Oju Chosan

2020-11-01 | By jpkeiba | Filed in: Active Horse, colt,stallion(male), Steeplechase horse.

Details

Name / Japanese	Oju Chosan / オジュウチョウサン
Birth Year	2011
Sex	male
Earnings	yen
Races-Win / J.G1-Win / G1-Win	32-18 / 8-7 / 1-0
Sire	Stay Gold
Dam (Sire)	Shadow Silhouette (Symboli Kris S)
Other site link	JBIS / Umanity / netkeiba

Awards
Honours

Until 2017: All J.G1 races + grade-races he won

He ran two turf races, then switched to steeplechase.
In the Nakayama Daishogai (2015), he finished 6th.
Up to Date, the steeplechase champion, won.
Up until 2015, he was very bad at starting.
In 2016, his earmuffs were removed at the suggestion of his jockey, Shinichi Ishigami.
It made him more focused and his starting became his signature.
In the Nakayama Grand Jump (2016), he was 2nd favorite.
He won by 3+1/2 lengths.
It was his first J.G1 win.
Up to Date wasn’t in the race.
In the Nakayama Daishogai (2016), he won defeating Up to Date.
He became the new steeplechase champion.
Before the Nakayama Daishogai (2017), Up to Date was on a three game losing streak to Oju Chosan.
In the race, Up to Date’s jockey has put his pride aside and made a bold move.
Up to Date was a front-runner and made a fast-pace.
Oju Chosan followed him in second place.
The gap between the two was hard to close, and the crowd went wild.
The reporter said, “前王者か!? 現王者か!? (the Former Champion!? (or) the Current Champion!?)”
Oju Chosan won the hard-fought battle.
He broke the race record by 1.1 seconds for the first time in 26 years.

In 2018: All races

In the Nakayama Grand Jump, he won by a wide margin.
He broke the race record by 3.6 seconds.
(The second horse was Up to Date and he also broke the race record that he set up three years ago.)
Arima Kinen and Takarazuka Kinen are called “Grand Prix races” and the right priority to run in them is given by votes from fans.
(However, a horse with zero prize money in a flat race is not entitled to run.)
He was 77th in the 2017 Arima Kinen fan voting.
And he was 43th in the 2018 Takarazuka Kinen fan voting.
His connections have decided to go for the Arima Kinen due to his owner’s wish.
In the Kaiseisan Tokubetsu, it was his first flat race in four years and eight months.
His jockey changed to Yutaka Take.
He was 1st favorite.
The race was a lower class race, but he made the crowd very excited.
He won by 3 lengths.
He earned his prize money in a flat race, which means he could earn the right to run in the Arima Kinen depending on the results of the fan vote.
His connections received an offer to run in the Prix du Cadran in France.
It was a 4000m flat race with a long history, so the offer is a great honor.
However, the offer was rejected because his connections’ goal was the Arima Kinen.
Before the Arima Kinen, he was third in the fan vote.
In the race, he was 5th favorite.
He picked up the pace a little bit in the final stretch, which surprised people watching.
He finished 9th out of 16 in the flat-G1 race.

In 2019: All grade-races

In the Nakayama Grand Jump, he was extremely marked.
Miyaji Taiga made the pace in the first half of the race, and in the second half of the race, various horses were trying to beat Oju Chosan.
He fought off each and every horse that tried to beat him.
He won by 2+1/2 lengths.
His jockey, Shinichi Ishigami, said “It was the most difficult race I’ve ever run.”
He had won the JRA Award for Best Steeplechase Horse three years in a row.
But he didn’t win the award this year because he ran in a flat race.
Shingun Michael won it in this year.
A showdown between the old and new champions was expected in 2020.

In 2020: All grade-races

In the Hanshin Spring Jump, he was 1st favorite.
Shingun Michael, the new steeplechase champion, was 2nd favorite.
He won by 9 lengths over the second-place finisher, Shingun Michael.
In the Nakayama Grand Jump, the track condition was soft and sloppy.
//
It was a very tough race.
(In my opinion, I think it would have been better to cancel or postpone this race.)
Oju Chosan slipped a lot of times.
Three horses including Shingun Michael stopped racing.
Shingun Michael probably suffered heart failure and fell over a hurdle.
Shingun Michael dislocated a cervical joint and died unable to stand up.
//
It was his seventh straight win in J.G1 races.
And it was his fifth consecutive victory in the Nakayama Grand Jump.

Episode

He is a highly popular horse who has surpassed the bounds of steeplechase, which used to be regarded as a minor category.
He was the first steeplechase horse to be made into stuffed animals and other merchandise by JRA.
(Oju Chosan stuffed animal)
He also created a “ヒーロー列伝 (Heroic Biographies)”.
Heroic Biographies are a series of posters created for a famous horses by JRA.
Of course, it was a first ever for a steeplechase horse.
(JRA Poster Heroic Biographies Collection
He is number 82.)

—–This horse is still active.—–This article will be added later.—–

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