page_title: Lys Gracieux
section_title: 2018: four-year-old season
hierarchical_section_title: Lys Gracieux / Racing career / 2018: four-year-old season
caption_attribution_description: English: Yoshito-Yahagi20110319 日本語: 矢作芳人
context_page_description: Lys Gracieux is a Japanese Thoroughbred racehorse. As a two-year-old in 2016 she showed top-class form, winning two of her four starts and finished second in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies. In the following year she failed to win but was placed in several major races including the Oka Sho and the Shuka Sho. As a four-year-old she won the Tokyo Shimbun Hai and the Queen Elizabeth II Cup as well as running second in the Victoria Mile and the Hong Kong Vase and was awarded the JRA Award for Best Older Filly or Mare. In 2019 she had her most successful season as she took the Takarazuka Kinen in Japan and the Cox Plate in Australia before ending her track career with a victory in the Arima Kinen. Lys Gracieux is the third highest earning racehorse in the world among the racehorses born in 2014.
context_section_description: Lys Gracieux began her third campaign in the Grade 3 Tokyo Shimbun Hai over 1600 metres on 4 February in which she started the 4.5/1 third choice in the betting behind Daiwa Cagney and Greater London. Ridden by Take she recorded her first win in sixteen months as she won by a length from the four-year-old colt Satono Ares (Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes). In April she started favourite for the Grade 2 Hanshin Himba Stakes but in a closely contested finish she ran third place, beaten a head and a neck by Miss Panthere and Red Avancer. In the Grade 1 Victoria Mile at Tokyo on 13 May the filly went off the 3.3/1 favourite but despite making rapid progress in the straight she failed by a nose to catch the outsider Jour Polaire. In the Yasuda Kinen over the same course and distance on 3 June she made little impact and came home eighth of the sixteen runners behind Mozu Ascot, beaten five and a half lengths by the winner.
  On her return from a five month break Lys Gracieux finished second by a neck to Deirdre in the Fuchu Himba Stakes over 1800 metres at Tokyo on 13 October. Four weeks after her defeat in Tokyo the filly was partnered by Joao Moreira when she made her second attempt to win the Queen Elizabeth II Cup and started the 2.7/1 third choice in the betting behind Mozu Katchan and Normcore (Shion Stakes) while the other fourteen entrants included Cantabile (Rose Stakes), Miss Panthere and Admire Lead (2017 Victoria Mile). Lys Gracieux race in mid-division before switching to the outside in the final turn and produced a sustained run in the straight to run down the front-running Crocosmia and win by a neck. Moreira commented "Today was her day. We were in a good position, two off the fence, and she had plenty left in the tank after angling out at the last turn. Under pressure, she responded very well and I had every confidence from the 300 meter point that we were going to win. She’s a real champion."
  Lys Gracieux ended her season with a trip to Hong Kong to contest the Hong Kong Vase over 2400 metres at Sha Tin Racecourse on 9 December. With Moreira in the saddle she raced towards the rear of the field before launching a strong run on the outside in the straight. She gained the advantage in the last 200 metres but was overtaken in the final strides and beaten a neck by the locally-trained Exultant.
  In January 2019 Lys Gracieux was named Best Older Filly or Mare at the JRA Awards for 2018 taking 265 of the 276 votes.
caption: Lys Gracieux's trainer Yoshito Yahagi
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