Japan Cup (G1) - Preview
This coming Sunday, Nov. 29, will mark the 40th running of theJapan Cup, the top-level event that was begun with theobjective of raising the level of Japan’s racing throughcompetition with some of the world’s best. An invitational event,the Japan Cup carries the country’s top prize money and has
long been one of the most prestigious races in the world.
This year, though the international showing numbers only one,the competition fielded by Japan alone is historical. ThreeTriple Crown winners will compete alongside each other - 2018
filly triple crown winner and eight-time Grade 1 winner AlmondEye, this year’s Triple Crown winner Contrail and filly triple
crown winner Daring Tact, both of whom are unbeaten.

Almond EyeThe trio will meet for the first time ever, alongside 13 others, pit
age and youth, experience and fervor against each other, allamid the usual heady mix of skill and luck that is racing.
Way To Paris, the English-bred, France-based, Andrea
Marcialis-trained 7-year-old who scooped this year’s Group 1
Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, will be the lone foreign challenger
in this year’s Japan Cup.
France has not won the Japan Cup since Le Glorieux in 1987,
back when Japan had yet to establish its stronghold on theJapan Cup winner’s circle. And, although the number ofcompetitors flying in to take on the home team has decreased
in recent years, a horse trained outside of Japan has not won
Contrailsince the U.K.-trained Alkaased in 2005.
The Japan Cup will be the 12th race, the last race, on theSunday card at Tokyo Racecourse. Post time is 15:40 local
time.
The expected top picks are as follows.
Almond Eye - With her retirement already announced, theJapan Cup will be Almond Eye’s last run. In 2018, the daughterof Lord Kanaloa had gone from being crowned winner of thefilly triple crown with her win of the Oct. 14 Shuka Sho to arecord win of the Japan Cup on Nov. 25. This year, after a winof the Victoria Mile and a second in the Yasuda Kinen, Almond
Eye once again captured the Tenno Sho (Autumn) on Nov. 1
Daring Tactand will take on the Japan Cup with a much tighter schedulethan she had two years ago. Trainer Sakae Kunieda had her
return from the farm to Miho Training Center on Nov. 18.
“(Jockey) Christophe Lemaire rode her on Nov. 20 and she
was relaxed, lean, and looking good,” Kunieda said. Almond
Eye has only missed the Top 3 once in her 14-race career(ninth in the 2019 Arima Kinen (The Grand Prix)) and she is 4for-4 over 2,000 meters or up at Tokyo. The record holder for
most Grade 1 races won at home and abroad by a Japanesebased horse, Almond Eye is still tied for most Grade 1s won inJapan. A win Sunday would mean one more record to hername. The JPY300 million Japan Cup winner’s prize would
also put her at the top of the JRA list for most money earned athome and abroad.
Glory Vase
Contrail - Unbeaten and this year’s Triple Crown champion,
Contrail returns from his Oct. 25 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St.
Leger) run, where he repeated his sire’s feat of capping the 3year-old classics with an unblemished record. Seven for seven,victory for the son of Deep Impactdid not come easy in theKikuka Sho, as the 3,000-meter race was won by a mere neck.
Like Contrail, Triple Crown winner Symboli Rudolf had gone
unbeaten to the Japan Cup gate following his Kikuka Sho run,but finished in third place. The 1984 Japan Cup, however,followed the Kikuka Sho by a mere 14 days. Contrail has amore forgiving schedule. It will, however, be the first time thecolt goes up against horses older than him. Veteran jockey
Yuichi Fukunaga has ridden all but one of Contrail’s starts andis expected to be in the saddle. Both he and trainer Yoshito
Yahagi are gunning for their first Japan Cup win.
Daring Tact - This year’s other unbeaten super star is Daring
Tact, who clinched the filly’s triple crown with her win of theCurren Bouquetd’orShuka Sho on Oct. 18. The daughter of Epiphaneia, who won
the 2014 Japan Cup, Daring Tact has, like Contrail, only raced
against her peers. She will race under only 53kg, 2kg less than both Contrail and Almond Eye. Trainer Haruki
Sugiyama also thinks there’ll be other advantages for his champion filly this time out. “She got pretty worked up
last time,” Sugiyama said of Daring Tact’s Shuka Sho run. “But I think she’ll have let off some steam. The lineup
is different, but she won’t be targeted like she was in the Shuka Sho and she should be able to relax and run herown race.”
Glory Vase - Glory Vase, a 5-year-old by Deep Impact aced the Hong Kong Vase last year for his first top-levelwin. Second in the Tenno Sho (Spring) earlier that year, he had returned after six months for a sixth-place finish
in the Grade 2 Kyoto Daishoten before heading to Hong Kong. This year, a heavier track was likely his undoing inthe Takarazuka Kinen, but the Kyoto Daishoten was his. He beat Kiseki by 3/4 length in the Oct. 11 event after afour-month layoff and further improvement is expected. He has five wins and three seconds from 12 starts andthree of his wins have come at 2,400 meters. This will be his first time at Tokyo but a second at Chukyo and afirst at Niigata indicate he can handle a lefthanded track successfully.
Curren Bouquetd’or - Here is a filly who has come achingly close to nabbing her first Grade 1 three times.
Runnerup 3/4 lengths behind Suave Richard in last year’s Japan Cup, Curren Bouquetd’or, now 4 years old,
followed that second up with two more, both over 2,200 meters in Grade 2 company this year - the Kyoto Kinen
and the Sankei Sho All Comers at Nakayama, which saw her only a nose off the win. Curren Bouquetd’or, astablemate of Almond Eye, was one of many who were already in Dubai early this year when they had to return
unraced due to COVID-19, but this means she is rested and prepped. In addition to the Japan Cup, her other toplevel bids were in the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) and the Shuka Sho. She’ll run under 55kg, 2kg more thanlast year but still the same weight as she carried in the Shuka Sho.

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