Christophe Lemaire
Heart's Cry returned in October to finish sixth in the Autumn Tenno Sho, in which he was ridden for the first time by Christophe Lemaire, before running in the Japan Cup a month later. Held up in the early stages, he was still fourteenth of the eighteen runners turning into the straight but then finished strongly and failed by a nose to catch the British runner Alkaased who won in a record time of 2:22.1. The beaten runners included Zenno Rob Roy, Ouija Board, Warrsan, Bago and Better Talk Now. On 25 December, Heart's Cry was one of sixteen runners invited to contest the Arima Kinen. The colt had gone ten races and nineteen months since his last win and started at odds of 16.1/1 while the undefeated three-year-old champion Deep Impact was made the 3/10 favourite. Lemaire rode the horse close to the lead before moving to the front in the straight and holding off the late challenge of Deep Impact to win by half a length.