On Monday’s public holiday card, the well-bred Kizuna colt Peintre Naif captured the G2 Tokyo Sports Hai Nisai Stakes at Tokyo Racecourse, edging out Zoroastro in a tight finish to claim his first graded victory at his third career start. Following in the footsteps of his older brother Parallel Vision, he has become the second stakes winner from the full-brother pair.
Trained by Tetsuya Kimura, Peintre Naif finished second on debut at Niigata in August, having struggled to find a clear run, but returned a month later to break his maiden in solid fashion. Coming into the Tokyo Sports Hai, most of the attention was focused on Danon History, a half-brother to Danon Beluga and Bond Girl, yet Peintre Naif’s previous performance earned him strong support as the third favourite.
When the gates opened for the 12-runner field, Damian Lane and Danon History were clearly slow away. Although the race pace was steady, many of the two-year-olds were keen to go forward; in contrast, Christophe Lemaire settled Peintre Naif nicely in midfield, taking up a position around seventh in the pack.
With Teruhiko, a first-crop son of Triple Crown winner Contrail, making good use of a clever front-running ride to attempt to steal the race from the front, Peintre Naif swept up on the outside to challenge. He then outduelled Zoroastro – who had finished third in the G3 Saudi Arabia Royal Cup a month earlier – and prevailed by a head in a tight finish.
“He was able to relax through the run, and he picked up well when it was time to go full speed. He really tried hard all the way to the line,” Lemaire said. “There is still room for improvement. When he debuted, he was very babyish, but with each run he has started to understand his job.”
By contrast, Zoroastro’s jockey Tom Marquand was left to rue what might have been. “Once he got to the lead, he just started to idle,” he reflected, suggesting that the colt’s greenness had been the decisive factor in his narrow defeat – a sharp contrast to the professionalism shown by the winner.
Over the past decade, the Tokyo Sports Hai Nisai Stakes has produced five future G1 winners. Peintre Naif now joins an honour roll that includes Derby winner Wagnerian, Croix du Nord, Triple Crown hero Contrail and Equinox, who went on to be crowned the “best horse in the world”.
One key point of focus is the winning time. This year’s 1:46.0 was faster than the 1:46.2 recorded by Equinox and the 1:46.8 posted by Croix du Nord. With an early pace on par with those two, Peintre Naif produced a blistering final three furlongs in 32.9 seconds, recording a time that surpasses those earlier champions and deserves strong recognition.
When compared with Gastrique’s 1:45.8 in 2022 and the 1:44.5 race record set by Contrail in 2019, the first five furlongs of this year’s race were nearly two seconds slower. It is therefore important to stress that Peintre Naif’s performance was not simply flattered by an extremely strong early pace; the merit lies firmly in his own turn of foot.
As for his likely next target, the logical step would be the G1 Hopeful Stakes over 2000m at Nakayama in December. In the past, Contrail, Danon The Kid and last year’s winner Croix du Nord have all completed the double of the Tokyo Sports Hai and the Hopeful Stakes, making this race a proven springboard to the year-end championship for two-year-olds.
Meanwhile, his sire Kizuna is on the verge of securing a second consecutive leading sire title, yet somewhat surprisingly, his progeny have not won a JRA Group 1 race so far this year. With the 2026 Classic season in mind, there will be plenty of expectation on this reliable son to step up and fill that gap.
The combination of trainer Tetsuya Kimura and jockey Christophe Lemaire needs little introduction: in addition to the outstanding Equinox, they have also sent out dual-tiara winner Cervinia and the 2023 Hopeful Stakes winner Regaleira.
With two horsemen who know exactly what it takes to win at Group 1 level, their handling of Peintre Naif from here will be closely watched.
Future Outlook: a leading contender for the 2026 Classic season. ∎
