There are quite a few 'Hall of Fame' organizations in Japan, such as one for baseball, and even an automotive one that I myself was involved with for a while. However, the one that interests us today is the one found in the museum at the Tokyo-Fuchu racecourse - the JRA Hall of Fame.
These are the horses that have been inducted into the Hall of Fame so far, listed in the order they were accepted for entry: Kumohata, Tokino Minoru, Kurifuji, Tokitsukaze, Tosa Midori, Haiseiko, Shinzan, Hakuchikara, Tosho Boy and St Lite (1984), Grand Marches and Seiyu (1985), Mr CB (1986), Mejiro Ramonu and Symboli Rudolf (1987), Maruzensky, Speed Symboli, Meiji Hikari, Kodama and Ten Point (1990), Oguri Cap (1991), Mejiro McQueen (1994), Tokai Teio (1995), Narita Brian (1998), Taiki Shuttle (1999), Takeshiba O and TM Opera O (2004), Deep Impact (2008), and Vodka (2011).
One wonders if a certain chestnut, favourite for the Japan Cup today, will secure a place in the Hall of Fame as soon as he's allowed to qualify? The rules are such that nothing is guaranteed if several exceptional horses are present in a given year.
Anyway, there are also a number of jockeys and trainers that have been inducted, but we will deal with them at a later date. For now, at least the names of the horses are available in English, as this part of the JRA website is in Japanese only.
As an aside, you may be interested to know that the blog is now pulling in over 100 visitors a day (175 is the record so far), the audience coming from just about everywhere - all the continents have been covered, leaving only the North and South Pole to go. With modern communications, you never know! Even research scientists get free time...
No comments:
Post a Comment