Durezza (horse)

Durezza（Japanese: ドゥレッツァ, Foaled April 24, 2020）is an active Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse. He won the 2023 Kikuka-shō.

His name means "harshness" and is related to his sire's name.

2022: two-year old season
Durezza made his debut at the Nakayama Racecourse on September 9, 2022, in a two-year old newcomer race on turf at the distance of 2,000 meters. He was ridden by Christophe Lemaire and finished third. Two months later, he finally won his first race in a race for winless two-year old horses on turf at the same distance as his last race but on Tokyo Racecourse, ridden by Christophe Lemaire once again. He defeated the later winner of the Kobe Shimbun Hai, Satono Glanz.

2023: three-year old season
Durezza was set to race in Saint Paulia Sho at Tokyo Racecourse on January for his three-year-old season debut but it was postponed due to hoof anxiety. After three months of recovery, on April 2, 2023, he returned to the track and won the Yamabuki Sho run over 2,200 meters at Nakayama Racecourse. He missed the spring classics due to the circumstances brought by his injury. He won his next two races, The Hong Kong Jockey Club Trophy and the Nihonkai Stakes, which promoted him to the open class after winning 4 times.

Later in the year on October 22, he finally made his first Graded stakes challenge. He was entered to the Grade 1 Kikuka-shō at the distance of 3,000 meters at Kyoto Racecourse, the final leg of the Japanese Triple Crown, with jockey Christophe Lemaire again on the saddle. He was favored 4th behind the Satsuki Shō winner Sol Oriens, Tōkyō Yūshun winner Tastiera, and the Kikuka-sho trial Kobe Shimbun Hai winner Satono Glanz. Starting from gate 17, which is second from the outermost gate, he broke out of the gates on average speed but sped forward right after the initial hill climb at the back stretch, taking the lead from Pax Ottomanica by their first pass of the fourth corner. Into the front stretch, finishing the first 1,000 meters at 60.4 seconds, he led the pack until they entered the back stretch once more where Pax Ottomanica passed him. He fell to third position after Libyan Glass passed him before the final hill climb at the back stretch. As the pack widened before entering the third corner once more, he maintained his position by the rail. He once again sped up entering the downhill portion by the middle of the third corner tracking Libyan Glass who now took the lead from Pax Ottomanica. As they entered the final straight, he ran up and sped past Libyan Glass and took the lead with close to 300 meters left, holding on to it and winning the race with three and a half lengths away from the late surging Tokyo Yushun winner Tastiera with Satsuki Sho winner Sol Oriens at third. With this, he has won five consecutive races and is the first time since Mejiro McQueen in 1990 that the winning horse has not raced in a graded stakes prior. This is also the first time in 24 years that the winning horse has beaten both the Satsuki Sho and the Tokyo Yushun horse in the same race, the last one being Narita Top Road in 1999 beating T M Opera O and Admire Vega.

Racing statistics
Below data is based on data available on JBIS Search, and netkeiba.com.

Legend:

Pedigree

 * Durreza was inbred S4 × M4 to Halo, meaning that this stallion appears twice in the fourth generation in his pedigree, once on the sire side, and once on the dam side.
 * His Dam, More Than Sacred, won the New Zealand Oaks.
 * Tamarino, who is three generations down his damline, is the half-sister of Northern Spur who won the 1995 Breeders' Cup Turf.