Old Big ‘Ead was the self-designated nickname of the late Brian Clough, one of the most iconic figures in English football: a gifted goal scorer-turned legendary manager, he is renowned to this day for master-minding back-to-back European Cup wins with Nottingham Forest. Clough did things his way, on his terms, backed by a mighty ego that was about as fragile as a steel bar.
Horse racing’s own Old Big Head (the ‘H’ was dropped in Clough’s brand of north country speech) raced for the final time at Meydan last Saturday, and, just like Clough, his colourful approach to the pursuit of winning will be missed as he heads off to retirement as Japan’s all-time highest money earner. Ushba Tesoro is a horse that does things his way, on his terms, and, according to those that know him best, it’s all because of his big old ego.
Back in November in the run up to the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, his regular rider at the time, Yuga Kawada, told Idol Horse with a knowing laugh, “He makes everything trouble,” and added with warmth, “My job is to persuade him to do his job.”
You could see it in the way Ushba Tesoro raced. Never more so than two years ago when he gate-crashed the Dubai World Cup late in the piece for an international break-out win that pegged him as a world stage character with an avid cult following.
That win in March 2023 was not only peak Ushba Tesoro, but also typical in its execution: slow to start; making his jockey work from the off; the deceptive drop-off to race last, detached from the main group by a length or three; the mind-shift for steady progress down the backstretch; the move into clear ground in the straight; that self-confident stride, the power brimming; and then the strong momentum, quickening, closing, devouring the leader’s advantage and passing with an air of confident ease.
That last part had been lacking in the last year as he aged past his athletic pinnacle, but the pattern was the same: Ushba Tesoro still did it his way, just as he had when he arrived at trainer Noboru Takagi’s Miho stable in preparation for his first race, an 1800m Newcomer contest on the turf at Niigata in August 2019.
“When he was young, his ego was very strong,” Takagi told Idol Horse at Meydan. “With our training, and as he got older, he became a little bit easier to handle, but he is still a handful. He is still a horse with ego.”
That’s hardly surprising, he has some headstrong genes. Ushba Tesoro’s sire is one of the most madcap champions of all time, Orfevre, infamous for powering through to lead in the final stages of the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, only to throw the race away.
Ushba Tesoro’s career shaped much like his own run pattern. Purchased by owner Kenji Ryotokuji out of the JRA Select Foal Sale in 2017 for ¥25 million (approximately US$224,000), it took him seven races before he broke his maiden and that came in April 2020, as a three-year-old over 2400m at Tokyo. He boxed along for two seasons, making a steady living as a turf runner with three wins from 22 starts.
Then came the switch to a dirt track and an incredible shift of gears. It was April 2022, a victory in the Yokohama Stakes over 2100m at Tokyo: he went on to win eight from 10 on the surface between that first attempt and his second consecutive win in the storied G1 Tokyo Daishoten in December 2023.
His record includes not only his Dubai World Cup triumph but also second-place in the 2024 Meydan feature, as well as second and third in the 2024 and 2025 runnings of the world’s richest race, the G1 Saudi Cup, fifth in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic in the United States, and wins in the JPN1 Kawasaki Kinen and the JPN2 Nippon TV Hai.
| JAPAN’S TOP PRIZEMONEY EARNERS | |
| As of April 2025 | |
| 1. USHBA TESORO | ¥2,566,765,780 |
| 2. FOREVER YOUNG | ¥2,381,930,600 |
| 3. EQUINOX | ¥2,215,446,100 |
| 4. ALMOND EYE | ¥1,915,263,900 |
| 5. KITASAN BLACK | ¥1,876,843,000 |
| 6. PANTHALASSA | ¥1,844,663,200 |
| 7. T.M. OPERA O | ¥1,835,189,000 |
| 8. DO DEUCE | ¥1,775,875,800 |
| 9. GENTILDONNA | ¥1,726,030,400 |
| 10. ORFEVRE | ¥1,576,213,000 |
Before Ushba Tesoro, Takagi’s only top-class horse was the 2014 G1 Sprinters Stakes winner Snow Dragon and he has since trained the champion steeplechaser Nishino Daisy. Ushba Tesoro was on another level.
The trainer, a Tokyo native, learned to ride in his youth and picked up the basics of horsemanship at a friend’s riding club in Kanagawa. He started in the industry in the autumn of 1988 as a groom with trainer Masanori Ito. He was assistant to four other trainers before being licensed himself in 2007.
The 59-year-old handler said there were times when he felt the pressure of having such a high-profile horse, but mostly he knew everything was in the hands of Ushba Tesoro and his ego anyway.
“He couldn’t be controlled at all during the race when he was young, that’s why we taught him to hold back,” he said. “Because of the way he raced, I didn’t feel anxious watching him, but as he got older, he became more reluctant to start moving, so we put blinkers on him last year.
“When he raced in Dubai for the first time, we received the invitation quite late and we saw ourselves as the challengers, so I didn’t feel any pressure then. His owners might have had high expectations for him, but I just did my thing casually.
“Last year, in Dubai, I did feel the pressure, everybody was watching him.”
Ushba Tesoro’s owner said in January 2024 that his star would retire at the end of that year, after the Tokyo Daishoten. But a rethink took the horse on a two-race international farewell tour to Riyadh and then Dubai.
Asked if this was really the end of Ushba Tesoro’s career, Takagi was firm in his reply: “Definitely,” he said.
It was only right that Ushba Tesoro went into a deserved retirement with a farewell at the scene of his greatest triumph, a win that Takagi said “was the best feeling I’ve ever had.”
The bay bowed out with an admirable sixth this time. His legs no longer had the speed and power needed to run them down in a Dubai World Cup, but the big ego didn’t accept that giving them all a start couldn’t be done: Ushba Tesoro was still doing it his way and that’s how his fans will remember him ∎
