IRL:Katsuragi Ace

Main

Gallery

IRL

Game

Spoilers ahead! This page contains real life information that may spoil any story or events related to the character. Read at your own discretion!

Katsuragi Ace
カツラギエース
Main
Katsuragi Ace at the 1984 Takarazuka Kinen with jockey Katsuichi Nishiura
Silks
Romaji	Katsuragi Eesu
Foaled	April 24, 1980
Died	July 03, 2000
Sire	Boysie Boy
Dam	Tanino Venture
Sex	Stallion
Color	Dark Bay
Trainer	Kazumi Domon
Race Record	22: 10-4-1
Earnings	401,683,400 JPY
Major wins
Takarazuka Kinen (1984) Japan Cup (1984)

With this, I'll survive.

With this, I'll survive.

They're coming.
They roar and press in.
Of course,
we're not defenseless either.
Let us exhaust our vitality
and live on.

Now, you may look.
This is how I do things.
Come on, catch me,
This is my real strength.

-JRA Portraits of the Bucephalus

Katsuragi Ace was a Japanese racehorse that was active from 1982 to 1984. He is best known for becoming the first Japanese-born and trained horse to win the Japan Cup in 1984, ending Symboli Rudolf's winning streak.

Name Origin

Katsuragi is the crown name of owner Ichizo Node.

Racing career

Pre-debut

Katsuragi Ace was born on April 24th, 1980 on Sentaro Katayama Farm, a small family-run farm. He was the first horse coming from there to win a major race at the JRA.

He was put up for auction on June 1981, but received no offers. Later on August, he was put up for auction again, and the bid was won for 7,1 million yen by Denji Sato, a horse dealer entrusted by Ichijo Node, who later became his owner.

In 1982 (2 years old)

In June, Node entrusted Katsuragi Ace to Kazumi Domon's club in Ritto, but he had a weak back, and when paired with other horses he always fell back behind. Trainer Domon and Node, who came to check on his training, lamented, saying things like "I ended up buying a trash horse".

In his debut race, he won by 8 lengths and perfomed well in the following races, finishing 2nd, 1st and 3rd.

In 1983 (3 years old)

On his first race of the year, he placed last at 13th, but later won the Shunran Sho, which allowed him to run in the Satsuki Sho, but due to the bad condition on the track, he finished 11th behind Mr. C.B.

After this, he ran in the NHK Hai, a trial for the Japan Derby, and won, marking his most important success up to that point, but finished 6th behind Mr. C.B. in the Japan Derby. After this, he ran one more race before resting until autumn.

In his first race after his rest, he was the favorite to win at the Kobe Shimbun Hai, but finished 2nd to Suzuka Koban. Sakiyama Hiroki, his jockey up to this point, took responsability for his performance and decided to step down, and was replaced by Katsuichi Nishiura. With this new jockey, he was able to beat Mr. C.B. for the first time at the Kyoto Shimbun Hai. However, this did not transfer to the Kikuka Sho, where although being 2nd favorite, fell behind and ended up with 20th place, as Mr. C.B. won the Triple Crown. After the crushing defeat, he skipped the Arima Kinen, and instead took a four month break.

In 1984 (4 years old)

In 1984 the system of Graded stakes races was introduced in Japan. Based on the Kikuka Sho results, his team decided that long distance races well not suitable for him, and instead would go for the middle distance route. Although he started this year with a 4th place result at the Naruo Kinen, he had a streak of victories at the Sankei Osaka Hai, and the Keihan Hai.

On June 3rd, he ran in the Takarazuka Kinen, being the favorite with odds of 1.9:1, and won by one and a quarter lengths from Suzuka Koban, marking his first G1 victory. Although he defeated strong competitors of the older generations at this race, he didn't gain a reputation as a good horse at this point. Fans saw him as a "shadow of Mr. C.B.", due to the abstence of Mr. C.B. on spring races, as he was resting due to leg problems. As if to protest against this, he then raced at the Takamatsunomiya Kinen, however this backfired, as Symboli Rudolf, who had just achieved a double crown without losing once, was scheduled to race on the same race. Ultimately, Symboli Rudolf withdrew from the race, but due to the bad track conditions on the day, Katsuragi Ace's biggest weakness, he ended up 5th place, making his reputation drop again.

After a summer break, and regardless of his reputation, his team had very high expectations for the autumn season, as due to the introduction of the grade system, the autumn Tenno Sho was shortened from 3200m to 2000m, converting itself as the deciding race for the middle distance king, which was good for Katsuragi Ace's team. Unfortunately, although he won the Mainichi Okan, a stepping stone for the Tenno Sho, to Mr. C.B., Katsuragi Ace was unable to keep up on the Tenno Sho and finished 5th to Mr. C.B., once again summoning comments from fans such as "He only won the Takarazuka Kinen because C.B. wasn't there."

This didn't set back Ace's team though, and the next race they decided to focus on was the Japan Cup. This year, even though there were only 4 Japanese trained horses running, fans had high hopes that one of them would set the record for the first time, as two Triple Crown Winners, Mr. C.B. and Symboli Rudolf were among the 4 horses. Unfortunately for Katsuragi Ace, this meant he was overshadowed by these two, being only 10th favorite. Jockey Nishiura had a plan though: Katsuragi Ace was known to lose his composure at the large crowd cheers, and as there would be no way to silence the crowd, he came up with the strategy of putting a menko over his head to cover his ears (the mask you may see on some race horses), so the horse could focus on the race entirely. Trainer Domon, though, hated this equipment, so they ended up not putting it on the horse until it was too late to notice. It is unknown to this day Domon's reaction to this. Finally, at the race, the gap Katsuragi Ace was creating between the other horses was increasing rapidly, no one would dare to chase after him. At the end of the straight, the gap became as much as 20 lengths at its widest, and even though he was setting a slow pace, the other jockeys misjudged the pace, and weren't prepared for the situation. At the third corner, the pack finally started to move, but before they knew it, Katsuragi Ace was in control of the race, with a slow pace but with a lead of more than 10 lengths. Katsuragi Ace crossed the goal first, marking the first Japanese trained horse to win the race, and marking the first defeat for Symboli Rudolf.

Katsuragi Ace's final race was the Arima Kinen, racing alongside Mr. C.B. and Symboli Rudolf, who were looking for revenge after the Japan Cup. Unfortunately for him though, Symboli Rudolf followed on his goal, and defeated Katsuragi Ace, the latter finishing second.

Retirement

Katsuragi Ace became a breeding stallion after his retirement, but did not have much success at this. Unfortunately, he deveolped a chronic heart condition, and after repeated heart attacks, he passed away on July 3, 2000. The epitaph on his grave reads: "I remembered your performance at that Japan Cup. I was moved by what you did in that Japan Cup. I wish to see you race against Mr. C.B. again."

Honors

• JRA Award for Best Older Male Horse (1984)

Race Records

Race data sourced from netkeiba.

Date	Racecourse	Race	Grade	Distance	Gate	Odds	Fav.	Fin.	Time	Margin	Jockey	Winner (Runner-Up)	Other Umamusume
1982/09/19	Hanshin	Three-Year-Old Newcomer	Maiden	T 1200m	7	13.5	6	1	1:10.4	-1.3	H.Sakiyama	(Clear Lancer)
1982/10/03	Hanshin	Hagi Tokubetsu	Pre-OP	T 1400m	12	2.6	1	2	1:23.1	0.1	H.Sakiyama	Mejiro Mont Cenis
1982/10/16	Kyoto	Rindo Tokubetsu	Pre-OP	T 1200m	8	2.9	1	1	1:10.3	-0.4	H.Sakiyama	(Takeno Hien)
1982/11/27	Kyoto	Sansai Stakes	OP	T 1600m	2	4.0	3	3	1:36.6	0.1	H.Sakiyama	Mejiro Mont Cenis
1983/02/20	Kyoto	Yonsai Stakes	OP	T 1600m	13	7.2	3	13	1:39.8	1.7	H.Sakiyama	Uzumasa Ryu
1983/03/19	Hanshin	Shunran Sho	Pre-OP	T 2000m	7	8.0	4	1	2:04.5	-0.6	H.Sakiyama	(Persepolis)
1983/04/17	Nakayama	Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas)	OP	T 2000m	3	27.4	7	11	2:10.4	2.1	H.Sakiyama	Mr. C. B.	Mr. C. B.
1983/05/08	Tokyo	NHK Hai	OP	T 2000m	15	19.8	9	1	2:02.9	-0.3	H.Sakiyama	(Blue Durban)
1983/05/29	Tokyo	Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby)	OP	T 2400m	7	17.0	3	6	2:30.7	1.2	H.Sakiyama	Mr. C. B.	Mr. C. B.
1983/06/26	Chukyo	Chukyo Yonsai Tokubetsu	OP	T 1400m	8	4.3	1	2	1:23.0	0.2	H.Sakiyama	Nihon Pillow Winner
1983/10/02	Hanshin	Kobe Shimbun Hai	OP	T 2000m	6	4.2	1	2	2:01.1	0.0	H.Sakiyama	Suzuka Koban
1983/10/23	Kyoto	Kyoto Shimbun Hai	OP	T 2000m	3	7.9	2	1	2:02.0	-1.0	K.Nishiura	(Lead Hoyu)	Mr. C. B.
1983/11/13	Kyoto	Kikuka Sho (Japanese St.Leger)	OP	T 3000m	18	9.0	2	20	3:12.6	4.5	K.Nishiura	Mr. C. B.	Mr. C. B.
1984/03/11	Hanshin	Naruo Kinen	OP	T 2500m	7	15.8	8	4	2:35.1	0.2	K.Nishiura	Hashi Rodi
1984/04/01	Hanshin	Sankei Osaka Hai	OP	T 2000m	12	2.8	1	1	2:00.6	-0.4	K.Nishiura	(Long Grace)
1984/05/13	Kyoto	Keihan Hai	OP	T 2000m	15	2.0	1	1	2:02.1	-0.4	K.Nishiura	(Sunny Ciboulette)
1984/06/03	Hanshin	Takarazuka Kinen	G1	T 2200m	7	2.6	1	1	2:12.4	-0.2	K.Nishiura	(Suzuka Koban)
1984/06/24	Chukyo	Takamatsunomiya Hai	OP	T 2000m	5	2.6	2	5	2:04.4	0.5	K.Nishiura	Kyoei Rare
1984/10/07	Tokyo	Mainichi Okan	G2	T 1800m	5	6.4	3	1	1:47.5	0.0	K.Nishiura	(Mr. C. B.)	Mr. C. B.
1984/10/28	Tokyo	Tenno Sho (Autumn)	G1	T 2000m	7	4.6	2	5	1:59.5	0.2	K.Nishiura	Mr. C. B.	Mr. C. B.
1984/11/25	Tokyo	Japan Cup	G1	T 2400m	10	40.6	10	1	2:26.3	-0.2	K.Nishiura	(Bedtime)	Symboli Rudolf, Mr. C. B.
1984/12/23	Nakayama	Arima Kinen	G1	T 2500m	9	9.5	3	2	2:33.1	0.3	K.Nishiura	Symboli Rudolf	Symboli Rudolf, Mr. C. B.

Pedigree

Horse pedigree of Katsuragi Ace (JPN)

Sire Boysie Boy (GB)	King's Troop (GB)	Princely Gift (GB)	Nasrullah (GB)
			Blue Gem (GB)
		Equiria (GB)	Atout Maitre (FR)
			Epona (GB)
	Rising Hope (GB)	The Phoenix (GB)	Chateau Bouscaut (FR)
			Fille de Poete (GB)
		Admirable (FR)	Nearco (ITY)
			Silvia (GB)
Dam Tanino Venture (JPN)	Venture (GB)	Relic (USA)	War Relic (USA)
			Bridal Colors (USA)
		Rose o'Lynn (IRE)	Pherozshah (FR)
			Rocklyn (GB)
	Abbey Bridge (GB)	Entente Cordiale (GB)	Djebel (FR)
			Herringbone (GB)
		British Railways (IRE)	Umidwar (GB)
			Euston (GB), (Family: F14-c)