Excitement is bubbling at Tokyo Racecourse as it prepares for an intense battle on Japan Cup day.The featured race will see fifteen horses, including two international raiders and one from the local-government-sponsored NAR racing, taking on Japan's best.
This race is likely to be the last Japan Cup of the Heisei Era.
Although no international raider has been able to best the Japanese entires at their own game on their own 'turf'. Hope remains high for the two grays who have decided to take on the challenge.
The first raider is the Aidan O’Brien-trained Capri. This 4YO Galileo colt has already captured the Irish Derby and the St. Leger last year and ran fifth in the Prix de l’Arc Triomphe this year.
The second international horse, Thundering Blue, is American bred and British trained. The 5YO gelding by Exchange Rate is trained by the David Menuisier. He is coming off a second in the Gr.1 Canadian International Stakes at Woodbine.
The 2018 home team, as usual, boasts many of Japan’s best equine athletes, including this year’s filly triple crown champion and expected race favorite Almond Eye. Seven other Grade 1 winners have been nominated among them, last year’s Japan Cup winner Cheval Grand, Osaka Hai champ Suave Richard, Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) victor Kiseki, Kikuka Sho and Arima Kinen (Grand Prix) winner Satono Diamond and Hong Kong Vase and Takarazuka Kinen winner Satono Crown.
Here are the best of the best from the field:
Almond Eye: Sprint champion Lord Kanaloa has been missed, but his daughter Almond Eye has made her own name and extended her winning streak to five with victory in the Shuka Sho on Oct. 14. Her conquest of this year’s filly triple crown – the Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas), Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks), and Shuka Sho and over ¥490 million earned in 2018 alone, have put her name at the top already.
Satono Diamond: The Deep Impact-sired 5-year-old Satono Diamond may well present the biggest threat to Almond Eye. Satono Diamond ran third behind Dee Majesty and Makahiki in the Satsuki Sho amid typhoon-like winds, then missed the Japanese Derby by only a nose despite losing a shoe. The winds of fortune then turned his way, enabling him to pick up the Kikuka Sho and the Arima Kinen in 2016.
Suave Richard: In his last start, the Tenno Sho (Autumn), Suave Richard went to the gate as the favorite but luck was not on his side as Makahiki lunged directly into him just after the doors opened. Being hit by half a ton surely factored in Suave Richard’s 10th-place finish a full 1.5 seconds off the winner, as did getting hit coming into the stretch. Still, his less-than-sharp responses in the stretch may have had more to do with not having raced in 4 1/2 months.
Cheval Grand: Last year’s Japan Cup winner is back and looking to become only the second horse in the race’s history after Gentildonna in 2013 to mark back-to-back wins. Thus far, the pattern going in to the race is much as it was last year.
Kiseki: Kiseki, winner of the 2017 Kikuka Sho, had never missed the board in his seven starts leading up to that race, his first Grade 1 bid. He did miss it in his next three starts – a ninth in the Hong Kong Vase at yearend, and this year a ninth and an eighth in the Grade 2 Nikkei Sho and Grade 1 Takarazuka Kinen, respectively. After taking the summer off, the Rulership-sired dark bay returned looking refreshed, but with a 10kg weight gain.
Foreign raider Capri is also well worth consideration in this year’s field, as he will be running under 2.5 kg less than he did in the Arc. Ryan Moore, who rode him for his fourth in the Champion Stakes last out at Ascot, is expected to be in the saddle.
1st Cheval Grand (Y. Tomomichi,H. Bowman), 2nd Rey de Oro (K. Fujisawa,C. Lemaire), 3rd Kitasan Black (H. Shimizu,Y. Take), 4th Makahiki (Y. Tomomichi,H. Uchida), 5th Our Idaho (A. O'Brien,R. Moore), 6th Rainbow Line (H. Asami,Y. Iwata), 7th Soul Stirring (K. Fujisawa,C. Demuro), 8th Yamakatsu Ace (K. Ikezoe,K. Ikezoe), 9th Guignol (J. Carvalho,F. Minarik), 10th Satono Crown (N. Hori,M. Demuro)
1. Almond Eye (S. Kunieda,C. Lemaire), 2. Happy Grin (J. Tanaka,T. Hattori), 3. Satono Diamond (Y. Ikee,J. Moreira), 4. Satono Crown (N. Hori,W. Buick), 5. Mikki Swallow (T. Kikuzawa,N. Yokoyama), 6. Thundering Blue (D. Menuisier,F. Berry), 7. Sounds of Earth (K. Fujioka,H. Tanabe), 8. Kiseki (K. Nakatake,Y. Kawada), 9. Cheval Grand (Y. Tomomichi,C. Demuro), 10. Ganko (S. Matsumoto,M. Ebina), 11. Suave Richard (Y. Shono,M. Demuro), 12. Capri (A. O'Brien,R. Moore), 13. Noble Mars (H. Miyamoto,R. Takakura), 14. Win Tenderness (H. Sugiyama,H. Uchida)
Distance: 2400 meters,(About 12 furlongs / 1 1⁄2 miles), Surface Turf, Track: Left-handed,Qualification 3-y-o & Up, Thoroughbreds (safety factor: 18 horses; up to ten foreign-trained starters are allowed in the race), Weight: 3-y-o 55 kg \ 4-y-o & up 57kg,Allowances,2 kg for fillies and mares,2 kg for S. Hemisphere 3-y-o,Purse: ¥ 624,000,000 (as of 2015),1st: ¥ 300,000,000, Bonuses: Additional money awarded if winner won in qualified international races (see below) plus ¥3,500,000 to the winning owner
Credit: Japan Racing Association