Sodashi won the Victoria Mile on Sunday with a closing rally and received a particularly loud cheer from the fans at Tokyo Racecourse. The cheers didn’t just come from those who put her on the line to win 5-1. The filly has become a sensation in Japanese horse racing circles because of her color: pure white.
Thoroughbred white horses are extremely rare: only one in 100,000 is considered pure white. To qualify, the horse’s entire coat must be white and must not be any other color. Sodashi fits that definition.
Other light-colored horses you might see on the track are registered as gray (a mixture of black and white hairs) or roan (red or brown and white). Some of these may whiten with age but still do not qualify as the rare white horse.
Plenty of gray and roan horses have thrived over the years, including Kentucky Derby winners such as Spectacular Bid in 1979, Winning Colors in 1988, and Silver Charm in 1997. But the handful of white horses didn’t really set themselves apart until Sodashi came along. .
Sodashi is the first white horse in Japan to win a Group 1 race and, with white horses in other countries being just as rare, she should be considered the best ever in her color.
Recent research has shown that white horses are the product of spontaneous gene mutations. Some of those mutations are dominant, so horses may be able to pass on the white color regardless of who they are mated with.
Sodashi’s father, Kurofune, was gray. But the key to her color is undoubtedly found on her mother’s side. Her mother, Buchiko, was striking in her own way, white with chestnut flecks. Her mother’s mother, Shirayukihime, like her granddaughter, was pure white. (Shirayukihime translates as “snow white.”)
Sodashi first attracted attention with a string of five consecutive wins in 2020 and 2021, including the Japanese 1000 Guineas. But after that she was in bad shape until she was at her best again on Sunday. Her exploits have earned her the nickname the White Wonder.
The sight of the snow-white Sodashi hurtling across the field had a cinematic quality to it. The impression was enhanced by the unusual all-white bridle of the jockey Hayato Yoshida.
“As today’s race featured a very strong field, it was like a white horse dream to be able to win a Group 1 race at Tokyo Racecourse,” Yoshida told Japan Racing.
The win qualifies 4-year-old Sodashi to compete in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf in early November at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky, and for two major French races in August and September. It is not clear whether she will participate: her trainer Naosuke Sugai has not yet made a decision about an international trip for the filly. Wherever she goes, she will undoubtedly make a stunning visual impression.