2025 Sprinters Stakes: Group 1 Preview
Venue: Nakayama Racecourse
Distance: 1200m
Value: ¥369,900,000 (US$2,498,421)
The Sprinters Stakes is the second of two Group 1 sprints on the Japan Racing Association (JRA) calendar. It is a race that often attracts overseas competition, but since Silent Witness, Takeover Target and Ultra Fantasy won for Australia and Hong Kong between 2005 and 2010, the home runners have always prevailed.
Satono Reve chases Lord Kanaloa’s coat tails
Joao Moreira’s mount will attempt to become only the sixth horse to win both of Japan’s Group 1 sprints in the same season, having taken out the Takamatsunomiya Kinen in March. Victory this time would put him in that elite group alongside Flower Park, Trot Star, Laurel Guerreiro, the great Lord Kanaloa, and Fine Needle.
This time last year, Satono Reve – a son of Lord Kanaloa himself – was the 3.0 favourite and a star on the rise but could finish only seventh. Since then, he has proven himself among the world’s best. Either side of his Takamatsunomiya Kinen, he was placed behind the world’s top-rated sprinter, Ka Ying Rising. And last time out he was a gallant second to Lazzat in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.
That all puts him as close to Lord Kanaloa’s lofty pedestal as any other Japanese sprinter in the last 20 years. A victory would secure his own status as one of Japan’s best sprinters of all time.
Joao Moreira keeps his international show rolling
The Brazilian great was knocked back by the Hong Kong Jockey Club recently when trainer Caspar Fownes’ attempts to have him installed as stable jockey on a short-term retainer was shut down. But there’s every chance he will be in Hong Kong for the big races there in December, and his autumn travels look set to include a trip to Australia to partner Carrot Club’s sprinter Strauss in the Russell Balding Stakes at Randwick on November 1.
Before that, he will bring an end to his latest two-week stint in the JRA with what he hopes will be another Group 1 win to keep his top-flight tally going into the autumn. Moreira has already won three Group 1 races in Brazil, as well as the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen, G1 Oka Sho, and G1 Satsuki Sho in Japan this year.
Given that he needs at least two Group 1 wins in a year to meet the eligibility for a JRA licence for the next year in Japan, he can relax on that front. But a Sprinters Stakes win would push his eligibility starting point from April to September.
Ka Ying Rising form to the test
As Ka Ying Rising heads to The Everest, Satono Reve, Lugal and Lucky Sweynesse, the horses that finished second, fifth and sixth behind him in the G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize at Sha Tin in April, will all be locking horns. So, too, will Toshin Macau, who was ahead of Lugal but behind Satono Reve when eighth in the G1 Hong Kong Sprint.
Whichever way you look at it, it’s highly likely that the Sydney-bound world’s top-rated sprinter will get a form boost from this race. But if Lucky Sweynesse can land the spoils, or at least go close, it would also be a big boon to the kudos of the general health of the Hong Kong sprint division leading into The Everest.
Lucky Sweynesse, who preceded Ka Ying Rising as Hong Kong’s champion sprinter before injury intervened, is trained by Manfred Man, ridden by Derek Leung and owned by the Cheng family, so is aiming to be the second Sprinters Stakes winner with all-Hong Kong connections, following Ultra Fantasy 15 years ago.
Lemaire thrives in the autumn
The great Christophe Lemaire, the JRA’s seven-time champion jockey, finds himself with only one Group 1 win for the year heading into the autumn season, Ascoli Piceno in the Victoria Mile.
But don’t let that put you off, it could all change pretty quickly. The Frenchman has scored more Group 1 wins in the autumn season than the spring in six of the 10 seasons he has been full-time in Japan. In fact, the latest of his two Sprinters Stakes wins came in 2020 – like this year, following a Victoria Mile win – when he bagged a personal best eight Group 1 wins, five of them secured in the autumn season.
This Sunday he will ride the six-year-old mare Namura Clair. She has six Group 1 placings including in this race the last two years, so while Lemaire has plenty more chances to add to his Group 1 haul, this could be Namura Clair’s last.
Sprinters girls have the power
Namura Clair is one of six fillies and mares in the field and the girls have a great record around the Nakayama 1200m. While the Kodai Hasagawa-trained runner has had to settle for third, third and fifth in the Sprinters Stakes the past three years, mares have won four of the last 14 runnings, three of the last 10 and two of the last five – including Sodashi’s sister Mama Cocha, who won in 2023.
Aside from Namura Clair, the female contingent features three four-year-olds on the up, Ka Pilina, June Blair and Puro Magic. Ka Pilina won the G3 Hakodate Sprint Stakes this summer, with June Blair in second, and the latter was second last time in the G3 CBC Sho. Meanwhile, Puro Magic won the G3 Ibis Summer Dash last start. ∎
