Admire Moon honored as Japan's Horse of the Year

The late-developing ADMIRE MOON (End Sweep), winner of three Group 1 races in

2007, including the Dubai Duty Free (UAE-G1), was named the Japan Racing

Association's 2007 Horse of the Year on Monday. The bay was also named champion

older male. Admire Moon received 178 out of 289 possible votes for Horse of the

Year, and was the overwhelming winner of top older male with 249 votes.

After scoring his first Group 1 victory overseas in the Duty Free in March,

he returned home and triumphed in two more prestigious races, the Takarazuka

Kinen (Jpn-G1) and Japan Cup (Jpn-G1). The five-year-old is now retired to stud

at Sheikh Mohammed's Darley Japan Farm Co. in Hokkaido.

DAIWA SCARLET (Agnes Tachyon) was runner-up in Horse of the Year voting and

was honored as champion three-year-old filly. The chestnut captured the Oka Sho

(Japanese One Thousand Guineas), Shuka Sho and Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative

Cup (Jpn-G1), and she concluded her season with a runner-up effort versus older

males in the Arima Kinen (Jpn-G1).

Daiwa Scarlet's three-quarter brother, DAIWA MAJOR (Sunday Silence), won

champion sprinter or miler for the second year in a row. Daiwa Major landed the

Yasuda Kinen (Jpn-G1) and successfully defended his title in the Mile

Championship (Jpn-G1).

The Special Award was presented to both VODKA (Tanino Gimlet) and MEISHO

SAMSON (Opera House [GB]). Vodka became the first filly in 64 years to win the

Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), while the latter made his own history by claiming

the Tenno Sho Spring (Jpn-G1) and Tenno Sho Autumn (Jpn-G1) in the same year,

becoming only the fourth horse in JRA history to achieve the feat.

Other winners on the evening were: GOSHAWK KEN (Bernstein), champion

two-year-old colt; TALL POPPY (Jungle Pocket), champion two-year-old filly;

ASAKUSA KINGS (White Muzzle [GB]), champion three-year-old colt; KOIUTA (Fuji

Kiseki), champion older filly or mare; VERMILION (El Condor Pasa), champion dirt

horse; and MERCI A TIME (Chief Bearheart), champion steeplechaser.

Top trainer Kazuo Fujisawa returned to the top for most races won, his first

championship since 2004 but 11th overall. Superstar jockey Yutaka Take turned in

another historic season, first by surpassing Yukio Okabe's all-time record of

2,943 career wins and then by reaching the unprecedented milestone of 3,000 wins

in November. These feats, along with champion jockey titles for wins and money

earned, brought him a Special Award, given to only three other jockeys in the

past. Take also continued his streak of at least one JRA award every year since

being named Best Newcomer Jockey in 1987. Jockey Katsumi Ando led the field with

highest winning average.