Believe (horse)

2000: two-year-old season

She made her debut under Yuichi Fukunaga on November 11 when she led the race from the start and won by two and half lengths over Mad Party.^[3] She raced once again one month later, finishing in sixth place.^[1] In her second race, Fukunaga stated that "1600 meters is a little too long for her. 1400 meters would be better," which foreshadowed that all her future wins would come in 1200-meter races.^[4]

2001: three-year-old season

In 2001, Believe started in eight races and managed to win two and finish in third place twice.^[1] Her win for the year came at one three-year-old allowance race in May and also the Daigo Tokubetsu in November.^[5][6] She ran in two graded races for the year, the Flower Cup and Falcon Stakes, in which she disappointingly finished in eighth and ninth, respectively.^[1] Considering Fukunaga ran her primarily in a front-running strategy to this point, he said, "If she can learn to run from behind, I'm looking forward to seeing what she can do in the future."^[4]

2002: four-year-old season

At the beginning of this season, Believe started pretty well with three podium finishes under Fukunaga before switching the jockey to Katsumi Ando on her third season start.^[1] For her fourth race of the year at the Yodobayashi Stakes, she went with Yasunari Iwata. This change worked as she was having a good race at third position before recorded the fastest final three furlong speed (alongside two others) to win the race by six lengths over Resurreccion.^[7] She would be back to Fukunaga at the next race which would be Keio Hai Spring Cup and finished in third place, the first podium she got on a graded race.^[8] Fukunaga then ride her for two more races and won the Sasebo Stakes in July before reassigned the job to Iwata again.^[1] Iwata rode Believe to two more win at the Kitakyushu Tankyori Stakes and the Centaur Stakes, which was her first graded stakes win.^[9]

On September 29, Believe would run at the Sprinters Stakes, which was her first grade 1 race start. This year edition would be held at the Niigata Racecourse instead of Nakayama.^[10] Believe who was ridden by Yutaka Take this time around, settled in early phase on third position once the gate opened. Then, Take tried to squeeze between Shonan Kampf and Admire Cozzene but her path forward became narrow. Suddenly, the tide was over in an instant as Take masterfully changed the course to the inside and unleashed a burst of speed at the end. Both of the horses tried to recover but failed as Believe won her first G1 sprint race.^[11][10] For the post race comment, Take said "It was a tight spot, but she didn't flinch and went into the pack. She's a really great horse. Please give the horse some praise today. I just rode her normally."^[4] She closed her season with a run at the Hong Kong Sprint, in which she only managed to finish 12th-place in her first oversea race.^[12]

2003: five-year-old season

She started the year with a run at the Hankyu Hai. In this race, she was unable to run well and only finished in ninth place behind the winner, Shonan Kampf.^[1] Then in March, Believe ran at the Takamatsunomiya Kinen. Since the race coincided with the Dubai World Cup, Take, who was also assigned for Gold Allure, was unable to ride her for the day. The task was given instead to Ando, who rode her at the beginning of the previous season.^[11] The race began with the first favourite, Shonan Kampf, storming into the lead whilst Believe followed closely behind in third place on the inside, marking him. The split time for the first 600 m was 32.9 seconds, which was really fast. At this pace, Shonan Kampf couldn't keep up as he fell down the order at the final 100 metres. As the horses that had been ahead dropped out one after another, Believe managed to make a strong finishing burst and crossed the finish line first.^[11][13] This was Ando first grade 1 race win in his career and he became Believe main jockey for the rest of the season.^[11]

Ando and Believe finished outside the podium at the next two races (eighth at the Keio Hai Spring Cup and 12th at the Yasuda Kinen). Then, she won at the Hakodate Sprint Stakes after securing a good position at the start and finished strongly two lengths in front of Agnes Sonic.^[14] For her final two races of her career before retiring, she finished second at the two races she won the previous year which were the Centaur Stakes and Sprinters Stakes.^[1] She lost both race by the slimmest of nose margin against Tenshino Kiseki and Durandal respectively.^[15][16] At the end of the season, she was inaugurated with the best award for older filly and mare by the Japanese Racing Association.^[17]