No Seabiscuit

by James McNally on April 23, 2004

Haruurara [image]

Sports Illustrated’s April 5 issue featured a story about a “runty racehorse [who] has captured the imagination of a country that has fallen on hard economic times.” No, it’s not Seabiscuit. It’s an 8-year old Japanese mare named Haruurara (Japanese for “gentle spring”). Although the horse has lost all 106 of her starts, fans have thronged to her races, and the government has even presented her with 440 pounds of carrots, for “services to tourism.”

In her most recent race, on March 22, 13,000 spectators crowded in to see her romp home 10th in the 11 horse field, despite the fact that, for the first time, she was being ridden by the country’s top jockey.

Good article with more background information.

Tagged as: haruurara, horseracing, horses, japan

{ 1 comment }

1 jmcnally 04.06.06 at 4:09 pm

I haven’t been able to find out how long the streak continued (113 races and still going according to this article from late 2004), but Haruurara was set to retire in the spring of 2005. Now it looks as if her story is being turned into a film (which may already be out, since the site is completely in Japanese).

Comments on this entry are closed.