Roger Barows

Roger Barows began his racing career on 18 August in a contest for previously unraced two-year-olds over 2000 metres at Niigata Racecourse and won from Point of Honor. On his only other start of the year he finished second to Admire Justa in a minor race over the same distance at Kyoto Racecourse on 14 October.[7]

Roger Barows wins the 86th Tokyo Yushun

On his three-year-old debut Roger Barows ran in the Fukujuso Tokubetsu over 2000 metres at Kyoto and won from Hagino Upload and four others.[7] He was then stepped up in class for the Grade 2 Spring Stakes (a major trial race for the Satsuki Sho) at Nakayama Racecourse in which he started the 4.1/1 second favourite. Ridden by Yuga Kawada he came home seventh of the sixteen runners, beaten three lengths by the winner Emeral Flight.[8] Suguru Hamanaka took the mount when the colt started second favourite for the Kyoto Shimbun Hai over 2200 metres on 4 May. He took the lead from the start and maintained his advantage until the final strides when he was overtaken and beaten a neck by the 34/1 outsider Red Genial.[9]

On 26 May, with Hamanaka again in the saddle, Roger Barows was made a 92/1 outsider for the 86th running of the Tokyo Yushun over 2400 metres on firm ground at Tokyo Racecourse. His stablemate Saturnalia started odds-on favourite while the other sixteen runners his old rivals included Admire Justa, Emeral Flight and Red Genial as well as Velox (runner-up in the Satsuki Sho), Danon Kingly, Lion Lion (Aoba Sho), Courageux Guerrier (Kyoto Nisai Stakes) Meisho Tengen (Yayoi Sho) and Nishino Daisy (Tokyo Sports Hai Nisai Stakes). In front of a 110,000 crowd Lion Lion started quickly and set a very fast pace, opening up a clear lead from Roger Barows who was in turn clear of the rest for most of the way. When Lion Lion faltered in the straight, Roger Barows went to the front just inside the last 400 metres and held off the persistent challenge of Danon Kingly to win by a neck with two and a half lengths back to Velox in third place.[10] The winning time of 2:22.6 was a new record for the race.[11] Hamanaka commented "The colt is a stayer with much stamina so he held on strongly even after the uphill climb and ran persistently all the way to the end."[10] He went on to pay tribute to his late grandfather who had introduced him to the sport saying "Without him, I would not have liked horse racing or become a jockey.I could not show him my victory in the Derby, but I did make his dream come true today."[12]

On 6 August Katsuhiko Sumii announced that Roger Barows had been retired from racing after the colt was found to be suffering from a bowed tendon.[13]

In January 2020, at the JRA Awards for 2019, Roger Barows finished fourth in the poll to determine the Best Three-Year-Old Colt.[14]