At the start of the 2003 Oka Sho, Japanese bettors preferred Admire Groove to Still in Love. They made the same choice for the Oaks in May and the Shuka Sho in October. Still in Love won all three. Admire Groove finished third, seventh and second, carrying the expectations attached to a famous family through a Classic season that belonged to another filly.
Their rivalry continued after the Triple Crown was settled, and its order had already changed once in a preparation race. Following those meetings closely reveals two different kinds of achievement: Still in Love's command of the championship dates and Admire Groove's development into a leading older mare. It also gives the future mother of Duramente a racing identity that can easily disappear when her pedigree is read backward from her son's success.
The daughter of Air Groove was already a public event
Admire Groove was foaled on April 30, 2000, at Northern Farm in Hokkaido. Her sire was Sunday Silence, the American champion whose Japanese stallion career was transforming the country's breeding. Her dam, Air Groove, had won the 1996 Japanese Oaks and beaten males in the 1997 autumn Tenno Sho, earning Horse of the Year honors. Behind Air Groove stood another Oaks winner, Dyna Carl. The filly inherited a family recognizable through the racecourse achievements of its mares.
She went through the Select Sale as a foal that July and was bought for 230 million yen. The Japan Racing Horse Association's sale history records the transaction under her original catalogue identity, Air Groove's 2000 foal. Long before a starting gate opened for her, a public price had been attached to the possibility that this family could produce another exceptional runner.
Riichi Kondo owned her, and Mitsuru Hashida trained her at Ritto. These connections gave the expensive filly a familiar place in Japanese racing: the Admire name, an established stable and, for most of her career, Yutaka Take in the saddle. The JBIS profile documents the people and pedigree behind the filly who would carry that name into the Classics.
Three wins before three Classic defeats
Her first appearances encouraged the high expectations. She won on debut over 1,800 meters at Kyoto in November 2002, then took the Erika Sho over 2,000 meters at Hanshin the following month. In March 2003 she returned to the same course and distance for the Wakaba Stakes, defeating a field that included colts. Three starts had produced three victories, with Take aboard each time.
That preparation matters when explaining her position in the Classic betting. An unbeaten filly who had already won at 2,000 meters against males offered more than a fashionable pedigree. There was form to accompany the ancestry, although she had yet to win a graded race. The JRA-VAN retrospective and career table preserve this brief route to the Oka Sho, rather than a lengthy campaign through the main fillies' trials.
The first Classic was a mile at Hanshin on April 13. Still in Love, ridden by Hideaki Miyuki, won; She Is Tosho was second, with Admire Groove another half-length behind in third. The official Oka Sho result also records Admire Groove at 448 kilograms, ten fewer than in the Wakaba Stakes. The unbeaten favorite had lost, and her spring campaign would now involve answering a filly who had delivered on the most important afternoon.
At Tokyo on May 25, the betting still put Admire Groove first. The Oaks extended the assignment to 2,400 meters, a distance her earlier 2,000-meter wins and her mother's history made especially interesting. Still in Love won again, beating Chuney, while Admire Groove finished seventh. She weighed 460 kilograms, twelve more than at Hanshin. The JRA chart gives the two fillies clearly different spring records: two Classic trophies for one, two defeats for the other.
The Rose Stakes changed the order before the Shuka Sho
Admire Groove returned in the Rose Stakes at Hanshin on September 21. Over 2,000 meters, she beat Yamakatsu Lily by a length in 2:01.5. Still in Love, now the favorite, finished fifth. The JBIS race chart supplies an essential part of the rivalry that a summary of the three Classics leaves out: Admire Groove had beaten her celebrated opponent before their final championship meeting, and had collected her own first graded victory.
The Rose Stakes was a preparation, with its own conditions and state of readiness for each runner. Its result did not erase Still in Love's spring, but it made another reversal plausible. Admire Groove again headed the betting for the Shuka Sho at Kyoto on October 19. This time she finished much closer than at Tokyo, losing by three-quarters of a length, with Yamakatsu Lily third. Still in Love had restored the order at the moment that completed the fillies' Triple Crown.
The Shuka Sho result explains the continued tension between reputation and achievement. Admire Groove was sufficiently competitive to remain a serious rival, and her September win gave that assessment a recent foundation. Still in Love had nevertheless won every race required for the championship sweep. Recognizing the former's ability should leave the latter's superior Classic record intact.
Kyoto in November: a nose at 2,200 meters
The Queen Elizabeth II Cup on November 16 moved the rivalry beyond the three-year-old program. At Kyoto over 2,200 meters, the pair faced older mares as well as one another. Still in Love was favorite, Admire Groove second choice. Both carried 54 kilograms, receiving the two-kilogram allowance from the older females. Their next confrontation therefore added another distance and a broader field without a weight difference between the principal rivals.
Still in Love was in front of Admire Groove entering the straight, and the two came together for the deciding struggle. Take's filly reached the finish a nose ahead, both recording 2:11.8. The official result puts the French-trained Tiger Tail third, a length and a half away, with the established Japanese mares Lady Pastel and Rosebud behind her. Admire Groove's first Grade 1 had come through a direct defeat of the Triple Crown winner.
The distinction between this race and the Rose Stakes is the level of the prize, rather than the discovery that Admire Groove could ever finish ahead of Still in Love. She had already done that in September. November brought the championship trophy her season had lacked, against older opposition as well. It placed her beside her dam and granddam as a winner of one of Japan's major races, while leaving Still in Love's Triple Crown as a separate, completed achievement.
In 2004, Northern Farm still used Air Groove as the standard
A different task followed at four. Admire Groove began with defeats against males in the Osaka Hai and Kinko Sho, then returned to female company for the Mermaid Stakes at Hanshin on July 11. She won the 2,000-meter event by three lengths from Cheers Message, carrying 57 kilograms. Air Groove had won the same race in 1997, also with Take riding. The daughter was now adding a recognizable entry from her mother's career to her own record.
The response from her breeder was more measured than that resemblance might suggest. In a contemporary Japanese-language JBBA interview, Northern Farm treated the victory as appropriate to her standing in that field. Its representative still saw a gap to Air Groove, citing the mother's Tenno Sho success and two Japan Cup second places. The comparison came from people invested in the family, and they were distinguishing the same race won from the same level reached.
The interview also records a connection between racing and the sale ring. The Mermaid Stakes came just before that year's Select Sale, where an Air Groove colt by Dance in the Dark brought 490 million yen. The farm believed the sister's recent victory had helped his valuation. That was its assessment of the transaction, rather than proof of a precisely measurable effect. It shows how Admire Groove's performances were being considered within the wider commercial fortunes of a highly visible broodmare family.
Her strongest performance against males arrived that autumn. In the Tenno Sho at Tokyo on October 31, she finished third behind Zenno Rob Roy and Dance in the Mood. The JRA result records slightly yielding ground and Admire Groove as ninth favorite. Against a colt who would complete that year's autumn sequence of Tenno Sho, Japan Cup and Arima Kinen, she had produced a placing that supported the ambition to compete beyond races restricted to females.
A title defense fourteen days after the Tenno Sho
The Queen Elizabeth II Cup followed on November 14. That short interval had practical consequences: the JBBA's post-race Northern Farm interview describes fatigue after the Tenno Sho on less-than-ideal ground and credits Hashida's staff with getting her ready again. The representative had been encouraged by her condition in the paddock at Kyoto, where her size and composure stood out among the mares. The fourteen-day turnaround had required work behind the scenes as well as another good performance on the track.
Osumi Haruka supplied the horse to catch. Admire Groove settled in midfield, came forward and passed her to win by three-quarters of a length in 2:13.6. The 2004 result shows both carrying 56 kilograms. Sweep Tosho, that year's Shuka Sho winner and the favorite, finished fifth; Still in Love was ninth. The race Admire Groove had first won as a three-year-old now confirmed her place among the older mares.
For Take, the two victories carried different associations. As reported by Radio NIKKEI after the race, he had particularly wanted to secure one major title for her the previous year; the second victory brought a different kind of satisfaction. Osumi Haruka's rider, Shinji Kawashima, explained that he had moved early because his mare would be vulnerable in a contest of finishing speed. The winner had answered a rival whose tactics were intended to make that finish difficult.
Admire Groove received Japan's award for best older filly or mare in 2004. Her year contained only two wins, the Mermaid Stakes and the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, but also that Tenno Sho third against mixed opposition. The combination gives a more precise account of her status than either the award alone or the tally of victories: a leading mare with a credible performance against the country's autumn championship field.
The last mile, before the mares' program changed
In 2005 the attempt to win a major race against males continued. Her campaign included the 3,200-meter spring Tenno Sho, where she finished eleventh, and the Takarazuka Kinen, where she was eighth. She was seventeenth in the autumn Tenno Sho, then returned to her familiar Kyoto championship to finish third behind Sweep Tosho and Osumi Haruka. A Grade 1 against males remained beyond her, while three successive appearances in the leading mares' race had produced two victories and a third place.
The calendar offered older mares fewer championship alternatives than it does today. The JRA's history of the Victoria Mile explains that the new spring Grade 1 for females aged four and over was introduced in 2006, after Admire Groove retired. Its creation also brought the Hanshin Himba Stakes into a spring preparation role. During her career, the Queen Elizabeth II Cup was the only JRA Grade 1 restricted to females for which an older mare was eligible.
Her final race belonged to that older calendar. On December 18, 2005, the Hanshin Himba Stakes was still a December race over 1,600 meters. Admire Groove faced the three-year-old Line Craft, winner of that season's Oka Sho and NHK Mile Cup, who headed the betting. The five-year-old would finish her career against a younger filly whose spring had established her in the mile division.
Take brought Admire Groove forward from midfield, passed Line Craft and held off Meine Samantha by half a length in 1:34.5. Les Clefs d'Or was third and Line Craft fourth. The JRA's contemporary race account points out how unusual this assignment was for the winner: it was her first mile since the 2003 Oka Sho, and only her second start at the distance. She finished her career successfully in a division she had scarcely visited.
That late victory cannot establish what an extended mile campaign would have produced. It does broaden the evidence of her ability beyond the repeated 2,200-meter successes at Kyoto. The horse who had been third on her first mile attempt was now beating a younger dual Grade 1 winner on her second, at five and under 57 kilograms. Her retirement record stood at eight wins from twenty-one starts, including two Grade 1 victories and three other graded wins.
From Northern Farm's broodmare band to Duramente
Admire Groove returned to Northern Farm for breeding. A JBBA visit published in 2007 offers a view of the change in daily life: her first foal, a grey filly by Kurofune, had been born that March. Staff described her as sometimes assertive among the mares and attentive to her youngster after an initially hesitant adjustment. These were observations of a particular broodmare and foal, recorded while her racing career was still recent.
She produced six foals in six successive years. Her death at Northern Farm on October 15, 2012, ended that breeding career when she was only twelve. The JBBA's contemporary memorial mentioned the King Kamehameha colt born that spring among the young horses she left behind. He had not yet raced. The future importance of her final foal was still an open question.
That colt was Duramente, foaled on March 22, 2012. In 2015 he won the Satsuki Sho and Japanese Derby; his JBIS profile records both Classics and his award as Japan's best three-year-old colt. The mare who had spent her own Classic season pursuing Still in Love had produced a colt able to win the first two races of the male Triple Crown. He extended the family's championship record through another generation.
The direct line now ran from Dyna Carl's 1983 Oaks, through Air Groove's Oaks and Tenno Sho, to Admire Groove's two Queen Elizabeth II Cups and Duramente's two Classics. Dyna Carl's victory came a year before the 1984 introduction of grading in Japan, so her Oaks did not carry an official G1 designation at the time. The family connection is exact: mother to daughter, daughter to daughter, then dam to son. Admire Groove supplied both a pair of championship victories and the link to the next Classic winner.