Everyone's favorite mother-figure - Super Creek.
I've had some of my best career runs with Super Creek.
🐴 Super Creek: The Sleeve Bite That Changed a Jockey's Career
Born in 1985 from a European staying bloodline considered unsuited to Japanese turf, nobody wanted him. He sold for a modest ¥8.1 million. His trainer, Shuji Ito, saw potential anyway, even with a slightly outward-turned front leg.
In the fall of 1988, a young jockey named Yutaka Take, only 19 at the time, couldn't decide between 5 possible horses for the Kikuka Sho. Unsure, he went to inspect each one in the stable, one by one. When he got to Super Creek, the last on his list, the horse bit his sleeve and refused to let go, as if begging to be chosen. Take gave in. Super Creek won the race, Take's very first Grade 1 victory of his career.
At the 1988 Arima Kinen, he crossed the line 3rd behind Oguri Cap and Tamamo Cross, only to be disqualified afterward for blocking another horse's path. The moment was iconic enough to get referenced twice in Umamusume, first as a rigged donut-eating contest in the anime, then again directly in the Cinderella Gray manga.
After a long injury layoff in 1989, he came back to become one of the "Heisei Big Three," alongside Oguri Cap and Inari One, a trio credited with reviving Japan's love for horse racing.
He beat both of them at the 1989 Tenno Sho Autumn for his second Grade 1 title, then won the 1990 Tenno Sho Spring, holding off a late charge from Inari One.