Tenno Sho

Many of the 15 horses signed on for Sunday's G2 Sapporo Kinen were on trial for future events on foreign soil, and while the lion's share of those toiled in the tricky underfoot conditions, Shadai Race Horse's Prognosis (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) was the one standing tallest at the finish as he galloped home a decisive winner. Winner of the G2 Kinko Sho over the 2000 metres in March, Prognosis accepted an invitation to Hong Kong for the G1 FWD QE II Cup the following month, and, with record-setting Zac...

Coming into Sunday's FWD Champions Day meeting--the spring Hong Kong International Races, if you will--two-time Horse of the Year Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro), reigning champion middle-distance horse Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) and emerging sprinter Lucky Sweynesse (NZ) (Sweynesse {Aus}) had absorbed a gut punch or two over the course of the season. But each put pay to any lingering disappointment from those efforts with eye-catching, skinny-odds victories at before a crowd of nearly 50,000 at Sha Tin Racecourse. If you had a punt, one of two things happened--you...

Efforia (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}) became the first 3-year-old since Orfevre (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) in 2011 to be named Japanese Horse of the Year as year-end honors were revealed Tuesday. The Carrot Farm colorbearer received 277 of the 296 possible votes, easily outdistancing the globetrotting Loves Only You (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who received 18 first-place votes for the top prize. Efforia was also unanimously named champion 3-year-old male. A son of the Heart's Cry (Jpn) mare Katie's Heart (Jpn) and from the same family as fellow Horse of the...

York's G1 Juddmonte International S. didn't just provide the world's best 130-rated performance of 2020 for Ghaiyyath (Ire) but, with its stellar back-up cast of seven-time Group 1 winner Magical (Ire), the G1 St James's Palace S. winner Lord North (Ire) and 2000 Guineas hero Kameko, the race was also judged to be the Longines World's Best Horse Race last year on ratings. Along with announcing the World's Best Racehorse Rankings on Tuesday, Longines and the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) also published the list of top 100 Group...

Older horses take center stage at Kyoto Racecourse Sunday in the G1 Tenno Sho, and featured among the entries is last year's winner, Fierement (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who has been set as the 2-1 early choice to become the fifth horse in the history to win the spring even in consecutive years. Winless since last year's Tenno Sho, he was third in the G2 Sapporo Kinen in August before finishing 12th in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Most recently, he was fourth behind Lys Gracieux (Jpn) (Heart's...