Pixie Knight

Pixie Knight (Japanese: ピクシーナイト, foaled 14 May 2018) is a Japanese

He was from the first crop of foals sired by Maurice, a six-time Grade 1 winner who was named Japanese Horse of the Year for 2015.^[2] Pixie Knight's dam Pixie Hollow showed modest racing ability, winning three races from fourteen attempts.^[3] She was descended from the American broodmare Some Pomp, making her a distant relative of the Kentucky Derby winner Lucky Debonair.^[4]

Pixie Knight made his racecourse debut in a contest for previously unraced two-year-olds over 1400 metres on

On 19 January 2021 Pixie Knight was stepped up in class to begin his second campaign in the Grade 3

After a summer break Pixie Knight returned to the track in the Grade 2 Centaur Stakes over 1200 metres at Chukyo on 12 September when he went off the 3.6/1 second favourite behind the four-year-old filly Resistencia. He settled in sixth place before switching to the outside and making sustained progress in the straight to take second place behind Resistencia, beaten a neck by the favourite.^[10] On 3 October at Nakayama Racecourse Pixie Knight contested the 55th edition of the Grade 1 Sprinters Stakes and went off at odds of 4.3/1 in a sixteen-runner field. Danon Smash started favourite ahead of Resistencia while the other contenders included First Force, Mozu Superflare (Takamatsunomiya Kinen), Gendarme (Daily Hai Nisai Stakes), Meikei Yell (Tulip Sho), Bien Fait (Hakodate Sprint Stakes), Shivaji (Silk Road Stakes), Taisei Vision (Keio Hai Nisai Stakes), A Will A Way (2020 Silk Road Stakes) and Eighteen Girl (Keeneland Cup). After racing in third place behind Mozu Superflare and Bien Fait made a forward move entering the straight, overtook Mozu Superflare 150 metres from the finish and went clear in the closing stages to win by two lengths from Resistencia. After the race Fukunada said "We got the best position than anyone could have hoped for. From the beginning of his career, I’ve always believed in the strength and potential this colt obtains and have voiced it too, but to be honest, I never thought he would give such a strong performance and land a Grade 1 win this fast. He’s still not physically balanced yet but he will improve, mature and definitely become a target to beat in numerous future sprint races in or outside the country".^[11]

Pixie Knight went on to race at the Hong Kong Sprint held at Sha Tin Racecource, where he was involved in a four-horse spill that led to two other horses being euthanized. While Pixie Knight and his jockey Fukunaga both survived, Pixie Knight's legs suffered a fractured radiocarpal bone that took him out of racing for over a year, and Fukunaga suffering a broken collarbone.^{[12][13][14][15][16]}

Pixie Knight finally returned to the race track at the Takamatsunomiya Kinen on March 26, 2023, with Keita Tosaki as his new jockey as Fukunaga retired to become a horse trainer,^[17] but came in 13th place behind First Force.^[18] Subsequently, the horse was entered in to several more races later in the year but was unable to win in any of them, before Silk Racing announced that Pixie Knight would be retired from racing on December 27. It was also announced that the horse would stand stud at the Breeders Stallion Station [ja] in Hidaka, Hokkaido.^[19][20]