Japanese jockey Katsuharu Tanaka ended a 15-year barren streak by easing to victory in the Satsuki-sho on Sunday.

Aboard the aptly named Victory, Tanaka won the first jewel in Japan's 2007 triple crown by a nose at Nakayama Racecourse, holding off Sun Zeppelin at the 2,000-metre turf track in Chiba Prefecture.

"It's been so long, I don't even know what it feels like to be in a win-or-lose situation," the 36-year-old Tanaka told the Daily Yomiuri. "But I have to say, it feels pretty good."

His last top-flight victory came on Yamanin Zephyr at the 1992 Yasuda Kinen