Contrail (horse)

Contrail made his racecourse debut in a contest for previously unraced juveniles over 1800 metres at Hanshin Racecourse on 15 September and won from the filly Frevo and seven others.[6] On 16 November the colt was stepped up in class for the Grade 3 Tokyo Sports Hai Nisai Stakes over 1800 metres at Tokyo Racecourse in which he was ridden by Ryan Moore and started the 1.5/1 favourite in an eight-runner field. After racing in fifth place he moved forward on the outside approaching the final turn, took the lead 400 metres from the finish and drew away to win by five lengths from Al Jannah.[7] His winning time of 1:44.5 was a new record for the race.[6]

Contrail was moved up to the highest class and started favourite for the Hopeful Stakes over 2000 metres at Nakayama Racecourse on 28 December when he was ridden by Yuichi Fukunaga. His twelve opponents included Wakea (winner of the Ivy Stakes), Weltreisende (Hagi Stakes), Authority (Fuyo Stakes) and Black Hole (Sapporo Nisai Stakes). After settling in fourth place behind the outsiders Panthalassa, Blooming Sky and Rhineback, Contrail moved up on the final turn, took the lead 200 metres from the finish and won "effortlessly" by one and a half lengths from Weltreisende.[8] After the race Fukunaga said "He was really strong. I didn’t have to do anything but just sit on him... I was confident that we could make it through to the end. He does tend to be a little keen but the training staff had conditioned him to be in a good motivated mood so it worked well in the race. He really changed his gear effortlessly but did [look] a little lost once up front... the colt really showed his potential towards his three-year-old campaign next year."[8]

In January 2020, at the JRA Awards for 2019, Contrail was named Best Two-Year-Old Colt, beating Salios by 197 votes to 77.[9] In the official Japanese rankings however, Salios was rated the best two-year-old of 2019, one pound ahead of Contrail.[10]