KITASAN Black was named as Champion Horse of 2017 in the annual release by the JRA (Japanese Racing Association), retaining his title from 2016. The yearly awards are decided by a vote of racing journalists from various streams of racing media.

The Champion Horse award is the highest accolade out of the 11 prize categories and it is based on performances throughout the season by JRA registered horses.

A four-time Group 1 winner in 2017, he eclipsed the leading career earner in the JRA. Kitasan Black was the obvious choice for Champion Horse, a sentiment echoed in the voting tally.

The son of Black Tide earned 287 out of the possible 290 votes. The five-year-old also won the Best Older Colt or Horse by a unanimous 290 votes. Kitasan Black was also unsurprisingly crowned the leading four-year- old and upward turf runner by official rankings, given a mark of 124, 1lb superior to Japan Cup winner Cheval Grand.

Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) winner Rey d’Oro was named as leading three-year-old colt and he was 3lb superior to his nearest rivals, three other Group 1 winners including Kiseki and Al Ain.

FRANKEL

It was a daughter of Frankel that won the leading three-year-old fillies’ title – Soul Stirring, whose defining moment came in the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks), a first classic win for her sire.

Despite a largely disappointing remainder of the year, with three subsequent unplaced efforts, Soul Stirring had already done enough to seal the accolade and posted an official mark of 115, 2lb higher than her closest peer.

For the first time in 2017 the upgrading of the Hopeful Stakes to Group 1 level, brought the total amount of Group 1 juvenile races to three.

Previously, winners of the Hanshin Fillies and the colt’s Futurity Stakes were guaranteed their individual crowns in the yearly awards. This trend remained the same for this year with Orfevre filly Lucky Lilac taking the fillies title by an uncontested maximum of 290, while the unbeaten colt Danon Premium conquered all before him to claim the juvenile male title on the strength of his annihilation of a competitive field in the Group 1 Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes.

He is rated a healthy 4lb higher than any other, and the son of Deep Impact won the voting contest by a comfortable tally of 275 votes.

Clean Sweep for Foreign Jockeys

Four jockey’s titles were on offer for 2017. Champion Rider Christope Lemaire reigned supreme with three category wins. JRA Best Jockey (number of wins), JRA Best Jockey (by race earnings) and Most Valuable Jockey all went the way of the Frenchman. The MVJ category is calculated through a combination of wins, win average, money earned and number of rides.

Italian-born, Mirco Demuro was named as the sole remaining title winner, JRA Best Jockey (win average), with an impressive 25.7% return for wins to rides.