stallions at stud.

However tragedy struck and this is where Shatter proof’s “What If ?” comes about.
It was announced that the SIM was going into recess for awhile and all horses were frozen in time.

This meant that all retired horses were now completely retired and it is only through luck that Shatterproof was able to visit the breeding barn before this happened. The real tragedy of this terribly unlucky coincidence of timing is that Shatterproof sired a total of two foals.
Yes, you read it right, two foals, a colt and a filly.
The filly was called Proof of Passion, who never graced the racetrack, but once the SIM returned had two millionaires in Rely On The Stars and Passionate Night.
The colt turned out to be, like his Sire, one of the true greats.
The one colt foal of Shatterproof was none other than Fumetsu who won thirteen of 14 starts and became a legend in Japan. Thankfully Fumetsu remained available to stand at stud far longer than his famous father and sired 140 winners at a rate of over 70% winners to runners as well as 30 stakes winners including Feat, Untamed and Okanogan.

Given just how great his only son was, the question needs to be asked, What If ?
What if things had turned out different and Shatterproof could have passed on more of his talents to other foals ? How would this have altered our current reality of SIM breeding and racing ? How many of his foals would have possessed the same thrills that he had once done ?

We’ll never know, and now we can only access him through the sons and daughters of Fumetsu and Proof of Passion.

What if……………………………….... ?

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