Venue: Hanshin
Distance: 2200m
Value: ¥651,000,000 (US$4.2million)
The G1 Takarazuka Kinen is the crowning race of the Japan Racing Association (JRA)’s spring season and is the first of two fan-voted Grand Prix races each year, the second being the G1 Arima Kinen at Nakayama in December.
Some of Japan’s finest champions have won the race since it was first contested in 1960. Among those legends are Deep Impact, Grass Wonder, T M Opera O, Ofevre, Gold Ship, Lys Gracieux, Chrono Genesis and Equinox.
Croix Du Nord Marching On?
Croix Du Nord has set the standard this spring among Japan’s older horses with two wins from two starts, in the G1 Osaka Hai over 2000m and the G1 Tenno Sho Spring over 3200m. If he can add the Takarazuka Kinen to that haul, last year’s Derby winner will be well on his way to not only sealing championship honours at the season’s end, but also establishing his legacy as a racehorse of the very highest order.
It remains to be seen whether he will return to Europe later this year to try and put right last year’s failure on wet ground in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but if he takes this prize and confirms early season superiority over his peers, he will have shown that he is a force to be reckoned with wherever he goes.
Big Guns Return
Sunday’s feature marks a delayed return to action for two of Japan’s stars from previous seasons, the crack mare Regaleira and the top colt Museum Mile. Both will be first-up for the year after missing intended engagements earlier in the spring.
Regaleira beat the colts as a juvenile, endured a torrid classic campaign, but rounded off her three-year-old season in 2024 with an incredible win in the G1 Arima Kinen, before returning at four to win the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup. She ended that 2025 campaign with a solid fourth in the Arima Kinen.
Ahead of her in the December Grand Prix was the victorious Museum Mile, whose three-year-old campaign also brought successes in the G1 Satsuki Sho and G2 St Lite Kinen, as well as a close second in the G1 Tenno Sho Autumn.
These two world class gallopers re-entering the fray make this race a particularly top-quality edition and will ensure Croix Du Nord will have to show his very best to keep his winning streak going.
Take And Tabaru At The Double?
Yutaka Take made history last Sunday as the oldest jockey to win a Japanese Group 1 race and this weekend he will be back aboard Meisho Tabaru to attempt back-to-back Takarazuka Kinen wins.
Meisho Tabaru is another horse that will be trying to join an elite club as only the third horse in the race’s history to win the Takarazuka Kinen twice. Those that have achieved the feat in the past are Gold Ship in 2013 and 2014 and Chrono Genesis in 2020 and 2021. Take himself has won the race five times already. That last jockey to win the Yasuda Kinen and Takarazuka Kinen in the same year was Yuga Kawada in 2015, successful on Maurice and Lovely Day, respectively.
Regaleira Targets Four-Year Feat
Regaleira’s Group 1 wins at two, three and four put her in line to join a select group of horses. If she wins on Sunday – her first race as a five-year-old – she will become only the eighth horse in Japanese racing history to win a Group 1 race in four consecutive seasons. The seven to have achieved the feat already are Mejiro McQueen, Mejiro Dober, Agnes Digital, Vodka, Buena Vista, Gold Ship and Do Deuce.
Danon Decile Needs To Lift
Another elite galloper adding depth to this year’s Takarazuka Kinen is Danon Decile, the 2024 Derby winner who has not won since the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic in March 2025. His last three races have all seen him place third – Japan Cup, Arima Kinen and Osaka Hai – showing he retains plenty of ability at age five, but he needs to lift again to his Dubai level if he is to make the winner’s berth. ∎
