1. Pedigree and Background
2. Two-year-old season
3. Three-year-old season
4. Four-year-old season
5. Five-year-old season
6. Six-year-old season
7. After Retirement
8. Legacy and Influence on fans
9. Latest News

Pedigree and Background

Vodka was foaled on April 4th, 2004, at Country Bokujo in Shizunai, Hokkaido. She was a bay mare by Tanino Gimlet, the 2002 Derby winner, out of Tanino Sister, and she was owned by Yuzo Tanimizu and trained by Katsuhiko Sumii. Her name came from the idea that vodka is stronger than a gimlet, reflecting the hope that she would become even better than her sire.

Her background also carried a slight underdog element. She was not treated from the beginning as the obvious star of the crop, but as training advanced, her movement became so sharp that expectations rose quickly. By the time she entered Sumii’s stable, the people around her already believed she might be exceptional. In that sense, Vodka became a great horse not because she arrived with an uncontested aura, but because she forced everyone to raise their view of her.

Two-year-old season

Vodka began racing in October 2006 at Kyoto over 1600 meters and won her debut by three and a half lengths. She was then narrowly beaten in the Kigiku Sho, but the defeat quickly proved minor. In the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies, the season’s top race for two-year-old fillies, she came from midfield, ran down the favored Aston Machan, and won in 1:33.1. That performance earned her the title of champion two-year-old filly and established her as one of the most exciting young horses in training.

Three-year-old season

Vodka began 2007 with wins in the Elfin Stakes and the Tulip Sho, the latter bringing her first victory over Daiwa Scarlet. She went to the Oka Sho as a heavy favorite, but Daiwa Scarlet reversed that result and beat her. Rather than staying on the usual filly path toward the Oaks, her connections made the bold decision to aim at the Japanese Derby. It was a historic gamble, and it paid off magnificently. Settled near the pace, Vodka accelerated in the straight and beat Asakusa Kings by half a length, becoming the first filly in 64 years to win the Derby and only the third in history.

The rest of her three-year-old season was harder. She ran eighth in the Takarazuka Kinen, third in the Shuka Sho, was scratched from the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup, finished fourth in the Japan Cup, and then ended the year eleventh in the Arima Kinen. Even so, the Derby alone had already secured her place in history, and she received a special JRA award in recognition of that achievement.

Four-year-old season

Her four-year-old season began unevenly. She was sixth in the Kyoto Kinen, fourth in the Dubai Duty Free, and second in the Victoria Mile. But the run of near-misses ended in the Yasuda Kinen, where she returned to top form and won her first race since the Derby. She later finished second in the Mainichi Okan, and the defining moment of the year came next in the Tenno Sho (Autumn). In one of the most famous finishes in modern Japanese racing, she defeated Daiwa Scarlet by just two centimeters, with both mares credited with the same record time of 1:57.2. She then closed the season with a strong third in the Japan Cup.

That season brought her Horse of the Year honors for the first time. More broadly, it changed the way she was viewed. She was no longer remembered only as the filly who had won the Derby; she had become a mature champion who could beat the best horses in open company at the highest level. Tokyo Racecourse, in particular, was becoming unmistakably her stage.

Five-year-old season

Vodka’s five-year-old season was another long and ambitious campaign. She again traveled to Dubai, finishing fifth in the Jebel Hatta and seventh in the Dubai Duty Free. Back in Japan, however, she was brilliant at Tokyo. She won the Victoria Mile and then successfully defended her title in the Yasuda Kinen, becoming the first mare to win that race twice. In autumn she was second in the Mainichi Okan and third in the Tenno Sho (Autumn), both times behind Company, but she rebounded in the Japan Cup. Ridden by Christophe Lemaire, she raced prominently, surged clear in the stretch, and held off Oken Bruce Lee by the smallest of margins. That victory gave her a seventh top-level win and made her the first Japanese-trained mare to win the Japan Cup.

She was voted Horse of the Year for a second straight season, the first mare ever to achieve that feat in consecutive years. What made the campaign especially impressive was not just the number of victories, but the breadth of her challenge: she traveled abroad, competed against the best milers and middle-distance horses in Japan, and still finished the year as the central figure of the turf season.

Six-year-old season

Vodka never ran in Japan as a six-year-old, but she did begin 2010 with one final overseas campaign. After her Japan Cup victory, plans were revised so that she could aim at the Dubai World Cup, but she suffered another episode of exercise-induced bleeding after finishing eighth in the Maktoum Challenge Round 3. As a result, the Dubai World Cup plan was abandoned and she was retired in March 2010. It was an abrupt end, but by then her place in history was already secure.

After Retirement

After retirement, Vodka became a broodmare in Ireland while remaining under Yuzo Tanimizu’s ownership. She was bred to several elite stallions, including Sea The Stars and Frankel, and produced seven foals in total. None of her offspring matched her own greatness on the track, but some became useful runners, including Tanino Urban Sea and Tanino Frankel. Her influence as a broodmare was therefore respectable, even if it never reached the extraordinary level of her racing career.

Her later years ended sadly. In 2019, while in Britain for breeding, she suffered a catastrophic injury to her right hind leg and later developed laminitis, and she was euthanized on April 1st. Even in death, the public response showed how deeply she remained loved. By then she was not only a former champion, but a symbol of one of the boldest and most glamorous eras of Japanese turf racing.

Legacy and Influence on fans

Vodka is remembered as far more than a Derby-winning filly. Historically, she stands at the intersection of several rare achievements: a filly winning the Derby, a mare becoming Horse of the Year twice, repeated success in elite open company, and a record of major victories against both fillies and males. That collection of accomplishments alone would make her exceptional, but what truly defines her legacy is the authority with which she earned them. She was not a symbolic winner. She was repeatedly good enough to beat the best.

For fans, Vodka represented brilliance with force behind it. She was glamorous, but never fragile in image; elegant, yet unmistakably powerful. Her rivalry with Daiwa Scarlet gave her era a narrative center, while her victories over males gave many of her races a broader historical weight. She remains special because she expanded what fans thought a Japanese mare could do. After Vodka, the idea of a filly or mare dominating the biggest open races no longer felt impossible. She had already shown the way.

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