Lemon Pop receives Best Dirt Horse Award for second successive year

Lemon Pop’s outstanding career received further recognition at the 2024 JRA Awards on Tuesday, 7 January, with the multiple G1 winner receiving the Best Dirt Horse Award for a second time.

A recent addition to the Darley Japan roster, Lemon Pop picked up the prize in 2023 after becoming only the fourth horse to win both JRA G1 races, the February Stakes and Champions Cup.

The son of Lemon Drop Kid continued his dominance of dirt racing in Japan this year, winning the G1 Sakitama Hai and G1 Mile Championship Nambu Hai on the NAR circuit.

Trained by Hiroyasu Tanaka, Lemon Pop signed off with a successful defence of his G1 Champions Cup title at the start of December. He was honoured with a retirement ceremony following his final victory, in acknowledgement of a career that yielded 13 wins from 18 starts.

Harry Sweeney, President of Godolphin in Japan, said: “We are thrilled that Lemon Pop has again been crowned Champion Dirt Horse. Indeed, it is a fitting end to a most exceptional racing career.

“He has been the most consistent dirt horse ever in the history of Japanese racing. His last six races in Japan, spanning 2023 and 2024, have all been G1 races and he won each and every one. What a horse!

“He is now about to start his next career as a Darley stallion and his fee has been set at Yen 5,000,000, the highest ever fee for a dirt horse starting stud duties in Japan. He is proving extremely popular and we received 175 applications within a few hours of announcing his fee. We are really looking forward to his first foals.”