Rice Shower

Rice Shower (Japanese: ライスシャワー, Hepburn: Raisu Shawā; March 5, 1989 − June 4, 1995) was a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse and stallion who won multiple graded stake races including the 1992 Kikuka-shō and the 1993 and 1995 Tennō Shō (Spring). Rice Shower is known for preventing Mihono Bourbon from completing the Triple Crown in the Kikuka-shō and preventing Mejiro McQueen from achieving a third consecutive victory in the Tenno Sho (Spring), while finishing both in record time, earning him the nicknames “The Assassin from Kanto,” “The Black Assassin,” and “The Record Breaker.” Although he subsequently entered a slump, Rice Shower made a comeback by winning the Tenno Sho (Spring) a second time in 1995. However, he suffered a fracture during that year’s Takarazuka Kinen, was diagnosed with a poor prognosis, and was euthanized. That same year, he posthumously received the JRA Special Award.