Tesco Gaby

Details

Name / Japanese	Tesco Gaby / テスコガビー
Birth Year	1972
Sex	mare
Earnings	135,616,000 yen
Races-Wins	10-7
Sire	Tesco Boy
Dam (Sire)	Kitano Ryu (Montaval)
Other site link	JBIS / en.netkeiba

Awards

Yushun Award for Best Two-Year-Old Filly (1974) Yushun Award for Best Three-Year-Old Filly (1975)

• Tesco Gaby was very highly regarded from an early age for her great, magnificent body, her imposing composure, and good mobility.
  Many people mistook her for a colt, and her owner at first thought she was a colt.
• The name Gaby was taken from the nickname of the daughter of a Switzerland trader named Gabrielle who lived next door to the owner.
  Gaby is pictured with Tesco Gaby in a photo shoot after winning the Oaks.
  A song by Gaby about Tesco Gaby was also released. (Youtube)
  She sings in fluent Japanese, perhaps because she was accustomed to living in Japan.

All races

Y D/M	Track	Race	No.	Pl.
1974 15/09	Tokyo T1200	Maiden	2	1
1974 29/09	Tokyo T1400	Sansai Stakes	4	1
1974 20/10	Nakayama T1200	Keisei Hai Sansai Stakes	4	1	▲ / G
1975 12/01	Tokyo T1600	Keisei Hai / (This is not the same as the Keisei Hai Sansai Stakes described above.)	7	1	▲ /  G
1975 09/02	Tokyo T1800	Tokyo Yonsai Stakes	3	2	▲ / G
1975 16/03	Hanshin T1200	Hanshin Yonsai Himba Tokubetsu	1	1	▲ / G
1975 06/04	Hanshin T1600	Oka Sho	7	1	▲ / G
1975 27/04	Tokyo T1800	Sankei Sports Sho Yonsai Himba Tokubetsu	3	3	▲ / G
1975 18/05	Tokyo T2400	Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks)	6	1	▲ / G
1976 02/05	Tokyo D1200	over 4yo	8	6

• In the Keisei Hai Sansai Stakes, she won by 6 lengths over the 2nd-place finisher in a record time.
  She won three races as a two-year-old and was the Best Two-Year-Old Filly.
• In the Tokyo Yonsai Stakes, Tesco Gaby and Kaburaya O, who had been making great success, were to face each other.
  The jockey Yasuo Sugawara chose Tesco Gaby instead of Kaburaya O.
  From the beginning of the race, Tesco Gaby ran behind Kaburaya O into the homestretch.
  In the homestretch, Kaburaya O was surprised by the stick and moved sideways significantly.
  Tesco Gaby chased after being interfered by Kaburaya O, but finished 2nd by a head.
  It was her first loss, but it was assumed that she would have won if Kaburaya O had not interfered or if the track conditions had been better.
• In the Oka Sho, she was the 1st favorite.
  She took the lead right from the start of the race.
  And not one horse could keep up with her.
  She broke the race record, beating the 2nd-placed horse by 1.9 seconds.
  In Japanese horse racing, a margin of more than 10 lengths is described as a “大差 (large margin),” and her victory was also marked as a win by a large margin.
  Winning by a large margin in a 1600 meter race is too unusual.
  Her victory is considered to be the largest margin of finish in the history of the Oka Sho.
• In the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks), she was the 1st favorite.
  She took the lead, as she always does, and widened the gap further in the homestretch.
  She won by 8 lengths over the 2nd-place finisher, Social Tosho.
  (Social Tosho is a sister of Tosho Boy.)
  Her victory by 8 lengths is the largest margin of victory in the history of the Oaks held at JRA.
  (Including pre-JRA, her victory is next only to Kurifuji’s by 10 lengths and Tokitsukaze’s by a large margin.)

After the Oaks

• After the Oaks she rested for the autumn season.
  Due to an injury sustained during training in the autumn, she eventually did not return to racing until about a year after the Oaks.
  She finished sixth in the race in which she returned, perhaps no longer with the fighting spirit.
• Then she was injured again and her connections considered retiring her.
  However, the owner decided to keep her as a racehorse.
  On January 19, 1977, she collapsed and died of a heart attack while training.
• She was so outstanding that she was considered the strongest mare in history.
  The fact that she did not leave a single foal is a great loss to Japanese horse racing.