What's the best compliment you can make about a racehorse? Declaring that he or she is a great athlete, I think, and Gentildonna, who passed away on November 25 at age 16, certainly fits into that category.
Let me preface that last point with some appropriate context.
On ESPN's acclaimed "Top North American athletes from the century," aka its SportsCentury list, which was released in 1999, legendary racehorse Secretariat was ranked 35th out of 100 athletes by a panel of experts.
In his SportsCentury profile of Secretariat, Ron Flatter wrote, "Secretariat became so popular, Time, Newsweek, and Sports Illustrated featured the horse on the cover the same week. The William Morris Agency booked his appearances the way it would for a hot movie star. At the time, no movie star was as hot as 'Big Red.' "
Human beings held all but one spot on the list of 100 athletes. (The top five: Michael Jordan, Babe Ruth, Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Wayne Gretzky.)
That said, there were some well-known sports pundits who insisted that Secretariat should've been ranked even higher.
After all, Secretariat won the 1973 Belmont Stakes by a jaw-dropping 31 lengths in New York. He retired in 1973 with 16 wins in 21 career races, as well as three runner-up finishes and one third-place finish.
Gentildonna competed in 19 races between 2011 and 2014, retiring after a victorious final race in the Arima Kinen with Keita Tosaki handling the reins.
Bred at Northern Farm in Hokkaido Prefecture, Gentildonna, who was sired by Deep Impact (a progeny of Sunday Silence, a Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner), finished with 10 wins, four runner-up finishes and one third-place finish in her illustrious career.
Amazing Consistency Over the Years
The race statistics cited above shouldn't be interpreted as suggesting that Gentildonna was on par with Secretariat, the greatest racehorse of all time. But Gentildonna was, by all accounts, one of the elite thoroughbreds in Japanese racing history over the past century.
In addition, Gentildonna thrived while teaming up with numerous racing partners over the years. That's impressive, and not necessarily an easy thing to accomplish.
She won four races with Yasunari Iwata, two with Ryan Moore, and one apiece with Yuga Kawada, Christophe Lemaire, Ioritz Mendizabal and Tosaki.
Of Gentildonna's 19 career races, two were held overseas. She competed in the Dubai Sheema Classic in March of 2013 and '14. In her debut race in the United Arab Emirates, Gentildonna placed second. A year later, Moore piloted her to victory in the same event.
Gentildonna collected victories in six Grade 1 turf events, ranging from 1,600 to 2,500 meters.
After notching her first G1 triumph in April 2012 at the Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas), she rattled off four more consecutive wins ― Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks), G2 Rose Stakes, Shuka Sho and Japan Cup ― to end the year. Based on her success in 2012, she secured the Japan Racing Association Award for Best Three-Year-Old Filly and was named the Japanese Horse of the Year.
Victories in the Oka Sho, Yushun Himba and Shuka Sho made her the fourth filly to win the Fillies' Triple Crown, following Meijiro Ramonu in 1986, Still in Love (2003) and Apapane (2010).
What's more, she became the first filly to win four JRA G1 races in the same year, Sankei Sports reported.
Making History at the Japan Cup
You can label 2013 the middle chapter of Gentildonna's racing career, because it falls between her remarkable feats in 2012 and '14.
In 2013, Gentildonna ran in four races, starting with the Dubai Sheema Classic. Then, following a third-place finish in the Takarazuka Kinen and a second-place showing in the Tenno Sho (Autumn), Deep Impact's daughter closed out the year by beating Denim and Rose by a nose in the Japan Cup.
That made her the first (and still only) horse to repeat as Japan Cup champion.
After the race, Moore described Gentildonna's key to victory, according to Australia's ABC News: "Luckily she has gears and works up to her top [speed], and she was able to stay in front just long enough."
Gentildonna Showed Impressive Ability in 2014
Before she officially retired, Gentildonna nabbed wins in the Dubai Sheema Classic (2,410 meters) and the Arima Kinen (2,500 meters) in 2014.
Also that year, there was major disappointment (sixth place at February's Kyoto Kinen and career-worst ninth-place finish at June's Takarazuka Kinen). She also collected her third and final runner-up finish in that November's Tenno Sho (Autumn), placing 3/4 of a length behind Spielberg.
Fittingly, Gentildonna, as a 5-year-old, bounced back to end her racing career on a high note. Gentildonna beat To the World to the wire by 3/4 a length in the Arima Kinen on December 28, 2014, at Nakayama Racecourse in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture.
She clinched the 2014 Japanese Horse of the Year honors along with the JRA Award for Best Older Filly or Mare.
In 2016, Gentildonna was inducted into the Japan Racing Association Hall of Fame.
Fond Memories of Gentildonna's Career
Looking back on Gentildonna's career and her defining moments as a thoroughbred, Sei Ishizaka, her longtime trainer, recalled that she thrived in the spotlight of big races.
"We pushed to run her in the Arima Kinen, and she still delivered," Ishizaka was quoted as saying by Thoroughbred Daily News' website. "And in the Dubai Sheema Classic, she traveled all that way and won spectacularly. She was tremendously strong as a 3-year-old as well.
"It's the fate of a racehorse, but I believe she gave everything, she really ran her heart out. That's why I hoped she could enjoy a long life afterwards. It hurts whenever any horse I trained passes away, but she was truly one of the special ones. [Her daughter] Geraldina and her full sister Donau Blue are still here, so I hope the family line continues."
In the aftermath of Gentildonna's death in late November, Sankei Sports republished an article about the 2012 Japan Cup. The story highlighted the marquee showdown between Japanese Triple Crown winner Orfevre, whose grandsire was also Sunday Silence, and Fillies' Triple Crown winner Gentildonna.
After that famous race, in which Gentildonna edged Orfevre by a nose, jockey Iwata said, "I feel like I saw her true potential for the first time."
"She's an incredible horse," he said, according to Sankei Sports. "Buena Vista and Vodka were amazing fillies too, but I want her to run even better than them and surpass them."
Tributes to Gentildonna
When the news of her death was announced in November, jockey Tosaki and Shunsuke Yoshida, representative director of Sunday Racing Co Ltd, were among the notable individuals in Japan's horse racing community who paid tribute to Gentildonna.
"It's a shame, she was still so young," Tosaki said, according to Sports Nippon. "She's a horse I'll never forget in my life. [And] she gave me that final victory gift in 2014, a year when I won the riding title but hadn't won a G1. It made that year truly memorable. I hope she rests in peace."
Yoshida highlighted Gentildonna's racing feats and her later success as a broodmare.
She achieved numerous great feats as a racehorse, including winning the Triple Crown for fillies and back-to-back Japan Cups," Yoshida stated, according to Sports Nippon. "As a broodmare, she also produced Geraldina. She truly was an amazing horse."
He continued by saying, "We were deeply saddened by her passing, especially since she had been supported by so many fans throughout her racing career and we had hoped she could now live out her days in peace. We wish her eternal rest."
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Author: Ed Odeven
Find Ed on JAPAN Forward's dedicated website, SportsLook. Follow his [Japan Sports Notebook] on Sundays, [Odds and Evens] during the week, and X (formerly Twitter) ＠ed_odeven.
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