Normcore

Normcore ( foaled 25 February 2015) is a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse. She showed promising form in her first two seasons, winning both of her races as a juvenile in 2017 and taking the Grade 3 Shion Stakes in the following year. As a four-year-old she recorded a Grade 1 success in the Victoria Mile as well as taking the Fuji Stakes. In 2020 she finished third in the Victoria Mile and won the Sapporo Kinen before claiming the Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin Racecourse on her final run of the season. She earned over US$5.7 million in prize money. Background Normcore is a grey mare bred in Japan by Northern Farm. As a yearling in 2016 she was consigned to the Japan Racing Horse Association Sale of Yearlings and Weanlings and was bought for ¥23,760,000 by Seiichi Iketani. She was sent into training with Kiyoshi Hagiwara. She was from the fourth crop of foals sired by Harbinger, a British horse who was rated the best racehorse in the world in 2010 when he won the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes by eleven lengths. Since retiring to stud in Japan his other foals have included Deirdre, Blast Onepiece, Mozu Katchan (Queen Elizabeth II Cup) and Persian Knight (Mile Championship). Normcore's dam Chronologist, from whom she inherited her grey colour, showed modest racing ability, winning one minor race as a three-year-old in 2006. As a broodmare she also produced Chrono Genesis. She was descended from the American broodmare Nimble Doll (foaled 1952), making her a distant relative of Captain Steve.