Still in Love

Still in Love was a chestnut Japanese mare of the 2000s, foaled on 2 May 2000 and bred by Shimokobe Farm. She raced in the colours of North Hills Management Co. Ltd. and was trained from Ritto by Shoichi Matsumoto. A daughter of the great Sunday Silence out of Bradamante, by Roberto, she was bred on a pedigree that blended one of Japan’s most influential sires with a deep international female line.

Her family had already shown useful ability before she arrived. Among her known siblings were Big Baillamont, winner of the 1996 Radio Tampa Sho (G3), as well as Kapellmeister and Daiwa Nevada. Still in Love, however, rose well above the level of a useful black-type family member and became the standout of the line on the racecourse.

She is best remembered for her exceptional three-year-old season in 2003, when she captured the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks), the race recorded by netkeiba as her major win. Wikipedia’s racing summary adds that she also won the Oka Sho and the Shuka Sho in the same year, completing the Japanese Fillies' Triple Crown. That achievement places her among the most important fillies of her generation and gives her a permanent place in Japanese racing history.

Still in Love raced with distinction at middle distances and is noted in the archive as a leader in running style. Her overall record is listed by Wikipedia as 12 starts for 5 wins, 1 second and 2 thirds, while her earnings are recorded in the supplied sources at over ¥437 million on the JRA circuit, with Wikipedia giving a higher total earnings figure of ¥478,202,500. Even in a relatively compact racing career, those figures reflect how quickly she reached the top level.

After her racing days, Still in Love retired from the track and is noted as a broodmare. Even without extensive retirement detail in the supplied research, her legacy is secure through what she accomplished at three: a classic-winning daughter of Sunday Silence who swept Japan’s fillies’ classics and became a Group 1-winning emblem of her era.

Sources

• netkeiba: Still in Love
• JBIS: Still in Love
• Wikipedia: Still in Love