2025 G1 Shuka Sho
Venue: Kyoto Racecourse
Distance: 2000m
Value: ¥239,700,000 (about US$1,598,000)
The Shuka Sho is the last leg of Japan’s Fillies’ Triple Crown, known as the Triple Tiara, and has an impressive roll call of past champions. Among that list are six of Japan’s seven Triple Tiara winners, Still In Love, Apapane, Gentildonna, Almond Eye, Daring Tact and Liberty Island, as well as Daiwa Scarlet and other internationally known stars of recent years Chrono Genesis, Vivlos and Deirdre.
Despite its status, it is not a classic race, with Japan sticking to the traditional format of five classics, the Oka Sho (fillies only), Satsuki Sho, Tokyo Yushun, Yushun Himba (fillies only) and Kikuka Sho. In fact, the Shuka Sho has only been the final leg of the Triple Tiara since 1996: prior to that the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup was the final leg before it was opened to older fillies and mares.
The Yushun Himba and the two races that offer ‘top three’ qualification, the G2 Rose Stakes and the G2 Shion Stakes, are the key contests going onto the Shuka Sho. Since the year 2000, 23 of the 25 Shuka Sho winners came through the Oaks and/or the Rose Stakes and Shion Stakes, the exceptions being Aventura (2011) and Tico Tico Tac (2000).
Guineas Vs Oaks Showdown
There’s a classic speed versus stamina match-up this year. Embroidery, a daughter of the star miler Admire Mars, took the season’s first fillies’ classic, the G1 Oka Sho at a mile in April. But the stoutly-bred Kamunyak, being by Deep Impact’s brother Black Tide, has been the star of the division since late spring when she won the G1 Yushun Himba – the Oaks – with Embroidery only ninth.
Embroidery has not been seen since that Oaks failure over a mile and a half at Tokyo, whereas Kamunyak stepped off a summer break to win one of the two recognised Shuka Sho lead-ins that provide qualification, the G2 Rose Stakes over 1800m at Hanshin, proving that she too has a bit of toe.
Oaks winners have the upper hand in this, though. Taking the Triple Tiara winners out of the equation, you have to go back to the brilliant Daiwa Scarlet in 2007 to find a filly that won the Oka Sho and added the Shuka Sho without a Yushun Himba win to her name, but three Yushun Himba winners without an Oka Sho win have taken the final leg during the same period.
Kizuna’s Girls
This year’s field features five daughters of the 2013 Tokyo Yushun winner and Japan’s leading sire Kizuna: Danon Fair Lady, Brown Ratchet, Glory Link, Paradis Reine and Lesedrama. The pick of those appears to be Danon Fair Lady, third in the Shion Stakes, while Brown Ratchet is looking to rebuild the reputation that has been shattered by three defeats on the bounce, starting with a dismal 16th when the 3.4 favourite for the G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in December.
Kizuna’s torch has been carried this season by two colts, the NAR star Natural Rise and the Group 2 winner Eri King, but of the three Group 1 winners he has sired, two are fillies, Songline and Akai Ito.
Sena Style For Momma
Nuovo Record won the Yushun Himba and the Rose Stakes on her way to starting the 1.5 favourite for the 2014 Shuka Sho, but suffered a shock defeat at Kyoto when the 10.1 chance Shonan Pandora – the G1 Japan Cup winner the next season, no less – improved on her second place in the G2 Shion Stakes to win by a neck.
Sena Style is far and away Nuovo Record’s best offspring, even though she has raced only three times. The Shogo Yasuda-trained filly won a Newcomer race in January and was given a long break before winning at Chukyo in August, then stepped into Group 1 with a smart third behind Kamunyak in the Rose Stakes and on Sunday will aim to go one better than her mother.
Nishizuka’s Group 1 Debut
Young Ritto-based jockey Koji Nishizuka was thrust into the spotlight at Nakayama in early September when he scored far and away his biggest career success on Kelly Fled Ask in the G2 Shion Stakes. That has set up the 21-year-old for his first Group 1 ride in the Shuka Sho.
Nishizuka was born in Las Vegas and lived in Australia and New Zealand until he was five years old. When he returned to Japan, he was picked on at school because his Japanese language skills were not fluent. He found happiness riding at his father’s riding club which enabled him to “forget the unpleasant things,” and now he is in his fourth JRA season with 88 career wins on the board.
Efforia’s Sister
Four Shuka Sho winners this century have raced in the Shion Stakes en route to victory: Deirdre and Stunning Rose won both races, while Vivlos and Shonan Pandora were second in the Shion.
This year’s Shion Stakes second Jocelyn has the pedigree to win a major as a three-year-old. She is a full-sister to the G1 Satsuki Sho, G1 Tenno Sho Autumn and G1 Arima Kinen hero of 2021, Efforia, by Epiphaneia, who was a classic winner in the G1 Kikuka Sho. ∎
