# Mile Championship

The Mile Championship is an International Grade I flat horse race in Japan for thoroughbreds three-year-old and above, run over a distance of 1,600 metres (approximately 1 mile) on the turf at Kyoto Racecourse in November. It was first run in 1984.
It is traditionally considered as a step race of Hong Kong Mile in Japan Racing. Particularly before the introduction of Hanshin Cup (Grade 2, 1400m) in 2006, as being the last graded event in mile distance in the Japan racing season and most of the winners or runners-up will travel to Hong Kong pursuing extra prize money. Including the only Japanese winner by then Hat Trick.

## Winners

| Year | Winner | Age | Jockey | Trainer | Owner | Time |
| 1984 | Nihon Pillow Winner | 4 | Hiroshi Kawachi | Masatoshi Hattori | Hyakutaro Kobayashi | 1:35.3 |
| 1985 | Nihon Pillow Winner | 5 | Hiroshi Kawachi | Masatoshi Hattori | Hyakutaro Kobayashi | 1:35.3 |
| 1986 | Takara Steel | 4 | Yoshiyasu Tajima | Eizaburo Sakamoto | Yoshio Murayama | 1:35.3 |
| 1987 | Nippo Teio | 4 | Hiroyuki Gohara | Kinzo Kubota | Yuichi Yamaishi | 1:34.9 |
| 1988 | Soccer Boy | 3 | Hiroshi Kawachi | Yukiharu Ono | Shadai Race Horse | 1:34.6 |
| 1989 | Oguri Cap | 4 | Katsumi Minai | Tsutomu Setoguchi | Shunsuke Kondo | 1:34.6 |
| 1990 | Passing Shot | 5 | Takashi Kusunoki | Mitsuru Hashida | Tadaharu Morimoto | 1:33.6 |
| 1991 | Daitaku Helios | 4 | Shigehiko Kishi | Yasuo Umeda | Masaichi Nakamura | 1:34.8 |
| 1992 | Daitaku Helios | 5 | Shigehiko Kishi | Yasuo Umeda | Masaichi Nakamura | 1:33.3 |
| 1993 | Shinko Lovely | 4 | Yukio Okabe | Kazuo Fujisawa | Osamu Yasuda | 1:35.7 |
| 1994 | North Flight | 4 | Koichi Tsunoda | Keiji Kato | Taihoku Bokujo | 1:33.0 |
| 1995 | Trot Thunder | 6 | Norihiro Yokoyama | Katsutoshi Aikawa | Teruo Fujimoto | 1:33.7 |
| 1996 | Genuine | 4 | Yukio Okabe | Yasuhisa Matsuyama | Shadai Race Horse Co., Ltd. | 1:33.8 |
| 1997 | Taiki Shuttle | 3 | Norihiro Yokoyama | Kazuo Fujisawa | Taiki Farm | 1:33.3 |
| 1998 | Taiki Shuttle | 4 | Yukio Okabe | Kazuo Fujisawa | Taiki Farm | 1:33.3 |
| 1999 | Air Jihad | 4 | Masayoshi Ebina | Masanori Ito | Lucky Field Co., Ltd. | 1:32.8 |
| 2000 | Agnes Digital | 3 | Hitoshi Matoba | Toshiaki Shirai | Takao Watanabe | 1:32.6 |
| 2001 | Zenno El Cid | 4 | Olivier Peslier | Kazuo Fujisawa | Shinobu Oosako | 1:33.2 |
| 2002 | Tokai Point | 6 | Masayoshi Ebina | Yoshiyuki Goto | Masanori Uchimura | 1:32.8 |
| 2003 | Durandal | 4 | Kenichi Ikezoe | Masahiro Sakaguchi | Teruya Yoshida | 1:33.3 |
| 2004 | Durandal | 5 | Kenichi Ikezoe | Masahiro Sakaguchi | Teruya Yoshida | 1:33.0 |
| 2005 | Hat Trick | 4 | Olivier Peslier | Katsuhiko Sumii | Carrot Farm Co., Ltd. | 1:32.1 |
| 2006 | Daiwa Major | 5 | Katsumi Ando | Hiroyuki Uehara | Keizo Oshiro | 1:32.7 |
| 2007 | Daiwa Major | 6 | Katsumi Ando | Hiroyuki Uehara | Keizo Oshiro | 1:32.7 |
| 2008 | Blumenblatt | 5 | Yutaka Yoshida | Sei Ishizaka | Carrot Farm | 1:32.6 |
| 2009 | Company | 8 | Norihiro Yokoyama | Hidetaka Otonashi | Hideko Kondo | 1:33.2 |
| 2010 | A Shin Forward | 5 | Yasunari Iwata | Masato Nishizono | Eishindo Co., Ltd. | 1:31.8 |
| 2011 | Eishin Apollon | 4 | Kenichi Ikezoe | Masahiro Matsunaga | Toyomitsu Hirai | 1:33.9 |
| 2012 | Sadamu Patek | 4 | Yutaka Take | Masato Nishizono | Sadamu Onishi | 1:32.9 |
| 2013 | Tosen Ra | 5 | Yutaka Take | Hideaki Fujiwara | Takaya Shimakawa | 1:32.4 |
| 2014 | Danon Shark | 6 | Yasunari Iwata | Ryuji Okubo | Danox Co Ltd | 1:31.5 |
| 2015 | Maurice | 4 | Ryan Moore | Noriyuki Hori | Kazumi Yoshida | 1:32.8 |
| 2016 | Mikki Isle | 5 | Suguru Hamanaka | Hidetaka Otonashi | Mizuki Noda | 1:33.1 |
| 2017 | Persian Knight | 3 | Mirco Demuro | Yasutoshi Ikee | G1 Racing Co Ltd | 1:33.8 |
| 2018 | Stelvio | 3 | William Buick | Tetsuya Kimura | Sunday Racing | 1:33.3 |
| 2019 | Indy Champ | 4 | Kenichi Ikezoe | Hidetaka Otonashi | Silk Racing | 1:33.0 |
| 2020 | Gran Alegria | 4 | Christophe Lemaire | Kazuo Fujisawa | Sunday Racing | 1:32.0 |
| 2021 | Gran Alegria | 5 | Christophe Lemaire | Kazuo Fujisawa | Sunday Racing | 1:32.6 |
| 2022 | Serifos | 3 | Damian Lane | Mitsumasa Nakauchida | G1 Racing | 1:32.5 |
| 2023 | Namur | 4 | Kota Fujioka | Tomokazu Takano | U.Carrot Farm | 1:32.5 |
| 2024 | Soul Rush | 6 | Taisei Danno | Yasutoshi Ikee | Tatsue Ishikawa | 1:32.0 |
$^a$ The 2020, 2021 and 2022 runnings took place at Hanshin while Kyoto was closed for redevelopment.