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Kikuka Sho

Kikuka Sho ? Race Details:

When:
October
Track Location:
Kyoto Racecourse, Fushimi-ku
Race Distance:
3000metres
Race Status:
Grade 1
Race Conditions:
3YO Colts & Fillies at Set Weights
Weights:
Colts- 57kg / Fillies- 55kg
Stakes:
?269, 750, 000
Inaugurated:
1938

The Kikuka Sho, or Japanese St. Leger, is the third and final race in the esteemed Japanese Triple Crown and is the Japanese version of the English St. Leger Stakes. Raced over a distance of 3000m, it is the longest and most testing of all three Triple Crown races. A Grade 1 flat race, the Kikuka Sho is open to three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies at set weights and excludes geldings. It is held annually in October at the Kyoto Racecourse in Fushimi-ku and is worth ?269, 750, 000. The inaugural race was held in 1938 and won by Tetsumon.

As the last Triple Crown race the stakes are high for runners coming into the event having won the first two legs of the series, the Satsuki Sho and the Tokyo Yushun. The last horse to win the coveted Triple Crown was Deep Impact in 2005. The following year in 2006, Meisho Samsun came close to a Triple Crown sweep. He won the first two races and then failed to win in the Kikuka Sho.

Punters backing the favourites in the Kikuka Sho in recent years have not seen much success as Deep Impact in 2005 was the only favourite to win the race in the last decade. Also, when betting on the Japanese St. Leger look for entries who have participated in a couple of prep races, as all the victors in the last ten years have had at least one Autumn race before taking out the Kikuka Sho. A good lead-up race is the Kobe Shimbun Hai (2400m) in September, having produced half the Japanese St. Leger winners since 2000. Another Kikuka Sho trial race is the St. Lite Kinen (2200m) held at Nakayama Racecourse in September.

The race record for the Kikuka Sho was set by Song of Wind in 2006 with a time of 3:02.7.

Kikuka Sho ? Recent Race Results:

Year

Winner

Jockey

Trainer

Owner

Time

2008
Oken Bruce Lee
Hiroyuki Uchida Hidetaka Otonashi Akira Fukui 3:05.7
2007
Asakusa Kings
Hirofumi Shii Ryuji Okubo Keiko Tahara 3:05.1
2006
Song of Wind
Koshiro Take Hidekazu Asami Shadai Racehorse Co. 3:02.7
2005
Deep Impact
Yutaka Take Yasuo Ikee Kaneko Makoto Holdings Co. 3:04.6
2004
Delta Blues
Yasunari Iwata Katsuhiko Sumii Sunday Racing Co. 3:04.8
2003
That’s the Plenty
Katsumi Ando Kojiro Hashiguchi Shadai Racehorse Co. 3:04.8
2002
Hishi Miracle
Koichi Tsunoda Masaru Sayama Masaichiro Abe 3:05.9
2001
Manhattan Cafe
Masayoshi Ebina Futoshi Kojima Kiyoshi Nishikawa 3:07.2

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