Fenomeno

Fenomeno (, foaled 20 April 2009) is a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. After winning one minor race as a two-year-old he emerged as a top-class performer in the following year, taking the Aoba Sho and St Lite Kinen and finishing a close second in both the Tokyo Yushun and the autumn edition of the Tenno Sho. In his third campaign he won the Nikkei Sho and the spring edition of the Tenno Sho before his season was ended by injury. At the end of that year he was rated the best horse in the world over extended distances. He won a second Tenno Sho in 2014 but failed to win again and was retired to stud at the end of 2015. Background Fenomeno is a dark brown horse with a white sock on his right hind leg bred in Hokkaido, Japan by the Oiwake Farm. According to the horse's owner, Sunday Racing, the name Fenomeno comes from the Portuguese word for supernatural events and monster. His trainer, Hirofumi Toda, nicknamed him "Mamechin". His sire, Stay Gold, a son of the thirteen-time Leading sire in Japan Sunday Silence, was a successful international performer, winning the Dubai Sheema Classic and the Hong Kong Vase. Standing at stud at the Big Red Farm in Hokkaido, he produced numerous important winners including Gold Ship, Orfevre, and Nakayama Festa. Fenomeno's dam, De Laroche, showed some racing ability, winning a maiden race in her native Ireland as a three-year-old and a minor contest in the United States at four. In November 2003 at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall sale she was bought for $140,000 by Haruya Yoshida and exported to become a broodmare in Japan. She was a half-sister to the Hong Kong champion Indigenous and as a descendant of the British broodmare Felucca (foaled 1941) was related to numerous major winners in Europe including Bireme, Longboat, Cut Above, Bolas and Sharp Edge. During his track career he was trained by Hirofumi Toda and carried the black, red and yellow colours of Sunday Racing.