Special Week

Special Week (Japanese: スペシャルウィーク, Hepburn: Supesharu Wīku; 2 May 1995 – 27 April 2018) was a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. From 1997 to 1999, he won ten of his seventeen races including four at Grade I level. After winning his only start as a juvenile he emerged as a top-class performer in the following season: he won the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) and three other graded races as well as being placed in the Satsuki Sho, Kikuka Sho and the Japan Cup. He performed even better as a four-year-old in 1999, winning the Hanshin Daishoten, the spring and autumn editions of the Tenno Sho, and the Japan Cup. In the last-named race he defeated a strong international field including the winners of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and The Derby. He later became a successful breeding stallion, siring the Japanese Horse of the Year Buena Vista.