Jungle Pocket (, 7 May 1998 – 2 March 2021) was a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. In a racing career which lasted from 2000 until 2002 he won five of his thirteen races and ¥704,258,000 in prize money. As a two-year-old he showed promising form by winning two races including the Grade III Sapporo Nisai Stakes in record time. In the following year he won the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) and defeated an international field to win the Japan Cup. His achievements saw him voted Japanese Champion 3-Year-Old Colt and Japanese Horse of the Year for 2001. After failing to win in 2002 he was retired to stud and has had considerable success as a breeding stallion.
After a break of eight weeks, Jungle Pocket returned for the Grade II Sapporo Kinen in August and finished third behind Air Eminem and Fight Commander. Another lengthy absence was followed by a return to Grade I level for the Kikuka Sho over 3000 metres at Kyoto on 21 October and a fourth-place finish behind Manhattan Cafe, Meiner Despot and Air Eminem.
On 25 November in front of a 115,196 spectators at Tokyo Jungle Pocket was one of fifteen horses to contest 21st running of the Japan Cup. Ridden by the French jockey Olivier Peslier he was made 3.2/1 second favourite behind T M Opera O, a five-year-old who had won seven previous Grade I races, six of which he won consecutively in the year 2000. The race attracted a strong North American contingent comprising With Anticipation (Man o' War Stakes), Timboroa (Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational Stakes), Cagney (Carleton F. Burke Handicap) and White Heart (Turf Classic Stakes). The other overseas runners were Indigenous from Hong Kong, Golan from Britain and Paolini (Dubai Duty Free) from Germany. The most fancied of the other Japanese runners were Meisho Doto (Takarazuka Kinen), Stay Gold and Narita Top Road. Peslier restrained the colt towards the rear of the field before switching to the outside to make his challenge in the straight. He caught T M Opera O in the final strides and won by a neck, with a gap of three and a half lengths back to Narita Top Road in third. After the race Peslier commented "I'm on top of the world – It is the most marvellous thrill for me to win the Japan Cup because I have ridden in Japan many times and so I'm really delighted. Jungle Pocket is the Derby winner and I am really proud of the way he has run today in this field. I was bumped a little at the start, and he then raced quite a long way back, but he settled well and I got a good run through".
In January 2001 Jungle Pocket was voted Japanese Champion 3-Year-Old Colt and Japanese Horse of the Year in the for 2001.
Before his last two races the colt entered the ownership of Kazuko Yoshida. In the autumn he finished fifth to Falbrav in the Japan Cup (run that year over 2200 metres at Nakayama) and ended his career by finishing seventh of fourteen behind Symboli Kris S in the Arima Kinen on 22 December.
One of the last crops of Jungle Pocket, a filly named Omataseshimashita, is owned by Shinji Saito, a member of the comedy trio Jungle Pocket (named after the horse) and she has competed in NAR races.
Foaled | Name | Sex | Major wins |
2004 | Jaguar Mail | c | Tenno Sho (spring) |
2004 | Queen Spumante | f | Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup |
2005 | Tall Poppy | f | Hanshin Juvenile Fillies, Yushun Himba |
2005 | Oken Bruce Lee | c | Kikuka Sho |
2005 | Jungle Rocket | f | New Zealand Oaks |
2006 | Tosen Jordan | c | Tenno Sho (autumn) |
2008 | Aventura | f | Shuka Sho |
2010 | Awardee | c | Japan Breeding Farms' Cup Classic |
2012 | Dear Domus | c | Zen-Nippon Nisai Yushun |
An anthropomorphized version of the horse appears in Uma Musume Pretty Derby, with a movie featuring the character titled Uma Musume Pretty Derby: Shinjidai no Tobira released in Japan on May 24, 2024.
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