GENTILDONNA is to Japanese flat racing what Hurricane Fly is to the Irish National Hunt scene; a living winning legend.

The five-year-old filly ended her sensational racing career last Sunday in perfect style by winning yet another Group 1 race.

The daughter of Deep Impact has now won seven Group 1 races on turf in Japan and now shares that record with four others including her sire, T M Opera O and Vodka.

However, the Sunday Racing-owned bay additionally won on the big stage outside Japan, namely the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic earlier this year and therefore rates as the most successful Japanese horse ever.

Gentildonna holds many racing records in Japan. As a three-year-old she won all three legs of the fillies’ Triple Crown, not enough in itself to earn herself a place in the Japanese racing records annals. However, she followed up that year by winning the Japan Cup, the first three-year-old filly ever to do so.

Her haul of four Group 1 races that year was the most ever won by a filly in Japan in a single year as was her racetrack earnings that year which was a cool €5,750,000.

Not surprisingly she was crowned champion three-year-old filly in addition to being Horse of the Year.

CITATION

Last year, she earned another notable citation by again winning the Japan Cup, the only horse ever to score twice in Japan’s flagship international race.

She also finished second in the Dubai Sheema Classic to the ill-fated St Nicholas Abbey. She was crowned champion older filly in 2013.

Her two Group 1 wins this year will certainly be enough to earn her another champion older filly award but she will also be very prominent in the horse of the year category, her main rival being fellow Dubai winner Just A Way.

Her total earnings on the racetrack are now ¥ 1,726,030,400 (€13,500,000 approx.), a record for a filly in Japan and indeed probably anywhere in the world.

Her earnings rank her as the second highest money-earner ever in Japan, behind T M Opera O but ahead of her sire Deep Impact.

What makes Gentildonna’s achievements all the more impressive is that in many ways she did it the hard way; she danced every dance and indeed many of her big race successes were against colts.

In fact, since winning the Group 1 Shuka Sho, the third leg of the fillies’ Triple Crown, she has run exclusively against colts and has eschewed easier filly and mare only Group 1 options.

Her most recent win, the Group 1 Arima Kinen, which was held at Nakayama last Sunday is a good case in point.

PRESTIGIOUS

This is the traditional JRA curtain closer and is an enormously prestigious race in Japan. It is the biggest betting race anywhere in the world and turnover this year on the 12 and a half furlong turf event exceeded ¥38,825,618,100 (€300,000,000 approx.). The €3,000,000 prize fund attracted a stellar field including no fewer than 10 previous individual Group 1 winners who collectively had won a total of 27 Group 1 races. In this year’s renewal only four of the 16 runners were fillies.

Gentildonna started as only the fourth favourite, punters preferring Gold Ship, Epiphaneia and Just A Way above her.

Drawn in stall four, she broke well under Keita Tosaki and stalked the pacemakers in third for most of the trip.

Turning for home she duelled with Epiphaneia early on before asserting herself within the last 100 metres and at the line had three quarters of a length to spare from the 30/1 long shot To The World who took second.

Gold Ship was a nose further back in third and was closely chased home by Just A Way and Epiphaneia.

The biggest disappointment in the race was this year’s Derby winner One And Only. The son of Heart’s Cry started as fifth favourite but faded quickly and beat only three home.

There were more than 115,000 fans at the track last Sunday to witness Gentildonna’s historic win and despite the chilly weather, more than 40,000 of them stayed behind after racing to witness their heroine’s retirement ceremony.

Raced by Sunday Racing, Gentildonna now resides at the paddocks in Northern Farm and it is planned that she will be mated next year by either King Kamehameha or Harbinger.

It has also been a stellar year for Gentildonna’s sire Deep Impact who has sired 11 individual Group 1 winners this year.