'She has gained worldwide attention' - all-white top-level winner Sodashi to take up broodmare role

Sodashi, well-known as the first all-white horse to win at the top level, has been retired.

Trainer Naosuk Sugai made the announcement, and the five-year-old daughter of Kurofune will now take up broodmare duties at Northern Farm in Hokkaido.

After finishing seventh behind Songline in the Group 1 Yasuda Kinen in July, some discomfort in a leg was discovered, and she has been resting at Northern Farm.

Sugai said: "Only on Sunday, her younger sister Mama Cocha won the Group 1 Sprinters Stakes, so her owners [Kaneko Makoto Holdings] told me that it might be the right time to hand over the baton."

Sodashi was bred by Northern Farm out of the King Kamehameha mare Buchiko, who was also popular with racing fans as a black-spotted white filly.

Sodashi debuted at Hakodate racecourse in July 2020, and won the Group 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies that December, extending her unbeaten winning streak in the process to four races.

The following spring she was to become an unbeaten Classic winner when taking the Oka Sho – the Japanese 1,000 Guineas – back at Hanshin.

She was then defeated for the first time in the Yushun Himba – the Japanese Oaks – when trying a mile and a half for the first, and only, time.

Dropped back to ten furlongs in the Group 2 Sapporo Kinen, she returned to winning ways, beating subsequent Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf and Hong Kong Cup winner Loves Only You.

Sodashi’s next victory, her third at the highest level, came the following spring when she won the 2022 Victoria Mile at Tokyo over a mile. 

So popular and idolised was Sodashi that two books of photos of her were published, and when a stuffed toy was released in the spring of her three-year-old campaign, it sold out in about six minutes online.

Her trainer added: "I think Sodashi has been truly loved by the fans. As a white-haired horse, she achieved one historic feat after another. She has gained worldwide attention and has worked really hard.

“I think she will be able to pass this on to her younger sister Mama Cocha in a good way, and I hope that she will create a new legend as a mother in the future. I am truly grateful to owner Kaneko, who entrusted Sodashi to me, to the fans who supported her, and to Sodashi."

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