Daiwa Major

His greatest success, however, came later in his career when he won several of Japan's most important weight-for-age races including the Tennō Shō, the Yasuda Kinen and two runnings of the Mile Championship.

The racing career of Daiwa Major began on 27 December at Nakayama Racecourse where he contested a one-mile event for previously unraced horses.

Ridden by the first time by the Italian jockey Mirco Demuro he started a 31/1 outsider and won the Group One event by one and a quarter lengths from the favourite Cosmo Bulk.

In April he recorded his most important victory for two years when he defeated the mare Dance in the Mood by three quarters of a length in the Milers' Cup at Hanshin Racecourse: in this race he was ridden for the first time by Katsumi Andō, who became his regular jockey.

He started at odds of 6/1 in a field which included Admire Moon, Dance in the Mood, Cosmo Bulk, Hat Trick, Sweep Tosho and Company.

Andō repeated his tactics from the Tennō Shō by positioning the horse in second place before going to the front in the straight and Daiwa Major held the late challenge of Dance in the Mood to win by a neck.

Racing well beyond his favoured distance, he finished third behind Deep Impact and Pop Rock At the end of the season, Daiwa Major won the JRA Award for Best Sprinter or Miler gaining 200 of the 289 available votes.

[13] In March 2007, Daiwa Major was sent to the United Arab Emirates to represent Japan in the nine furlong Dubai Duty Free at Nad Al Sheba Racecourse.

Daiwa Major's autumn campaign began disappointingly in October when he was beaten as the odds-on favourite for the Mainichi Okan and then finished unplaced behind Meisho Samson in the Tennō Shō.

In November he returned to form to take the Mile Championship for the second successive time, as he "dug in gamely"[16] to win by a neck from the four-year-old Super Hornet.

2006 autumn Tennō Shō: Daiwa Major beats Swift Current