Admire Vega

A bay stallion foaled on 12 March 1996, Admire Vega was bred by Northern Farm and raced for owner Riichi Kondo. He was trained at Ritto by Mitsuru Hashida, while Yutaka Take rode him in every race of his career.

His pedigree united two of the most important influences in Japanese breeding. His sire, Sunday Silence, had won the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic in the United States before becoming a transformative stallion in Japan. Admire Vega was therefore a direct representative of the Sunday Silence sire line that came to dominate Japanese racing.

His dam, Vega, was an outstanding racemare in her own right. A daughter of Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Tony Bin, she won both the Oka Sho and Yūshun Himba in 1993. Admire Vega was her first foal, extending her Classic legacy from the racecourse into the breeding shed. She later produced Admire Don, Admire Boss and Captain Vega, making the family notable across several seasons and racing disciplines.

Vega’s pregnancy with Admire Vega began as a twin conception. Because twin pregnancies carry severe risks in Thoroughbreds, one embryo was reduced and the other developed into Admire Vega. He was thus the surviving foal of an early twin pregnancy rather than a foal born alongside a twin.

Admire Vega debuted at Kyoto on 7 November 1998 in a 1,600-metre turf race. His official result was fourth in a field of 14, with Mayano Matador recorded as the winner. Whatever the disappointment of that opening result, he quickly established himself over longer distances.

On 5 December he moved up to 2,000 metres for the Erica Sho at Hanshin. Racing on good-to-soft turf, he defeated Thrilling Sunday to secure his first official victory. Three weeks later he returned over the same course and distance for the Radio Tampa Hai Sansai Stakes.

That Grade 3 contest was the decisive step in his juvenile campaign. Admire Vega beat Matikane Kinnohosi in an 11-runner field, giving him a first graded success and completing his two-year-old season with two wins from three starts. Both victories had come over 2,000 metres, pointing him firmly toward the following year’s middle-distance Classics.

Admire Vega began 1999 in the Grade 2 Yayoi Sho at Nakayama on 7 March. Run over 2,000 metres, the race brought him into direct competition with Narita Top Road, who defeated him into second place. That result established one of the defining rivalries of the season.

The first Classic, the Satsuki Sho, followed at Nakayama on 18 April. Admire Vega finished sixth in the 17-runner field. Victory went to T.M. Opera O, with Narita Top Road also among the leading finishers.

The result reshaped the Classic picture. Narita Top Road had beaten Admire Vega in the principal trial, while T.M. Opera O had claimed the first Triple Crown leg. Admire Vega entered the Japanese Derby without a victory that season, but his juvenile record and Yayoi Sho second still placed him among the leading members of his generation.

The defining performance of Admire Vega’s career came at Tokyo Racecourse on 6 June 1999. The Tokyo Yūshun, run over 2,400 metres on good turf, assembled an 18-horse field headed by the principal Classic colts.

Admire Vega was held toward the rear by Yutaka Take, leaving him with substantial ground to recover as the field turned for home. Narita Top Road held a more prominent position and carried a tactical advantage into the straight, while T.M. Opera O was also involved in the finish.

Once asked for his effort, Admire Vega produced the acceleration that became the signature of his racing career. He advanced through the field and caught Narita Top Road near the finish, winning by a neck. T.M. Opera O took third, placing the three horses who would define the 1999 Classic season together at the head of Japan’s most important race for three-year-olds.

The victory carried significance beyond the immediate result. Vega had won the Yūshun Himba, or Japanese Oaks, at Tokyo in 1993; six years later, her first foal won the Japanese Derby over the same course. Take had also ridden Special Week to victory in the 1998 Derby, and his success aboard Admire Vega made him the first jockey to win the race in consecutive years.

For Admire Vega, the Derby transformed a promising record into a lasting reputation. It was his only Grade 1 victory, but it came at the centre of the Japanese racing calendar and against the two colts with whom his generation would be most closely associated.

Admire Vega’s final appearance came in the Kikuka Sho at Kyoto on 7 November 1999. The last leg of the Japanese Triple Crown stretched to 3,000 metres, considerably farther than the distances over which he had won.

He finished sixth in the 15-horse field. Narita Top Road won, while T.M. Opera O was among the principal contenders. The result completed an unusually balanced division of the three Classics:

Each of the three leading colts had therefore taken one leg. That division gave the 1999 season a clear structure and made their rivalry central to Admire Vega’s historical identity.

The continuity of Admire Vega’s connections was notable throughout his compact career. Riichi Kondo owned him, Mitsuru Hashida trained him, and Yutaka Take rode him in all eight starts, from his Kyoto debut through the Kikuka Sho exactly one year later.

His record marked him primarily as a middle-distance horse. All four victories came between 2,000 and 2,400 metres: the Erica Sho and Radio Tampa Hai Sansai Stakes over 2,000 metres, the Kyoto Shimbun Hai over 2,200 metres, and the Derby over 2,400 metres.

His best-known weapon was late acceleration. The Derby provided the clearest example, with Admire Vega settling behind much of the field before delivering one sustained finishing run. That approach could leave him dependent on position and racing room, but at Tokyo it produced the performance on which his reputation rests.

The Kikuka Sho result also drew a natural boundary around his strongest range. His greatest achievements came at middle distances rather than the 3,000 metres of the final Classic.

Admire Vega remained in training after his three-year-old campaign, but suspensory-ligament inflammation ended his racing career before he could compete as an older horse. He retired in 2000 with a record of four wins and one second from eight starts.

His absence was especially consequential because Narita Top Road and T.M. Opera O continued racing. T.M. Opera O developed into the dominant older horse of 2000, but Admire Vega never had the opportunity to renew their rivalry beyond their three-year-old season.

Admire Vega entered stud at Shadai Stallion Station. His appeal as a stallion rested on an exceptional combination: he was a Japanese Derby winner, a direct son of Sunday Silence, and the first foal of a mare who had won two Japanese Classics.

Although his stud career was brief, his offspring included graded performers such as T.M. Dragon, Monroe Blond and Black Altair. T.M. Dragon became particularly notable as a leading steeplechaser, showing that Admire Vega’s influence was not confined to the middle-distance turf races in which he had made his own name.

Admire Vega died on 29 October 2004 at only eight years of age. His death was attributed to an acute stomach rupture. A memorial service was held at Shadai Stallion Station on 23 November.

His place in Japanese racing history rests on achievements compressed into an unusually short span. He was a graded winner at two, a Derby winner at three and one of the three colts who divided the 1999 Triple Crown among themselves. His eight-start record did not permit a long championship campaign, yet the quality of his best races—above all his late Derby victory over Narita Top Road, with T.M. Opera O third—ensured that he remained closely identified with his generation.

Pedigree also deepened that legacy. As the son of Sunday Silence and Vega, he joined a dominant sire line to a distinguished Classic-winning female family. Injury curtailed his racing career, and his death shortened his time at stud, but the Derby supplied an enduring centrepiece: Vega’s first foal returning to Tokyo to win the colts’ Classic six years after his dam had won the Oaks there.

• netkeiba — horse profile, pedigree and career summary
• JBIS-Search — profile, pedigree and tabulated race record
• netkeiba — 1998 Radio Tampa Hai Sansai Stakes result
• netkeiba — 1999 Yayoi Sho result
• netkeiba — 1999 Satsuki Sho result
• netkeiba — 1999 Tokyo Yūshun result
• netkeiba — 1999 Kyoto Shimbun Hai result
• netkeiba — 1999 Kikuka Sho result
• Wikipedia — career, stud and death summary
• https://en.netkeiba.com/db/race/199808060103/
• https://en.netkeiba.com/db/race/199809060110/