#Tenno Sho Autumn

Equinox, guided by Christophe Lemaire, wins the Arima Kinen on December 25, 2022, at Nakayama Racecourse in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture. (KYODO) Equinox triumphed in two of Japan's biggest horse races in 2022, and those Grade 1 victories helped him garner a pair of prestigious accolades. The Japan Racing Association named Equinox its 2022 Horse of…

Essential Quality, shown winning the Grade I Travers, is among the favorites in a Breeders' Cup Classic field announced this week. Photo courtesy of New York Racing Association Oct. 29 (UPI) -- It's a week for looking forward as horse racing around the globe nears its annual champion-making events and youngsters get in final licks to make a case…

Cheval Grand, shown winning the 2017 Japan Cup, returns seeking a repeat victory in Sunday's renewal. Photo courtesy of Japan Racing Association Nov. 22 (UPI) -- Weekend horse racing action stretches from Tokyo to Bahrain with a stop in England and a quick look at Hong Kong's preparations for its big weekend two weeks down the calendar. The Grade 1…

Maximum Security, the colt disqualified from victory in the Kentucky Derby, returns to the winner's circle Saturday at Belmont Park. Photo courtesy of New York Racing Association Oct. 28 (UPI) -- It was a very good weekend of horse racing for Japan as Lys Gracieux landed the Group 1 Cox Plate in Australia and Almond Eye returned to her dominant…

Almond Eye, shown winning the 2018 Japan Cup, is the favorite for Sunday's Grade 1 Tenno Sho (Autumn). Photo courtesy of Japan Racing Association Oct. 30 (UPI) -- American horse racing is virtually on pause a week out from the Breeders' Cup World Championships, but plenty of action exists around the globe with Almond Eye returning in Japan,…

Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Trainer Bob Baffert celebrated Christmas a day late with five winners on Santa Anita's Opening Day program Monday, likely boosting one of those horses to an Eclipse Award and perhaps setting up another for a repeat raid on the rich races in the Middle East. It was a star-studded day in front of a big crowd at Santa Anita, as Juan…

Equinox and Christophe Lemaire run away with the 2022 Arima Kinen Tenno Sho Autumn winner Equinox made it a second Group 1 success with a dominant victory in the Arima Kinen at Nakayama on Christmas Day. A son of Kitsan Black out of the winning King Halo mare Chateau Blanche, the Tetsuya Kimura-trained three-year-old was posting his fourth career…

Ghaiyyath has been named the world's best racehorse at the Longines World Racing Awards after a stellar 2020 campaign which saw him win three Group 1s and achieve an official rating of 130. Owned by Godolphin, the son of Dubawi was a dominant winner of the Coronation Cup in June before getting the better of Enable in a pulsating clash in the…

Efforia and Takeshi Yokoyama (green cap) dig deep to win the Arima Kinen at Nakayama Efforia justified his number-one vote in the Grade 1 Arima Kinen at Nakayama on Sunday, prevailing by three-quarters of a length over Deep Bond to bag the colossal first prize of more than £2 million. The Arima Kinen was designed to be a season-end grand prix, in…

They came to bow down to the old king and left saluting a powerful new prince of Hong Kong racing as Romantic Warrior left a high-class global field trailing in his wake at Sha Tin on Sunday with a thunderous performance in the HK$34 million Group 1 Hong Kong Cup (2000m). Hong Kong racing's biggest crowd since the corresponding day in 2019 gave…

Romantic Warrior triumphant in the Hong Kong Cup (HKJC) By Graham Cunningham They came to bow down to the old king and left saluting a powerful new prince of Hong Kong racing as Romantic Warrior left a high-class global field trailing in his wake at Sha Tin this afternoon (Sunday, 11 December) with a thunderous performance in the HK$34 million G1…

It was an amazing finish to an extraordinary career. A storybook finish, a finish that seemed predestined to happen as the year marched on. And when the favorite Almond Eye, guided with supreme confidence by the brilliant Gallic equine conductor Christophe Lemaire, stormed past a field of 14 other horses in the 40th Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on…

Almond Eye, ridden by French jockey Christophe Lemaire, established a Japan Racing Association record with an eighth Grade I victory on Sunday, November 1. The 5-year-old mare, who has 10 wins in 14 career races, captured the Tenno Sho (Autumn) crown for the second straight year, doing so in electrifying fashion at Tokyo Racecourse. The fifth…

Flightline wins his third straight race in style in Sunday's Grade 1 Malibu at Santa Anita. Benoit photo, courtesy of Santa Anita Dec. 27 (UPI) -- Epicenter entered the Kentucky Derby picture with a handy win Sunday at Fair Grounds while a sparkling Opening Day program at Santa Anita featured a dazzling performance by budding superstar…

The Yokoyama family's success in high-profile races was also in the spotlight just a few months ago. At last year's Tenno Sho (Autumn), Takeshi Yokoyama, Kazuo's younger brother, won the October 31 race by a length over Contrail at Tokyo Racecourse. Bursting out of the 16 gate aboard second favorite 4-year-old bay colt Titleholder, Yokoyama led…

Rich Strike, seen posing the morning after his Kentucky Derby win, returns in Saturday's Grade I Clark Stakes with a chance to stake a claim for year-end honors. Photo courtesy of Churchill Downs Nov. 25 (UPI) -- It's getting to be crunch time for horses who seek year-end honors, and this weekend's Clark Stakes at Churchill Downs provides one of…

There are a few names familiar to American racegoers that are heading to Hong Kong for the international raceday next month. Most are from Ireland. The foreign challenge for the four rich turf races includes a quartet from Aidan O'Brien's Ballydoyle team, all of whom have run in the United States. Heading O'Brien's team is the shock 2020 Breeders'…

Gruner Green (Jpn), by Japanese champion and G1 Tenno Sho (Autumn)/G1 Takarazuka Kinen victor Lovely Day (Jpn), turned in a pillar-to-post effort to win the G3 Radio Nikkei Hai Kyoto Nisai S. by a head at Hanshin on Saturday. He is his sire's first stakes winner from three crops to race. Fifth choice on the board at 13-1, the Ikuo Aizawa trainee…

The Japan Cup takes centre stage internationally next Sunday and while the race - worth a cool £2.5 million to the winner - has not gone to a horse trained outside Japan since 2005, that hasn't deterred connections of four European runners from making the journey, the biggest contingent in a decade. And there are reasons for hope of a breakthrough,…

Crack chaser Oju Chosan and the legendary Yutaka Take will tackle the Arima Kinen In 2017 Japanese punters placed more than ¥44 billion - around £312 million/€346m - on the outcome of the Arima Kinen, once again making it by some way the world's biggest betting race. To put that into context, turnover for the most popular contest with punters in…

This Sunday, Nov. 28, Tokyo Racecourse hosts the Grade 1 Japan Cup, the iconic invitational gala that has been instrumental in boosting Japan's horses and horsemen to the heights of international competitiveness they now enjoy. Some JPY 648 million, over USD 6 million, is up for grabs. Japan's horses have monopolized the winner's circle for the…

Hong Kong Horse of the Year Golden Sixty in morning trackwork Oct. 11, preparing for his return to action. Photo courtesy of Hong Kong Jockey Club Oct. 22 (UPI) -- Two-year-olds are on display this weekend at tracks from France to England and on to California, while much of the globe girds for the Breeders' Cup World Championships in two weeks'…

For Tanabe, 38, Sunday's triumph was his first in a G1 race since piloting Logotype to a win in the 2016 Yasuda Kinen. It was his third career G1 victory. (Watch the race here.) Tanabe and trainer Yasuhito Tamura teamed up for their first G1 win together. For the trainer, it was his third G1 victory and his first since Major Emblem won the 2016 NHK…