Biwa Heidi

Biwa Heidi was foaled out of Aghsan by Lord Gayle who was an Irish broodmare that was purchased and brought into Japan by Koichiro Hayata (Hayata Farms owner).^[10][11] During the transfer, She was already pregnant with her, sired by Caerleon and moved to the Hayata Farms in Niikappu, Hokkaido where she was born.^[10][12]

Her future trainer, Mitsumasa Hamada then convinced his friend, Isamu Nakajima who was the president of Biwa co.ltd. to purchase her from Hayata Farms who also at the time owned 1993 Japanese Horse of the Year, Biwa Hayahide.^[10] Her name was the combination of the stable crown name Biwa and Heidi which was a tribute to a Japanese animated series, Heidi, Girl of the Alps.^[13]

Biwa Heidi ran in a maiden race (1000 meters on turf) at Sapporo Racecourse on 10 June 1995.^[14] Yutaka Take rode him in the first maiden race of the 1993-foaled generation, and he was the 1.5-to-1 favorite.^[15] He took the lead and made a move from the outside in the straight, beating two other horses that were closing in from the inside and outside by half a length to claim her first victory.^[10] One month later, on 30 July, she was the third favourite in her first-ever graded race start, which was the Sapporo Sansai Stakes, a G3 race.^[16] She took the lead from the start, drew level with the leader at the final corner, and then widened the gap to cross the finish line first. She won her first graded stakes race by three and a half lengths.^[10] Following her victory, she took a break, gained some weights and returned to racing four months later at the Hanshin Sansai Stakes.^[4] In this race, she was being assigned to a new jockey, Koichi Tsunoda [ja].^[6] In this race, Tsunoda propelled Biwa Heidi to lead the race from wire-to-wire and finished first at the line by a half length lead against Air Groove. This was her first G1 race win and she was undefeated in three starts so far.^[4][13] At the end of the year, she was awarded the JRA Award for Best Three-Year-Old Filly by the Japan Racing Association.^[10][17]

In 1996, Biwa Heidi and Air Groove battled out again in the Tulip Sho. This time, Biwa Heidi was the favourite at 2.3 odds whilst Air Groove was the second favourite at 2.7 odds.^[18] Mirroring the previous start, Biwa Heidi took the lead early on but Olivier Peslier, who replaced Michael Kinane on Air Groove this time, swept around the outside at the third corner, overtook Biwa Heidi and bursted forward to win the race by a five lengths margin.^[18] On 4th of April, Biwa Heidi ran in the Oka Sho and became the heavy favourite after a last-minute withdrawal by Air Groove, who had caught a cold.^[10] Unfortunately, she also had gone through molting and estrus just before the race but continued to run despite being in poor health.^[10] She took a short lead before falling down the pecking order and ended up in 15th-place.^[10][18] Her owner, Nakajima, pushed her to run in the Tokyo Yushun next instead of Yushun Himba due to his regret of watching Biwa Hayahide finished in second place behind Winning Ticket in 1993, the decision which was opposed fiercely by Hamada.^[10] She ran poorly, finished in 13th place and suffered a fracture that subsided her for the rest of the year.^[18]

She returned to racing in October 1997,^[4] but the year proved unfruitful for her as she placed outside of the podium in all of her three starts that year.^[19][20][21] She continued racing in 1998 at the Kyoto Himba Stakes with the same jockey that beat her at the Tulip Sho; Olivier Peslier.^[22] Starting from the far outside gate, she took the lead and ran away with the race, entering the straight without needing to use the whip and crossing the finish line first. She won by two lengths, her first victory in two years and her third graded stakes win.^[10][22] However, she suffered a bone spur in her left foreleg after the race, which ended her career as a racehorse.^[10]

Biwa Heidi won four races in ten starts. This data is available based on JBIS and netkeiba.^[14][4]

Legend:
  Turf

At first, she was a broodmare at the Hayata Farm. However, due to Hayata Farm declaring bankruptcy, as well as her owner's death, all of the horses Nakajima owned including Biwa Heidi were moved into Northern Farm, coordinated by Katsumi Yoshida.^[10][23]

• Biwa Heidi was an inbred by 4 x 5 to Princequillo (Somethingroyal's sire) and 4 x 5 to Turn-to (Hail to Reason's sire).^[38]