Sodashi, one of the great fan-favorite mares of Japanese racing, has safely given birth to her first foal.
The news was announced by her home at Northern Horse Park in Hokkaido, Japan, and owner/breeder Kaneko Makoto Holdings that her Equinox filly was born Jan. 30. Mare and foal had already received plenty of gifts from their adoring public.
Sodashi is a particularly rare individual as a pure white racehorse, but she was no mere curiosity. For trainer Naosuke Sugai, she won all four starts as a juvenile including the 2020 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (G1), and landed the 2021 Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas, G1) as a 3-year-old.
Those efforts earned her the titles of the Japan Racing Association's champion 2- and 3-year-old female.
The daughter of Kurofune also ran at 4 and 5, adding another top-level victory in the 2022 Victoria Mile (G1), but her career was curtailed towards the end of 2023 owing to injuries.
Sodashi was covered by another Japanese champion, Equinox, and her daughter has certainly inherited the handsome dark looks of her father. The world's highest-rated horse in 2023 after an undefeated season, Equinox was crowned Japan's Horse of the Year in both 2022 and 2023.
Sodashi's family contains a strain of white horses from her granddam, the unraced Shirayukihime. She is out of Buchiko, a minor winner who was a true Japanese cult hero owing to her dalmatian-like black spots.
