Sweep Tosho

Sweep Tosho (Japanese: スイープトウショウ, foaled 9 May 2001 — died December 5, 2020) is a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare. Bred and owned by Tosho Sangyo and trained throughout her racing career by Akio Tsurudome she won eight of her twenty-four races between October 2003 and November 2007 including Grade I victories in the Shuka Sho, Takarazuka Kinen and Queen Elizabeth II Cup. In 2003 Sweep Tosho won two of her three races including the Grade III Fantasy Stakes. In the following year she won the Tulip Sho and finished second in the Yushun Himba before winning the Shuka Sho. The mare reached her peak as a four-year-old in 2005 when she finished second in the Yasuda Kinen before defeating top-class male opposition in the Takarazuka Kinen and winning the Queen Elizabeth II Cup at her second attempt. She remained in training for two more years, winning the Kyoto Daishoten in 2006 and being placed in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup in 2006 and 2007. After her retirement from racing she became a broodmare and has had some success as a dam of winners. Background Sweep Tosho is a bay mare bred in Japan by her owner Tosho Sangyo Corporation. She was sired by End Sweep an American horse who won six races in the United States including the Grade III Jersey Shore Breeders' Cup Stakes in 1994 and was later imported to Japan to become a breeding stallion. His other progeny have included Admire Moon, Swept Overboard (Metropolitan Handicap) and Rhein Kraft (Oka Sho). Sweep Tosho's dam Tabatha Tosho showed modest racing ability, winning one minor race in 1997 from five starts. She was a distant, female-line descendant of the influential British broodmare Ballantrae.