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Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS
I laughed.
The crazy thing about this horse is that they tried to rate him over and over at the start of his career, and he would just fight the rider and pull, and have no great punch left at the end of his races. So, during his 4-year-old season, they just let him run off to big leads in all his races, and he simply wouldn't stop.
He won six consecutive major stake races in a row as a 4-year-old, and was a heavy favorite in the '98 Emperor's Cup. He had a 15 length lead on the far turn of the race, and suffered a fatal breakdown right there.
I certainly wouldn't compare his popularity to the kind a Barbaro or a Ruffian had---but he was VERY popular, and it is considered one of the darkest days in the sports history over there.
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I watched some of those races on Youtube, thanks for the link. Just watching him go was a real treat. This was no Shake the Bank that's for sure, not at age 4. So tragic to watch the breakdown. Compared to some I've seen it's not as graphic but you can tell it's a bad one. Was the relation to that horse you spoke of from an American branch that just never got sent to Japan or did someone send one back? I assumed the former since they're pretty good about holding onto horses over there right?