T. M. Opera O (Japanese: テイエムオペラオー, Hepburn: Tei Emu Opera Ō; March 13, 1996 – May 17, 2018) was a champion Japanese thoroughbred racehorse, and the world's all-time leading money earner at the time of his retirement in 2001. In 1999, he was the champion three-year-old colt in Japan after winning the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas). At age four, he was the Japanese Horse of the Year and champion older horse after an undefeated season that included wins in the Tenno Sho (both spring and autumn), the Takarazuka Kinen, the Japan Cup and the Arima Kinen. T. M. Opera O was inducted into the Japan Racing Association Hall of Fame in 2004.
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Background
T. M. Opera O was a chestnut horse who was bred in Japan by Kineusu Bokujo. He was sired by Opera House, an outstanding British middle-distance runner who was exported to stud in Japan. T. M. Opera O was out of the American-bred mare Once Wed, an unraced daughter of Blushing Groom. He was sold as a yearling in the 1997 Hokkaido October Sale for 10,500,000(JPY) to Masatsugu Takezono. The horse was trained by Ichizo Iwamoto and regularly ridden by Ryuji Wada.
In 1999, T. M. Opera O became the first winner of a classic race that benefitted from a major 1992 change to the Japan Racing Association's regulations. He originally missed the standard registration deadline for entry into the Japanese Classic Races. However, the rule change meant he was able to race in them after a supplemental registration fee five times more costly than the standard fee was paid. The revision to the rules came about following significant public pressure when Oguri Cap missed his deadline for the 1988 classics.
Racing career
1998: Two-year-old season
T. M. Opera O entered his debut race as the favorite, but finished second in what was his only start that season. He injured his left hind leg and was unable to race again for several months.
1999: Three-year-old season
At age three, he made ten starts, amassing a record of four wins, two seconds and three thirds. Early in the year he broke his maiden, then won the Yukiyanagi Sho at Hanshin over a distance of 2000m for his first stakes win. He followed this up by winning the Grade III Mainichi Hai on March 28, 1999. Despite his three-race winning streak, he was largely dismissed at odds of 11–1 in the Grade I Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) on April 18. He raced near the back of the field during the early running then circled wide in deep stretch and prevailed by a neck in the final strides.
Later that year, he finished second in the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St Leger) and third in both the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) and Arima Kinen. He received the JRA Award for Best Three-Year-Old Colt.
2000: Four-year-old season
As a four-year-old in 2000, T. M. Opera O was undefeated in 8 starts, including five domestic Grade I wins and one international Grade I win.
He started the season on March 19 with a win in the Hanshin Daishoten at a distance of 3000m. He then won the Tenno Sho (spring) at a distance of 3200m (roughly 2 miles) before shortening up to a distance of 2200m to win the Takarazuka Kinen.
After a brief layoff, T. M. Opera won the Kyoto Daishoten on October 8. On October 29, he started in the 2000m Tenno Sho (autumn) from the outside post position 13. Jockey Ryuji Wada rode him strongly from the gate and moved aggressively towards the rail to save ground around the first turn. T. M. Opera O settled in third place then swung wide as they turned into the final stretch. He battled with Meisho Doto before hitting the lead with 200m remaining, then drew away to win by 2+1⁄2 lengths. He became just the third horse to win both the spring and autumn versions of the Tenno Sho in the same year. "He has no faults", said Wada. "And mentally he's so tough I wish he’d share some of it with me."
T. M. Opera O earned the seventh straight win of his four-year old campaign in the Japan Cup. He was made the heavy favorite by a crowd of 110,000 in a field that included eight horses from Japan and seven foreign entries. Stay Gold went to the early lead and set a slow pace, while T. M. Opera O settled into sixth place. T. M. Opera O started his move on the final turn and took the lead with 200m remaining. Under heavy urging, he withstood a late charge by Meisho Doto to win by a neck, with Fantastic Light a further nose behind in third. The win moved T. M. Opera O past Cigar as the leading money earner of all-time with winnings of 1.26 billion yen or $11.6 million.
On December 24, T. M. Opera O made his final start of the year in the Arima Kinen at Nakayama Racecourse. He raced near the back of the field down the backstretch, then slowly made up ground on the final turn. Entering the final stretch, he was still well behind and faced a wall of horses in front of him. Wada decided to wait for an opening rather than lose ground by attempting to swing wide. With just 200m remaining, he finally found a narrow gap and urged T. M. Opera to squeeze through. The horse responded with a burst and closed rapidly to prevail over Meisho Doto by a nose. "I'm relieved", said Wada. "It was a tough race. I couldn't get the position I wanted at the start and I thought I'd blown it."
2001: Five-year-old season
In 2001, T. M. Opera O won two of seven starts with three second-place finishes. The highlight of this year was a repeat win in the Tenno Sho (spring), in which he defeated Meisho Doto by a nose.
On June 25, T. M. Opera O attempted to repeat in the Takarazuka Kinen but was upset by Meisho Doto. T. M. Opera O had experienced severe traffic problems before swinging wide and mounting a "spectacular" closing drive that fell short by 1+1⁄4 lengths. It was Meisho Doto's first win against T. M. Opera O in six attempts, all in Grade 1 events.
After a brief layoff, T. M. Opera O returned on October 1 to race in the Kyoto Daishoten. Whilst in the race itself T. M. Opera O narrowly placed second, the first place racer Stay Gold cut off Narita Top Road in the final sprint and caused his jockey to fall. Stay Gold was consequently disqualified from the race, leading to T. M. Opera O being declared the winner. On October 28, T. M. Opera O finished second in the Tenno Sho (autumn) to Agnes Digital, with Meisho Doto in third. In his next start on November 25, he finished second in the Japan Cup, just a neck short of Japanese Derby winner Jungle Pocket. He made his final start in the Arima Kinen, finishing fifth.
T. M. Opera O retired at the end of 2001 as the world's all-time leading money-earner. He won 1,835,189,000 yen (US$16,200,337) during his career.
Racing statistics
Below data is based on data available on JBIS Search, and netkeiba.
Stud career and death
T. M. Opera O was retired to stud in 2002, during which he covered 98 mares. He was not considered a success and interest in him steadily declined. His most successful offspring on the flat was T. M. Yokado, winner of the Queen Sho. T. M. Toppazure became his leading money earner after a successful second career as a jumper. Unusually for a retired G1 winning horse, T. M. Opera O's stable was not open for guided tours for most of his retirement, following an incident with visiting fans.
T. M. Opera O died suddenly after suffering a heart attack at the Hakuba Bokujo, Hokkaido, on May 17, 2018. T. M. Opera O's funeral ceremony was held on June 15, 2018, at Hakuba Bokujo together with Goshawk Ken, another horse that died three days prior to T. M. Opera O.
In September 2003, the Journal of Equine Science published a research paper that centered on T. M. Opera O's heart, comparing it to other racehorses active at the time. It found that T. M. Opera O's heart had a noticeably heavier left ventricular mass than the other horses examined, and a low resting heart rate of 25 beats per minute. The authors of the article suggested T. M. Opera O's unusually large heart was responsible for reducing his resting heart rate. When writing about this article, racing journalist David Ashforth attributed T. M. Opera O's success on the race track to his heart's size, drawing a parallel to similar investigations into horseracing legends Secretariat and Eclipse's hearts, which were also found to be unusually large.
In popular culture
An anthropomorphized version of T. M. Opera O appears in the media franchise Umamusume: Pretty Derby, portrayed as an orange-haired girl with an inflated ego and a penchant for theatrics, voiced by Sora Tokui. The character is featured in the franchise's spin-off anime Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Road to the Top together with Admire Vega and Narita Top Road. She would later return as a major antagonist in the movie Umamusume: Pretty Derby – Beginning of a New Era, which retells the rise of Jungle Pocket and the end of Opera O's winning streak.
Pedigree
In the pedigree, symbols before a horse's name mean the horse was foaled in one country but subsequently stood at stud in another