Kojima Futoshi

Kojima Futoshi was born as the second son of Takejiro in Hokkaido. He was single-minded and naive. He had many chance to get on horses because his father was a horseseller for agriculture. He dreamt of becoming a Derby jockey in his childhood. His favorite magazine was "Yushun ", a horse-racing magazine.

After he graduated from junior high school, he entered a jockey school and became Takagi Ryouzo's pupil. Takagi was a horse trainer and was like the second father for Futoshi. In the Takagi stable, Futoshi got acquainted through his father's introduction with Zen Enshoku who owned only one horse and who was president of Sakura commerce. Zen would be the person to support Futoshi's jockey life and be like third father to him.

He made his debut as a jockey in 1966. In his first race, he came in 10th, riding Omotaka at the Tokyo Race Track. In 1975 he married Kiyomi who was a daughter of Kagami Shotaro, a horse trainer. Kagami could make a good relationship with Zen Enshoku through the marriage. The fundation of the Sakura series of horses was made by Futoshi's mediation. Zen was the horse owner, Kagami was the horse trainer, and Futoshi was the jockey.

1986 was the first good year of the Sakura horses since Kojima won the Emperor's Cup(spring) on the Sakura Yutakao. After that he won a lot of "Grade 1" races, riding Sakura Chiyonoo, Sakura Hokutoo, Sakura Chitoseo, etc. He marked 1000 wins totally around the time of death of both his father and Zen Enshoku.

In 1997 he became a horse trainer as the successor of Kagami. He had an eye on the Emperor's Cup(spring) by Sakura Laurel, but the horse came in the 2nd to Mayano Top Gun. Now he devotes himself to managing his stable under support of Zen Shouretsu, the son of Zen Enshoku.

References: "Choukyousi monogatari" written by Koji Kimura, 1997.

Reported by: Katsunori Okui
Data verified by: Hideki Ueda
Date of Report: January 19, 1998

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