Stars on Earth

Stars On Earth (Japanese: スターズオンアース, foaled 27 February 2019) is a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse. She showed some promise as a juvenile in 2021, winning one minor race from three starts. She showed improved form in the following spring, running second in both the Fairy Stakes and the Daily Hai Queen Cup before taking the Grade 1 Oka Sho and Yushun Himba.

Background
Stars On Earth is a bay filly with a white star bred in Japan by Shadai Farm. During her racing career she was trained by Mizuki Takayanagi and raced in the yellow and black colours of Shadai Race Horse Co., Ltd.

She was from the second crop of foals sired by Duramente, who won the Satsuki Sho and the Tokyo Yushun and was named Best Three-Year-Old Colt in Japan for 2015. Stars On Earth's dam Southern Stars showed modest racing ability in her native Britain, winning one minor race from four attempts. She was the first foal of Stacelita, a multiple Group 1 winner in both Europe and the United States. As a descendant of the German mare Schonbrunn (foaled 1966) she was closely related to many other major winners including Sagace, Zagreb and Steinlen. Stacelita's second foal was Soul Stirring.

2021: two-year-old season
Stars On Earth began her racing career in a contest for previously unraced juveniles over 1800 metres on firm ground at Niigata Racecourse on 1 August 2021. Ridden by Shu Ishibashi she started the 2.9/1 second choice in the betting and finished second to the favoured Rouge Stiria, beaten three quarters of a length by the winner. Ishibashi was again in the saddle when the filly started favourite for a maiden race for over the same distance at Tokyo Racecourse on 9 October and recorded her first success as she produced a strong late run down centre of the straight to take the lead inside the last 200 metres and win by two lengths from the colt Yuino Gotoku. Stars On Earth ended her first campaign in the Akamatsu Sho, a minor event over 1600 metres at Tokyo on 21 November when she started favourite but came home third of the nine runners behind Namur and Personal High.

2022: three-year-old season
On her first appearance as a three-year-old Stars On Earth started the 3.3/1 favourite when she was stepped up in class to contest the grade 3 Fairy Stakes over 1600 metres at Nakayama Racecourse on 10 January but despite producing a strong late run along the inside rail she was beaten a neck into second place by Lilac. In the Grade 3 Daily Hai Queen Cup at over the same distance Tokyo a month later she was again the beaten favourite, going down by a neck to Presage Lift after briefly taking the lead in the last 200 metres. Her trainer Mizuki Takayanagi felt that the filly's defeats were at least partly due to her tendency to hang to the right and attempted to remedy the problem by equipping her with a cheek-piece and a new type of bit.

On 10 April at Hanshin Stars On Earth was promoted to the highest level to contest the Oka Sho and started at odds of 13.5/1 in an eighteen-runner field. Namur (winner of the Tulip Sho on her last start) went off favourite, while the other contenders included Circle of Life, Presage Lift, Lilac, Personal High, Water Navillera (Fantasy Stakes) and Namura Clair (Kokura Nisai Stakes). Ridden for the first time by Yuga Kawada, Stars On Earth settled in mid-division and turned into the straight in ninth place. She looked unlikely to obtain a clear run but found a gap in the closing stages and produced an impressive burst of acceleration to catch Water Navillera on the line and win by a nose. After the race Kawada said."I'm just so glad that she actually snatched the win at the end—I knew we had caught up but couldn't tell who'd won. I'd been aware during workouts that she was a bit difficult to control but besides keeping that in mind, the plan today was to stay in mid-pack and let her run in a comfortable rhythm. It was definitely her strength and determination that shone and gave us the win today. I'm looking forward to how she develops from here".

On 22 May, Stars On Earth was entered in to the second leg of the Triple Tiara, the Yushun Himba. As Kawada was scheduled to ride Art House for that race, it was announced that Christophe Lemaire would be riding her for that race. She started from the outside, as her gate was on the furthest outside, but after bending the fourth corner the horse went in to take the lead, and overtook at the final 100 metres, and won the race with a 1-and-quarter length lead against Stunning Rose; making her the first horse since Daring Tact in 2020 to have won two of the Triple Tiara.

On 28 May, it was announced by Shadai Racehorse that the horse had suffered a minor bone fracture, with surgery being performed on the horse on 2 June. The horse recovered from the surgery, and it was eventually announced that the horse will be entered in to the final leg of the Triple Tiara, the Shuka Sho, with Lemaire reprising his role as her jockey.

At the Shuka Sho, the horse's start was slow and placed herself third from last, and attempted to catch up to Stunning Rose and Namur, who were leading the race, but ultimately finished third behind the two horses, with Stunning Rose beating Stars on Earth by half a length. After the race, the horse was taken out of the race for the remainder of the year after it was revealed that the horse had once again suffered the same bone fracture, on top of desmitis, from earlier that year.

2023: four-year-old season
After recovering from the conditions of the previous year, it was announced that the horse would be entered to the Osaka Hai to start off the season, but at the race Stars of Earth was beaten by a nose by Jack d'Or. The horse later went on to race in the Victoria Mile, but finished 3rd.

After the Victoria Mile, the horse was sent to pasture at the Yamamoto Training Center in Miyagi Prefecture to spend the summer there. Upon returning, it was announced by Shadai Racehorsing that the horse will be entered to the autumn edition of the Tenno Sho, with Mirco Demuro as her new jockey as Lemaire is scheduled to ride Equinox for that race. However, plans to race her in the Tenno Sho were soon scrapped after it was discovered her right hind was having issues.

Pedigree

 * Stars On Earth was inbred 3 × 4 to Mr Prospector, meaning that this stallion appears in both the third and fourth generations of her pedigree.