2006 & 2007: early career As a juvenile, Screen Hero ran twice on the dirt in
maiden races, finishing fourth over 1600 metres at
Tokyo Racecourse and second over 1800 metres at
Nakayama Racecourse. Screen Hero raced eleven times and won two races as a three-year-old in 2007. On his seasonal debut he recorded his first victory when he won a maiden over 1800 metres on dirt at Nakayama in January, beating Berg Missile and fourteen others. In February he finished third at Tokyo and then won a minor race over 1600 metres at Nakayama. In March he was switched to turf and moved up in class for the
Grade II Fuji TV Spring Stakes and finished fifth behind Flying Apple before competing on dirt for the last time and finishing second over 1800 metres at Nakyama. After being beaten in two races on turf at Tokyo he was moved back into Grade III class for the Radio Nikkei Sho at
Fukushima Racecourse on 1 July and produced his best effort to date as he finished second of the sixteen runners behind the New Zealand-bred Roc de Cambes. In his two remaining races of 2007 he ran unplaced in the Grade III Niigata Kinen and finished third to Roc de Cambes in the Grade II St Lite Kinen over 2200 metres at Nakayama on 16 September. , who trained Screen Hero to win the Japan Cup On 30 November Screen Hero contested the 28th running of the Japan Cup in front of a 102,567 crowd at Tokyo and started a 40/1 outsider in a seventeen-runner field. Before the race Shikato commented "He's getting better with each race. He knows how to race, so I'm not particularly concerned about the draw. We're challengers here". The
Tokyo Yushun winner
Deep Sky started favourite ahead of the outstanding racemare
Vodka. The overseas challenge was provided by the three British runners Papal Bull (
King Edward VII Stakes,
Princess of Wales's Stakes),
Sixties Icon (
St Leger) and Purple Moon (
Ebor Handicap, runner-up in the
Melbourne Cup). The other Japanese runners included
Meisho Samson (
Satsuki Sho, Tokyo Yushun, Tenno Sho),
Oken Bruce Lee (
Kikuka Sho), Asakusa Kings (Kikuka Sho) and
Matsurida Gogh (
Arima Kinen). Ridden by the Italian jockey
Mirco Demuro Screen Hero tracked the leaders as the outsider Never Bouchon set a slow pace. Matsurida Gogh took the lead in the straight but Screen Hero produced a powerful late run to take the lead 150 metres from the post. In a blanket finish he won by half a length, three quarters of a length, a head and a neck from Deep Sky, Vodka, Matsurida Gogh and Oken Bruce Lee. After the race Demuro said "We had decided to mark Matsurida Gogh as he always gets a nice position. The only thing I had been concerned about was the start, but he broke well and the slow pace meant we could move in and get a good position easily... he is a very competitive horse. When he lines up with other horses, he really battles to stay ahead of them". Shikato commented "My heart was just pounding until he was over the finish line... With each race he seemed to rise to meet the level of his opponents". On his final appearance of the season at Nakayama on 28 December, Screen Hero finished fifth behind the four-year-old filly
Daiwa Scarlet in the Arima Kinen. In January 2009, Screen Hero was voted
Champion Japanese older male horse at the
JRA Awards, taking 167 of 300 votes.
2009: five-year-old season Screen Hero remained in training as a five-year-old but failed to win in five races. In the spring he ran fourth behind Asakusa Kings in the
Hanshin Daishoten and then finished down the field behind Meiner Kitz in the 3200 metres
Tenno Sho. In the
Takarazuka Kinen he started a 20/1 outsider and finished fifth, three lengths behind the winner
Dream Journey. After a break of over four months he returned in November for the autumn edition of the Tenno Sho for which he started at odds of 30/1 in an eighteen-runner field. Ridden by Hiroshi Kitamura he produced his best effort of the season as he finished second to the eight-year-old
Company with Vodka in third and Oken Bruce Lee, Dream Journey, Matsurida Gogh and Asakusa Kings among the unplaced horses. On his final run of the year, he attempted to repeat his 2008 success in the Japan Cup but finished thirteenth of the eighteen runners behind Vodka. In December it was reported that Screen Hero had sustained a serious leg injury, described as a "bowed tendon" and would not race for at least nine months. In fact he never raced again and was retired to stud in 2010. ==Racing form==