January 28 - This week the Japan Racing Association named 5-year-old mare Vodka the 2009 Japanese Horse of the Year, a huge honour considering she also won the title in 2008. She received at least 246 of the total 287 votes cast by the Horse of the Year Selection Committee.

The Horse of the Year Selection Committee consists of journalists from many of Japan's best known daily newspapers and magazines. It also named Vodka Best Older Filly or Mare. Owned by Yuzo Tanimizu and trained by Katsuhiko Sumii, Vodka is something of an institution in Japan.

Foaled in April 2004, Vodka has proved victorious in many of the country's biggest races including the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in 2006, the Tokyo Yūshun in 2007, the Yasuda Kinen in 2008 and 2009, the Tenno Sho in 2008, the Victoria Mile in 2009 and the coveted Japan Cup in 2009.

In 2006 Vodka was named Japanese Champion Two Year old Filly. During her long and illustrious career, Vodka has notched up an impressive seven Gr 1 wins, the most for any female thoroughbred in Japanese horseracing history, as well as over 793,578,000 JPY ($8.8 million) in earnings.

Vodka is expected to travel to Dubai in March to run in the 2010 Dubai World Cup before she is retired to become a broodmare. But this year's Japan Racing Association Awards also yielded some other deserving winners, such as Company, who earned the Special Award this year.

The Special Award is only given out in years where runners have shown excellence over and beyond the scope of the Japan Racing Association Awards' existing categories. And Company picked up this year's Special Award for winning not one but two Gr 1 races as an eight-year-old.

Here are the full 2009 Japan Racing Association Awards winners:

Horse of the Year - Vodka
Two-year-old colt - Seiun Wonder
Two-year-old filly - Buena Vista
Three-year-old colt - Deep Sky
Three-year-old filly - Little Amapola
Older horse - Screen Hero
Older filly or mare - Vodka
Sprinter or Miler - Sleepless Night
Dirt Horse - Kane Hekili
Steeplechase - King Joy
Special Award - Company
Trainer (races won and training technique) - Yasutoshi Ikee
Trainer (winning average) - Hideaki Fujiwara
Trainer (money earned) - Katsuhiko Sumii
Jockey (races won and winning average) - Yutaka Take
Jockey (money earned) - Yasunari Iwata
Steeplechase jockey - Makoto Nishitani
Newcomer jockey - Kosei Miura