#keiba

[jibunbosh]

ive been to a bunch of g1 and non-graded horse races over the past year and racetrack attendees have really all just been like this

[tachyon-log]

The devaluation of fillies & mares (and filly & mare races) in thoroughbred horse racing in comparison to their colt & stallion peers is an extension of the same force of misogyny that affects human women, in sports & otherwise.

Almond Eye is still the only Japanese horse to have won nine G1 races. The only horses that come close are all tied at seven G1 races. There is an implied sentiment here that her nine G1 record is devalued due to four of those races being filly & mare-only races (the 2018 Triple Tiara and 2020 Victoria Mile), and discussion of her legacy has sprung up again following the recent 2025 Japan Cup.

Almond Eye is a racemare that has left her mark on the history of the Japan Cup, setting the record time for that race in 2018 with a 2:20.6 finish. This year, Calandagan (IRE) just barely beat that record with a 2:20.3 time, which is doubtlessly impressive. (Admire Terra, jockeyless and disqualified, has technically also beat this time this year, but cannot truly be compared, due to running the final stretch without the weight of an entire human being on his back.) However, that is still no reason to diminish Almond Eye's legacy. Even with the time record aside, notably, she still holds another Japan Cup record - being one of the only horses to have won it twice, in 2018 and 2020. The only other horse she's tied with? Gentildonna, another mare, having won the race in 2012 and 2013. Yet the running joke is still to laugh at Almond Eye for one fewer standing record from her illustrious career.

Time and time again has Japan shown us that fillies & mares can stand toe-to-toe (or, perhaps, hoof-to-hoof) with their male contemporaries. When will we learn to recognize this fact, as well as what the way we treat these equine athletes says about ourselves?

[operationgroundandpound]

Everytime I hear something about Juryoku Pierrot she gets more awesome. Alongside carrying the first female jockey to win a japanese classics race, she also:

Tied Daring Tact's record for fastest final 3 furlongs in Yushun Himba history (alongside Enne)

First G1 Winner for owner, trainer, and jockey

Owner has only owned 2 horses in his career, counting Juryoku Pierrot

Was bred at a tiny farm with only 6 employees, but snapped 15 race long graded race winning streak by Northern Farm, one of the largest Japanese breeding farms

Caused the book she was named after to sell out

Damn, sorry for underestimating you, Juryoku Pierrot.

[slewacide]

Magnitude i love you i need his team to drop more pics of him..

[gamelele]

井崎脩五郎の競馬必勝学 ニューパッケージ版 (1991)

[mewgami]

「楽しそうに生きていれば、地球の重力なんてなくなる」

"if you live joyfully, the earth's gravity will seem to disappear"

[absolute-total-nonsense]

Hello! Ms. Tachyon sent me your way. I have a question for you. I’ve recently become enamored with Japanese horse racing because of my interest in Uma Musume. How does one “get into” Japanese horse racing and keep up with the sport?

Your best friends as you start your Japanese Horse Racing Journey (or keiba 競馬) are going to be Netkeiba and the Japanese Bloodstock Informatjon System (JBIS). Both of these are English translated and fairly easy to navigate databases of Japanese horses, their pedigrees, and their race accomplishments. Netkeiba’s database in particular is great for keeping up with current races, as they have easily navigable results pages and race schedules as well as some English-language articles. JBIS is great for surfing pedigrees especially if you’re interested in the progeny of a specific historical horse. The website Idol Horse provides some great articles for Japanese and Hong Kong racing and is super informative for catching up to where current impressions in the racing world are. The JRA YouTube channel also posts replays of all JRA graded races a few hours after they happen, and they have English commentary uploads and historic races as well (this year’s English playlist linked). Turf Parfait on YouTube also does excellent translations for historical races, focusing on the real-life races portrayed by umamusume.

If you’re willing to jump into the world of Japanese-only websites and content, Ahoonora has been a great help to me finding race results from horses that ran before ~1985 as well as some of the results from Dirt and Non-JRA horses. On YouTube, KTV also has a large archive of historic races, but some of them (especially recent races) may need a VPN to Japan to access them.

Enjoy and love the horses!! If you have any other questions or just wanna chat horses I’m always down to talk!

[potatoescanbesadtoo]

if you know you know