# Kyōto Kinen

The Kyōto Kinen (京都記念, Kyōto Kinen) is a Grade II race in Japan that is open to international horses. It is held mid February at Kyoto Racecourse in Kyoto, Japan.
The race was first run in 1942. It was not run from 1944 to 1947 due to World War II. Initially the race was run over 3,500 metres (about 2 miles or 1.5 furlongs) and the present race is run over 2,200 metres (about 11 furlongs).
Kyōto Kinen has been rated as a Grade II race since 1984 and was opened for foreign trained horses at that time, although foreign horses have never run the race until recently.
It is a popular prep race for Tenno Sho (spring). Takeshiba O, Ten Point, Biwa Hayahide and T M Opera O are horses that won both the Kyōto Kinen and the Tenno Sho. Some horses run this race before going to Dubai. In 2007, Admire Moon won this race and the Dubai Duty Free.

## Weight

56 kg for four-year-olds, 57 kg for five-year-olds and above.
Allowances:
* 2 kg for fillies / mares
* 1 kg for southern hemisphere bred four-year-olds
Penalties (excluding two-year-old race performance):
* If a graded stakes race has been won within a year:
** 2 kg for a grade 1 win (1 kg for fillies / mares)
** 1 kg for a grade 2 win
* If a graded stakes race has been won for more than a year:
** 1 kg for a grade1 win

## Autumn part

Initially Kyōto Kinen was held twice a year in spring and autumn. The autumn race was abolished 1984 when Japanese domestic race grading was started.
Before the autumn part was abolished, some horses ran both races and five horses won both. Notably, Final Score (1954) and Sky Leader (1974) won both races in the same year.

## Results and records
### Most wins by a horse

* Satono Crown (2016, 2017)

### Most wins by a jockey

* 5 – Yutaka Take (2006, 2007, 2012, 2013, 2023)

### Most wins by a trainer

* 5 – Hiroyoshi Matsuda (2001, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010)

### Most wins by an owner

* 3 – Sunday Racing (2010, 2019, 2020)

### Record winning time

* 2:11.5 Lovely Day (2015) (Kyoto)
* 2:10.4 Loves Only You (2021) (Hanshin)

## List of recent winners

| Year | Winner | Age | Jockey | Trainer | Owner | Time |
| 2000 | T M Opera O | 4 | Ryuji Wada | Ichizō Iwamoto | Masatsugu Takezono | 2:13.8 |
| 2001 | Maquereau | 4 | Yasuhiko Yasuda | Hiroyoshi Matsuda | Katsumi Yoshida | 2:12.3 |
| 2002 | Narita Top Road | 6 | Kunihiko Watanabe | Yoshio Oki | Hidenori Yamaji | 2:11.8 |
| 2003 | My Sole Sound | 4 | Masaru Honda | Katsuichi Nishiura | Kiyoshi Sano | 2:16.5 |
| 2004 | Silk Famous | 5 | Hirofumi Shii | Ippo Sameshima | Silk Co. Ltd. | 2:12.8 |
| 2005 | Narita Century | 6 | Hirokazu Tajima | Norio Fujisawa | Hidenori Yamaji | 2:15.7 |
| 2006 | Six Sense | 4 | Yutaka Take | Hiroyuki Nagahama | Shadai Race Horse | 2:13.5 |
| 2007 | Admire Moon | 4 | Yutaka Take | Hiroyoshi Matsuda | Riichi Kondō & Katsumi Yoshida | 2:17.2 |
| 2008 | Admire Aura | 4 | Katsumi Andō | Hiroyoshi Matsuda | Riichi Kondō | 2:13.6 |
| 2009 | Asakusa Kings | 5 | Hirofumi Shii | Ryūji Ōkubo | Keiko Tahara | 2:14.6 |
| 2010 | Buena Vista | 4 | Norihiro Yokoyama | Hiroyoshi Matsuda | Sunday Racing Co. Ltd. | 2:14.4 |
| 2011 | To the Glory | 4 | Umberto Rispoli | Yasuo Ikee | Carrot Farm | 2:13.9 |
| 2012 | Trailblazer | 5 | Yutaka Take | Yasuo Ikee | Yoko Maeda | 2:12.4 |
| 2013 | Tosen Ra | 5 | Yutaka Take | Hideaki Fujiwara | Takaya Shimakawa | 2:12.5 |
| 2014 | Desperado | 6 | Norihiro Yokoyama | Akio Adachi | Hiroyuki Tanaka | 2:16.0 |
| 2015 | Lovely Day | 5 | Keita Tosaki | Yasutoshi Ikee | Makoto Kaneko | 2:11.5 |
| 2016 | Satono Crown | 4 | Mirco Demuro | Noriyuki Hori | Hajime Satomi | 2:17.7 |
| 2017 | Satono Crown | 5 | Mirco Demuro | Noriyuki Hori | Hajime Satomi | 2:14.1 |
| 2018 | Clincher | 4 | Yusuke Fujioka | Hiroshi Miyamoto | Koji Maeda | 2:16.3 |
| 2019 | Danburite | 5 | Fuma Matsuwaka | Hidetaka Otonashi | Sunday Racing | 2:14.8 |
| 2020 | Chrono Genesis | 4 | Yuichi Kitamura | Takashi Saito | Sunday Racing | 2:16.4 |
| 2021 | Loves Only You | 5 | Yuga Kawada | Yoshito Yahagi | DMM Dream Club | 2:10.4 |
| 2022 | African Gold | 7 | Kyosuke Kokubun | Masato Nishizono | Godolphin | 2:11.9 |
| 2023 | Do Deuce | 4 | Yutaka Take | Yasuo Tomomichi | Kieffers Co. Ltd. | 2:10.9 |
| 2024 | Pradaria | 5 | Kenichi Ikezoe | Manabu Ikezoe | Nagoya Yuho Co. Ltd. | 2:12.1 |
| 2025 | Yoho Lake | 7 | Mirai Iwata | Mirai Iwata | Kaneko Makoto Holdings Co. Ltd. | 2:15.7 |
$^a$ The 2021, 2022 and 2023 runnings took place at Hanshin while Kyoto was closed for renovation.