Symboli Kris S

Symboli Kris S (Japanese: シンボリクリスエス, Hepburn: Shinbori Kurisu Esu; foaled January 21, 1999 – December 8, 2020) was an American-born, Japan-based Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He was voted Japanese Horse of the Year in 2002 and 2003.^[1] He was retired at the end of 2003 and was syndicated for $15-million.

From 2002 to 2003, Symboli Kris S achieved the first consecutive wins in the history of the Tenno Sho (Autumn) (GI) and became the fourth horse to achieve consecutive wins in the Arima Kinen (GI). In his final race, the 2003 Arima Kinen, he won by an overwhelming 9 lengths, a record margin for the race at the time.

After retiring as a racehorse, he became a sire, producing GI winners such as Le Vent Se Leve, Success Brocken, and Epiphaneia, as well as Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) winner Rey de Oro in 2017.

Symboli Kris S, a dark bay stallion, was foaled on January 21, 1996, on Mill Ridge Farm in Kentucky, USA. He was sired by Kris S., an American Thoroughbred racehorse who is best known as a highly successful sire.^[1] Symboli Kris S was out of the American-bred mare Tee Kay, who won the Martha Washington Stakes (G3) in 1994, among other achievements, with a record of 31 races and 4 wins.^[4]

Symboli Kris S made his debut on a 1600 metres maiden race in Tokyo Racecourse, where he won the race by a neck against the second place, Asakusa Kininaru.^[5][6]

After his debut, Kazuo Fujisawa who was his trainer rested him for the next three and half months before turned up again at the Saintpaulia Sho on January 27. Symboli Kris S scored podium in the next three races he joined with second place once and third place twice.^[3] Although this races were showing good promises, all those loses came in the same pattern - failure to catching up from the back.^[7] This made the Fujisawa to change up a bit on the strategy at his fifth race, The Yamabuki Sho. In this race, he took the lead from the start, maintained his position and won the race by one and three-quarters length ahead the rest of them for his second career victory.^[8]

On April 27, Symboli Kris S would start for his first graded stakes race, the Aoba Sho. Instead of his normal jockey (Yukio Okabe), he would be controlled by Yutaka Take this time. Starting from gate 3 in stall 2, he positioned himself well on the inside.^[7] With 200 meters to go, he broke away from the innermost part of the track and widened the gap.^[7] He crossed the finish line two and a half lengths ahead of Bamboo Juventus, who came from the far outside, and achieved his first graded stakes victory.^[7][9] This win allowed him to compete for the Tokyo Yushun. For this race, he was placed as the third favourite behind No Reason (Satsuki Sho's winner) and Tanino Gimlet (Satsuki's Sho third place finisher).^[10] When the race began, he positioned himself on the midpack in the early phase.^[11] At the third corner, he started moving outside to gain advantage. He surpassed several horses like Machikane Akatsuki and Gold Allure for the lead. The race was not meant for him in the end as Tanino Gimlet's late surge at the homestretch caught him up before the line. He finished second on the day one length behind.^[10][11]

He took a rest on summer at Monbetsu before resuming his season at the Kobe Shimbun Hai, a trial race for the Kikuka Sho.^[12] Just like in the Tokyo Yushun, Symboli Kris S stayed at the middle pack at the start.^[13] However, this time he was blocked on the third corner and could not find the way to move on the outside. He delayed his burst on the final straight and this was working well as he overtook all horses to win his second graded stakes races, two and a half lengths ahead of No Reason.^[13] His returning jockey, Okabe later in his biography, described this race as a turning point for Symboli Kris S as he used to start slow off the gate and gradually get into the race groove before this one, where he took the initiative with positive attitudes right from the start.^[14] This result also made Fujisawa convinced Wada to switch his races from the Kikuka Sho to the Tenno Sho (Autumn) as he thought the horses was good enough for the older horses competition.^[15] The race would be held on the Nakayama Racecourse as the normal venue, the Tokyo Racecourse was under renovation.^[16] He started well at the beginning, positioning himself on the sixth out of 18 horses competing that day on the inner track.^[16] The middle pack became more densely clogged near the third corner as the horses from the back tried to gather themselves for the position. Break Time and Ibuki Government blocked Symboli Kris S near the end of the third corner but as T.M Ocean surged forward, Break Time marked that movement and created a gap between him and Ibuki Government. Symboli Kris S capitalized that gap and pulled away from the rest with a blazing run on the final straight. Narita Top Road, who had been waiting behind him for awhile made a late charge from the outside in the straight but fell out three-quarters of a length behind as he watched Symboli Kris S crossed the finish line first for his inaugural GI victory.^[16][17]

On November 24, He competed in the Japan Cup which also held in Nakayama due to the Tokyo Racecourse renovation. He was seeded fourth on the race behind horses like Narita Top Road, Jungle Pocket and No Reason.^[18] Symboli Kris S who was ridden by Olivier Peslier, botched the start for this race which put him at the back for the majority of the race.^[18] He tried to caught up the pack by making a move from the outside at the final corner, ended up in third place behind two foreign-trained horses which were the winner Falbrav and Sarafan.^[19] After the race, Peslier blamed the noisy horse beside them at the starting gate as the reason for the late start.^[20] He closed the autumn campaign with a run in the Arima Kinen on December 22. He was placed second for the vote with 83,623 votes, just behind Narita Top Road.^[16] When the gate opened, Fine Motion and Tap Dance City battling out for the early lead whilst Symboli Kris S just stayed like usual at the middle pack, waiting for the right time.^[21] At the final corner, Tap Dance City still holding on to the lead by at most eight lengths over the rest of the field. Just entering the final straight, Symboli Kris S moved outside and sprinted forward against the fields with such incredible speed that visualized by the onlookers as if the other horses seemed to stop in mid-air.^[21] He crossed the finish line half a length ahead of Tap Dance City, securing his second GI victory.^[22] Peslier commented after the win that Symboli Kris S was laser-focused on the win once the gap on the straight opened up that day in which he used his sharp legs to generate a tremendous speed towards the finish.^[20]

For his excellent performance, Symboli Kris S won the JRA Award for Best Three-Year-Old Colt and also inaugurated as the Japanese Horse of the Year. He gained 277 votes out of 281 for the former and almost unanimously won the later by 280 votes out of 281.^[21] He became the third horse after Oguri Cap (1988) and El Condor Pasa (1998) to win the best three-year-old colt award without winning a classic race.

Symboli Kris S was almost fully rested for the spring campaign as Fujisawa refused to put him on the Tenno Sho (Spring) as he thought the distance "was not for him" and also to preserve his energy for the autumn campaign.^[23] He only started the season with a run in the Takarazuka Kinen at the Hanshin Racecourse by June. For the race, he received the most votes with 59,817 votes in total.^[23] He was ridden by Kent Desormeaux for this race. This race which featured the likes of Agnes Digital, Balance of Game, Daitaku Bertram, Dantsu Flame, Fast Tateyama, Hishi Miracle, Neo Universe, Tap Dance City and Tsurumaru Boy was dubbed as the "best field for the Takarazuka Kinen ever" at that time.^[24] His routine start was good and he took off in the middle pack. He tried for the outside move to pass Tap Dance City and succeed. Unfortunately, his lack of pace for the day cost him the win as he was soon overtook by Tap Dance City, Tsurumaru Boy and Hishi Miracle. He finished the race in fifth place.^[25] Fujisawa attributed this lost came due to the mistiming of taking the lead and also the erratic inward and outward movement by Symboli Kris S on the straight which lead to the lost in performance.^[26] Following the earlier plan, the next race for the horse would be the Tenno Sho (Autumn). His competition for the day would be Lohengrin and Eishin Preston. At the start, Symboli Kris S was drawn on the disadvantageous outside gate but still capable to do his routine middle of the pack start.^[27] Lohengrin and Go Steady dominated the early phase as they stretched the lead by 20 lengths at the first 1000 metres. The two horses eventually slowing down on the later phase as the chasing pack caught up.^[27] Then, Symboli Kris S did an unorthodox move for this race as he veered towards the inside track from the outside to unleash his finishing speed that pulled him out away. He maintained the lead and win the race and denying the late-charge Tsurumaru Boy who finished in second place, one and half length behind.^[27][28] This was his third GI win and also for the first time ever a horse won the Tenno Sho (Autumn) in back to back years.^[27]

In November, Symboli Kris S would raced in the Japan Cup for the second time. He was picked as the favourite to win this race at the odds of 1.9 to 1 out of 18 horses competing.^[29] Peslier rode him well in the middle pack in the start. He increased the pace as they reached the third corner of the track. They started to accelerate when they approached the homestretch but unable to catch the runaway Tap Dance City in the process. Tap Dance City himself, lead early on and bring it home nine and three quarters length ahead of Symboli Kris S who finished in third place, behind That's The Plenty.^[29][30] His final race of the season would be the Arima Kinen. He was the most voted horse this time around, accumulating 125,116 votes in the process.^[29] When the race started, That's the Plenty and Active Bio set up the fast pace early for the lead. From the third corner of the second lap, the middle group closed in on the two frontrunners. The middle group was Lincoln, followed by Symboli Kris S and Zenno Rob Roy, and then Win Blaze.^[31] Lincoln made a move first by overtaking both of the frontrunners. That move was marked by Symboli Kris S who in turned followed and surpassed him on the final 300 metres. Symboli Kris S widened the gap towards Lincoln, who did held that second position by nine lengths to win the Arima Kinen, repeating his feat the previous year.^[31][32] For the year of 2003, Symboli Kris S was rated 124 by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.^[33]

This would be the last race of his career as his retirement ceremony came short after the race was ended.^[34] His racehorse registration also terminated on the same day.^[35] For the JRA Award this year, Symboli Kris S became the Japanese Horse of the Year for the second time in a row with 220 votes out of 287. He also snatched the JRA Award for Best Older Male Horse with 275 votes.^[31]

Symboli Kris S won eight races and placed on the podium six more times out of 15 races. This data is available based on JBIS and netkeiba.^[5][3]

Legend:
  Turf

• R indicated that it was a record time finish.

Symboli Kris S first stood at the Shadai Stallion Station in Abira, Hokkaido.^[36]

In 2016, he moved to the Breeders Stallion Station in Hidaka, Hokkaido.^[36]

In October 2019, he retired from stud and was moved to the Symboli Farm in Narita, Chiba.^[36] He died on December 8, 2020 at the age of 21.^[37]

• Success Brocken (2005) winner of the Japan Dirt Derby (Jpn-I) in 2008, February Stakes (JPN-GI) in 2009, and Tokyo Daishoten (Jpn-I) in 2009.
• Strong Return (2006) winner of the Yasuda Kinen (JPN-GI) in 2012.
• Alfredo (2009) winner of the Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes (JPN-GI) in 2011.
• Epiphaneia (2010), winner of the Kikuka Sho and the Japan Cup; sired Daring Tact and Efforia
• Le Vent Se Leve (2015), winner of the Zen-Nippon Nisai Yushun in 2017, as well as the Japan Dirt Derby in 2018, Mile Championship Nambu Hai in 2018, and the Champions Cup in 2018.

• Success Brocken
• Strong Return
• Alfredo
• Epiphaneia
• Le Vent Se Leve

Symboli Kris S is also the damsire of Oju Chosan, Rey de Oro, Akai Ito, and Songline.

An anthropomorphized version of Symboli Kris S appears in Umamusume: Pretty Derby, voiced by Meiku Harukawa.^[38]

• List of leading Thoroughbred racehorses