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Legendary racehorse Oguri Cap was euthanized Saturday, July 3, at the age of 25 after what appeared to be a pasture accident at the Yushun Stallion Station in Hokkaido's Niikappu.
The news of the retired stallion's untimely death came as a shock in racing circles and elicited stunned comments from his former trainer and riders. Flowers and condolence messages poured into the farm where Oguri Cap had stayed and where a special memorial ceremony is set for July 29. Oguri Cap had been reportedly in good health and had, just a little over a year and a half earlier, impressed fans at Tokyo Racecourse with a special appearance. Kicking up his heels and rearing in the preparade ring, Oguri Cap had looked in fine shape for his years.
Reports from Yushun Stallion Station say Oguri Cap was let out into his pasture at 10 o'clock Saturday morning and he was discovered by farm staff at 2 that afternoon with a broken right hind leg and unable to stand. He was taken to a nearby clinic where the decision was made to euthanize. Cause of the break was not known.
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Oguri Cap, by the Native Dancer son Dancing Cap, was known as the “Gray Monster” in his racing prime. He moved hearts far beyond the circles of racing fans and his popularity was considered to have been one instrumental in buoying the biggest boom in horseracing in Japan since that fueled by superhorse Haiseiko in the early 1970s. It would be no exaggeration to say that Oguri Cap and his fairytale appeal helped to attract a far wider range of racing fan than ever before and helped change forever the face of horseracing in Japan.
Oguri Cap entered the racing scene in May 1987 running at the NAR Kasamatsu Racetrack in Gifu Prefecture. Other than second-place finishes in his first and fourth races, Oguri Cap won all of his 10 other starts and was transferred to JRA-level racing in 1988.
From his debut at Hanshin in May that same year, Oguri Cap was unbeatable, winning six graded races straight, all paired with then-jockey Hiroshi Kawachi. Unlike the majority of JRA stock -- blue-blood colts and fillies purchased for tens of millions of yen if not far more -- Oguri Cap had been bought for mere millions. Racing among and beating out the elite, he was seen as a local boy makes big and raced straight into the hearts of fans and, eventually, the general public.
Still only 3 years old, Oguri Cap went on to win his first G1 race, the Arima Kinen (The Grand Prix), that year partnered with Yukio Okabe. The dark gray colt notched three more wins in 1989, with seconds in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) and the Japan Cup, won that year by New Zealand's Horlicks. The year ended, however, with a disappointing fifth-place finish in the Arima under Katsumi Minai.
Five months off, Oguri Cap returned to the scene with a win of the Yasuda Kinen under new partner, the then-21-year-old Yutaka Take in May 1990, but for the rest of the year victory eluded him. A second, sixth and a crushing 11th-place-finish in the 1990 Japan Cup saw Oguri Cap's popularity at the windows finally begin to wane. For only the second time since his debut, Oguri went to the gate as not first or second pick, but only fourth choice, in what was to be his final race, the 1990 Arima Kinen at Nakayama Racecourse in Chiba.
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It was a race attended by what still stands as the track's biggest turnout ever – 177,779 people – more than two and half times as many people as the previous year and a mere 20,000 short of the overall JRA attendance record on a single race day.
And Oguri Cap gave them a day to remember. He thrilled them with a steady move up the backstretch, then went wide in the final bend in a show of strength. As the Gray Monster closed steadily heading into the homestretch, the crowd went wild. Charging down the straight he took the lead with 200 meters to go and held off Mejiro Ryan by 3/4 length for the win. It was a fitting end to a legacy.
Turnover on the Arima Kinen alone that day surpassed 4.8 billion yen, a record at the time, and helped lift the Japan Racing Association annual turnover for 1990 to over 3 trillion yen for the first time ever.
Oguri Cap had lived at the Yushun Stallion Station from 1991 and was retired from stud duty in 2007. He had been kept in a private enclosure out of the public view in recent years, but from this May the public was once again allowed to visit him. He was reportedly kept in a paddock near the farm's front entrance.
Oguri Cap was bred by Funao Inaba in Mitsuishi, Hokkaido in 1985 out of the Silver Shark mare White Narubi. He won 10 of his 12 races on the NAR circuit and notched 12 wins and 4 seconds in 20 starts during his JRA career. He was owned by Shunsuke Kondo.
* 1990 Arima Kinen (The Grand Prix) (G1) : Race Replay (Japanese race call)
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