Meiner Fanrong (マイネルファンロン), a name as confusing as his career. The first part, “Meiner,” is German, meaning “mine,” while the latter, “Fanrong,” comes from Chinese and means “prosperity.” His fans usually call him “Faniki,” which means “Brother Fanrong.”

Loved by many for many different reasons, his story is not one that follows a clear path. Instead, it unfolds like a journey decided by chance, full of unexpected turns, and somehow impossible to look away from.

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Family is Life!!!

First, let’s talk about his family. His father was Stay Gold (ステイゴールド). In fact, he belonged to the final generation of Stay Gold’s progeny, and he was the last son of Stay Gold to win a JRA graded flat race.

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He also had a younger half-sister named Uberleben (ユーバーレーベン), born from the same mother, Meine Theresia (マイネテレジア), though she was sired by Gold Ship (ゴールドシップ), a son of Stay Gold. Yes, you're right. In a way, you could say Meiner Fanrong is also Uberleben’s uncle, even if horseracing bloodlines do not officially count it that way.

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Meiner Fanrong and Uberleben shared the same owner, Thoroughbred Club Ruffian (サラブレッドクラブ・ラフィアン), and were trained by the same trainer, Takahisa Tezuka (手塚 貴久). They even wore the same type of facemask and had the same coat color. Many people could not tell them apart at first glance, but there was one way to distinguish them: by checking the size of their nostrils.

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Meiner Fanrong is famous for his small nostrils. There is even a clip in which his groom uses a ruler to measure their size, while Faniki stands still, looking confused. His groom once said that there are very few horses with nostrils this small.

It is said that small nostrils might limit the amount of oxygen he can take in, potentially affecting his performance. But luckily, it never seemed to become a real problem for him.

He is also known for his “Dictus eye,” likely inherited from his father, which gives him a sharp, piercing gaze from his right eye.

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Fight for Glory!!

His sister Uberleben claimed her first G1 title in the 2021 Japanese Oaks, the victory also marked the first G1 win for a Gold Ship progeny. For Meiner Fanrong, however, 2021 was not a year of arrival, but the moment when his own, more uncertain journey truly began.

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After becoming an open-class horse by winning the Wangan Stakes in 2019, Meiner Fanrong became a bluebird of happiness that helped his trainer climb back from a difficult period with this victory. Since then, however, he himself has faced a long dry spell, going more than two years without a single victory.

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After narrowly missing victory in an open-class race in the summer of 2021, only to suffer a disastrous performance in his next start, his trainer decided to take another gamble and entered him in the G3 Niigata Kinen. This time, his partner was Mirco Demuro, the same foreign jockey who had guided his sister to her first G1 victory.

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This was his first time partnering with jockey Demuro. For many jockeys, Meiner Fanrong had never been an easy horse to control, but for a rider with magic in his hands, that might finally change.

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Then he broke out from the gate late.

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As a front-runner breaking from the outermost gate and sent off as the 12th favorite, this mistake seemed to extinguish any realistic chance of victory. Yet in this particular race, there was still a slim glimmer of hope.

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Niigata Racecourse, where the race was held, has the longest final straight in Japan, a major advantage for late-surgers. With that in mind, jockey Demuro chose to ride Faniki as a late-surging horse, hoping that the golden genes in his blood would finally awaken and deliver a burst of acceleration in the closing stages of the race.

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And it really worked, miraculously. Entering the final straight, Meiner Fanrong swung to the outer part of the course and began his chase. With the other horses almost running in a single line, he found a gap with ease, burst through it, and snatched victory in the very last stride.

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Because of his connection to Fanrong’s sister, jockey Demuro was asked by reporters about the similarities between Meiner Fanrong and Uberleben. Surprisingly, despite their similar appearance, Demuro did not realize that Fanrong was Uberleben’s brother until that moment. But it was understandable, as their temperaments are very different. Uberleben is always calm and gentle, while Meiner Fanrong tends to be sharp and energetic.

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Finding a New Way!

After that win, Meiner Fanrong failed to impress in his following autumn start. When 2022 arrived and he had become a seven-year-old veteran, he came close to another victory in the G2 American Jockey Club Cup. With everything seemingly falling into place, fans began speculating about which middle-distance race he might target next. Instead, his trainer made a bold announcement: Meiner Fanrong would be entered in the G1 Tenno Sho Spring.

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...? Tenno Sho Spring? A 3,200-meter G1? Meiner Fanrong had never run beyond middle distances before. It was a leap of 1,000 meters into completely uncharted territory.

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With fans confused and Faniki himself seemingly unaware of what awaited him, he stepped onto the turf of Kyoto Racecourse. And guess what? Despite a highly competitive field that included Titleholder (タイトルホルダー) and Deep Bond (ディープボンド), along with the chaos caused by Silver Sonic (シルヴァーソニック) throwing off his jockey and running freely, Meiner Fanrong still managed to finish sixth. It was a remarkably impressive result for a horse making his first attempt at a long-distance G1.

And honestly, you have to wonder if he even realized that he had just finished a long-distance race.

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After his venture into long-distance racing, Meiner Fanrong’s trainer decided to let him take on another G1, this time at a middle distance: the Takarazuka Kinen. And he actually performed quite well, finishing fifth despite the relentless pace set by Titleholder.

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After the race, his jockey remarked that there was still more potential waiting to be unlocked. As a result, more and more fans began to believe that Meiner Fanrong could still capture a G1 title despite his age, just like his father, Stay Gold.

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Finally Some Rest...

It is also important for a racehorse to have adequate rest. So before his next adventure, Meiner Fanrong was given a summer break, during which he could completely let himself go, rolling on the grass, groaning contentedly in his pasture, and poking his head under the fence to nibble on fresh grass. From time to time, someone would show up with a video camera to capture his laid-back moments, and farm staff would even bring children along to visit him. His fanbase had been growing rapidly ever since those clips of cuteness and hope were shared online.

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After his comfortable summer break, his next start came in the G2 Kyoto Daishoten. To be honest, even his trainer was unsure whether Faniki could bring out his best after such a relaxing vacation. As it turned out, he finished last in that race.

Afterward, he slipped into another slump, running in three graded races without managing a single victory. At the time, he was 8 years old after being 7 years old last year, and his next race was the G3 Naruo Kinen.

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At first, no one knew who would partner Faniki as his jockey, not even Faniki himself. It was not until the very last moment that his trainer announced the name: the rising star of Japanese racing, Ryusei Sakai (坂井 瑠星).

The pairing of the nova and the always confused horse was so interesting that, for an instant, his odds seemed to drop to 1.0, while everyone else’s shot felt like 999.9.

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“I... I know nothing about these numbers!”

—Meiner Fanrong, still confused, probably.

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And then he finished 11th, while being the 11th favorite horse at last.

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Flying on the Turf?

After the Naruo Kinen, considering his age and recent results, his trainer made a difficult decision…

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To enter him into the steeplechase division.

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???

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In fact, the Stay Gold clan had been performing well in steeplechasing in recent years, and the Meiner family also had several horses that succeeded in jump races, such as Meiner Neos (マイネルネオス) and Meiner Grand (マイネルグロン). From that perspective, it might not have been such an unreasonable choice for his trainer to send him into the steeplechase division...?

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And so, he began his training for jump racing, perhaps still unaware that his journey had taken yet another unexpected turn. His jump racing debut came in the opening race at Niigata Racecourse. Thanks to him, the racecourse was already crowded moments after the gates opened. Still seemingly surprised that he was jumping over barriers during the race, he finished in eighth place.

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In his next steeplechase race, perhaps finally realizing that something was not quite right, he accidentally stumbled and fell to the ground. Although he quickly got back on his feet and immediately ran toward his groom, the situation remained dangerous. While he was still down, he was nearly stepped on by another horse, Tsukasa (ツカサ). Thanks to the quick reactions of jockey Genki Mizunuma (水沼 元輝) and the awareness of Tsukasa, a tragedy was avoided.

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Although Faniki suffered only a minor scrape on his knee, his trainer still decided to send him back to flat racing and entered him in several graded races. Unfortunately, the performances never quite lived up to expectations.

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Finding a New Home??

As time moved into the autumn of 2024, with Faniki now nine years old, a new rumor began to spread among his fanbase:

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Meiner Fanrong was going to Thailand?

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???

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But for Faniki, who always seemed to decide his next race by rolling a pair of dice, maybe it was not impossible after all...?

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Thankfully, it turned out to be just a misunderstanding. He was simply set to enter a race called the “Thailand Cup,” held at Sapporo Racecourse, a race that did not even exist until that year. He finished 13th, and that race ultimately became his final start, marking an unexpected and oddly hilarious ending to his racing career.

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Fanfare Again???

After his retirement was announced, almost every fan began guessing where he would go next. Perhaps Faniki himself was wondering the same thing. In the end, his owner decided to have him become a lead horse, working for Japan Racing Association.

And his workplace? Niigata Racecourse. The very place where he claimed the only graded victory of his career.

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This was great news for Faniki’s fans, as they could now see their star whenever he was on duty. But for Faniki himself, well, it wasn’t quite that simple. Becoming a lead horse also meant that he had to be gelded.

For a while after the surgery, he seemed completely unaware that something was missing. Just hope that he never fully realized this rather cruel truth.

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It took him almost a year to make his debut as a lead horse. During that time, his fans and even his former trainer worried about whether he would be able to pass the tests successfully. In the end, however, the delay turned out to have another reason.

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No one can expected that he was not only leading young horses, but also playing a part in guiding human newcomers into the world of horseracing.

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In October 2025, a horse-racing drama titled The Royal Family (ザ・ロイヤルファミリー) began airing in Japan. In its first episode, a rival horse ridden by the legendary jockey Yutaka Take (武 豊), Wing Doyle (ウイングドイル), stood out with unusually small nostrils, frizzy hair and an energetic performance. And in the credits, the name of our perpetually confused protagonist appeared.

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Congratulations, Faniki. You’ve become an actor!

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?????

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Meiner Fanrong — his confusing life still goes on. But perhaps this kind of unpredictable life is what makes it so fun, isn’t it?

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My past work:

Oguri Roman: A Silver Bloom in the Shadow

Sakura Star O: Spirit of the Ink-Black Cherry Blossom

Spring Song: Curren Chan's "Big Bro" In Real Life

Kiseki: A Trail of Miracles and Its Followers

Hana’s Goal: Make the Flowers of Happiness Bloom Down Under

Orewa Matteruze: Smile, Because I’m Here!

Egao o Misete: Please Keep Smiling, Even After I’m Gone

Resistencia’s Weight-Check Series: 1,231 Days of a Cameraman’s Love Story

Sushi Train: Horse with a Bizarre Name and a Big Dream

Offside Trap: The Winner on the Glorious but Silent Sunday

Hokuto Vega: Stardust Scattered in a Foreign Land

Narita Hayabusa: A Sand Falcon Born in the Wrong Era