Geoglyph, the only horse still in training to have defeated world champion Equinox, is set to add Australia to his itinerary when he tackles the G1 Doncaster Mile (1600m) at Randwick in April.
Geoglyph is among three Japanese entries for Sydney’s The Championships, alongside Breeders’ Cup Turf runner-up Rousham Park for the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) and Group 2-placed Cils Blancs in the G1 Sydney Cup (3200m).
Trained by Tetsuya Kimura, who also prepared Equinox, Geoglyph was among the star colts of his generation. He defeated Equinox and Do Deuce, the last two Japanese Horses of the Year, in the G1 Satsuki Shō (2000m) at Nakayama in 2022 before Do Deuce turned the tables to win the G1 Tokyo Yushun (2400m).
Equinox did not taste defeat again, rising to become the 2023 world champion after a phenomenal four-year-old season.
Unlike Equinox, Geoglyph has not won again since the Satsuki Shō despite racing all over the world at a range of distances and on both turf and dirt. He finished fourth on dirt in the world’s richest race, the G1 Saudi Cup (1800m), in 2023, while he was only three lengths from Romantic Warrior in last year’s G1 Yasuda Kinen (1600m) at Tokyo.
Geoglyph finished last year with a close-up fifth in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar – the United States becoming the fifth country in which he’d raced – while he made his 2025 debut with a subpar 11th in the G3 Tokyo Shimbun Hai (1600m) on Sunday.
Geoglyph could be joined in Sydney by his Sunday Racing compatriot Rousham Park, who ran an extraordinary race to just fall short to Rebel’s Romance in the 2024 G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf at a mile and a half.
Rousham Park has also been a Group 1 runner-up in Japan, finishing a neck behind Bellagio Opera in last year’s G1 Osaka Hai (2000m), while he had three Group 1 winners in behind him when he won the G2 Sankei Sho All Comers (2200m) in 2023.
Japan is yet to win either the Doncaster Mile or the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, but Japanese-trained horses have finished second in both races: Real Impact beat all bar Kermadec in the 2015 Doncaster, while Kluger was runner-up to Winx at her final start in the 2019 Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Despite their staying prowess, Japan is yet to have a runner in the Sydney Cup. Stakes-performed stayer Prestwick – owned by the same Silk Racing operation that owned Equinox – was highly touted in 2018 but was scratched at the barriers.
Seven years on, Silk Racing is ready to try again with Cils Blancs, who was beaten a nose in the G2 Stayers Stakes (3600m) at his most recent start.
Should the trio wish to travel to Australia, they will have to enter pre-export quarantine in the first week of March with a flight tentatively scheduled for March 18. That would see them allowed to race in Sydney from April 1 ahead of the first day of The Championships on April 5 ∎
