“Super Idol” Horse Created by Social Conditions

Haiseiko

On March 4, 1973, Nakayama Race Track was filled with extraordinary excitement. The audience was paying attention to one horse only - Haiseiko, who had won six out of six races by over seven lengths at the local race track at Ohoi. He made his debut on this day at Nakayama and 130,000 people rushed to the stadium to see him. As everyone expected, he won the race. He followed this race with three consecutive victories including the Satsukisho's stakes, one of the Triple Crown races.

After his tenth consecutive victory Haiseiko was dubbed "Monster" and was now at the height of his popularity. Behind the popularity were two elements - one was that his father was not from a highly valued or distinguished thoroughbred blood line, and the other was that he came from a minor local race track. In other words it was a dream story for ordinary people that a local horse could become successful in a mainstream competition full of elite horses.

At the time of Haiseiko's rise, the Prime Minister was TANAKA Kakuei. He had been brought up in a local part of Niigata and had only graduated from elementary school. However, he had managed to overcome Tokyo's elite and become Prime Minister. At that time Japan was also in the middle of a period of high economic growth and the time when capable men could succeed in life regardless of their blood line was just around the corner. Haiseiko was just the kind of super horse that the people of this period had longed for.

From "Monster Myth" to "Idol Myth"
In the Japan Derby, Haiseiko's eleventh race, 66.7% of the bets were on him to win, the highest in the history of the Derby. It was an extraordinary situation in that only the amount of the money bet would be returned even if he won. At the fourth corner he was in a good position and then he came up to the front of the group. However, two horses passed him on the stretch and Haiseiko ended up in third place. The audience was silent for a moment - it was the moment when his "monster" myth was broken. The winner that day was a dark horse named Takehoupu, who later became a rival to Haiseiko.

Expecting to get revenge in his last Triple Crown race, the Kikkasho's stakes, Haiseiko took the lead on the stretch after the fourth corner and soon outdistanced all the other horses. Everybody believed this was to be his victory. However, just before the goal Takehoupu came up like an arrow and crossed the finish line side-by-side with Haiseiko. After a photo finish, Haiseiko was defeated again.

In spite of the results, horse fans kept sending encouragements to Haiseiko. Their feelings were almost the same as their love towards their families. In his last race, The Japan Grand Prix Race Arima Memorial, the winner of which becomes the No. 1 horse in Japan, Haiseiko finished before Takehoupu, but regretfully he was in second place. When he retired, Haiseiko's jockey MASUZAWA Sueo, released the record "Farewell to Haiseiko," which was a big hit that sold 500,000 disks, and Haiseiko gained immortality as the first "Idol Horse."

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