The NHK Mile Cup (NHKマイルカップ, NHK Mairu Kappu) is a Grade 1 flat horse race in Japan for three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies, run over a distance of 1,600 metres (approximately one mile) on the turf at Tokyo Racecourse in May.[1]
| Grade 1 race | |
 The 14th NHK Mile Cup (第14回NHKマイルカップ) | |
| Location | Tokyo Racecourse, Fuchu, Tokyo, Tokyo |
|---|---|
| Inaugurated | 1996 |
| Race type | Thoroughbred |
| Website | japanracing.jp/ |
| Race information | |
| Distance | 1600 meters (About 8 furlongs / 1 mile) |
| Surface | Turf |
| Track | Left-handed |
| Qualification | 3-y-o, colts & Fillies only, Thoroughbreds |
| Weight | Colt 57 kg, Filly 55 kg; 2 kg allowance for Southern Hemisphere-breds |
| Purse | ¥ 281,800,000 (as of 2023) 1st: ¥ 130,000,000 |
The NHK Mile Cup is sponsored by the Japanese public broadcasting organization NHK, and as such, it is broadcast not only on Fuji TV (one of NHK's competitors) but on one of the NHK channels that cover horse racing (NHK General TV; the other, BS-1, covers certain other races such as the Japan Cup). (In Japanese horseracing, "Sponsor" does not mean that an individual or organization provides prize money. They provide only the prize, cup, trophy etc.)
Before the year 2001, this was the only G1 race for colts and fillies that non-Japanese bred three-year-olds could participate in, which led to this race being considered informally as the "Japanese Derby for non-Japanese bred horses" until foreign-bred entry restrictions were lifted in 2001. Until 2010 it was limited to domestic-trained horses, but this restriction was removed that year (as for the Japanese classics). A maximum of nine foreign horses are allowed entry in the NHK Mile Cup. It is considered one of the prep races for both the Yushun Himba (the Japanese Oaks) and the Tokyo Yushun (the Japanese Derby).[2]
Step races edit
| Race name | Grade | Racecourse | Distance | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mainichi Hai | GIII | Hanshin | Turf 1800m |
| 2 | Margelet Stakes | OP | Hanshin | Turf 1400m |
| 3 | New Zealand Trophy | GII | Nakayama | Turf 1600m |
| 4 | Oka Sho | GI | Hanshin | Turf 1600m |
| 5 | Satsuki Sho | GI | Nakayama | Turf 2000m |
Of the above races the New Zealand Trophy is the only formal trial for the NHK Mile Cup. The first three finishers in the former gain the right to participate in the latter. If a horse from the National Association of Racing (NAR) finishes in the first three in the New Zealand Trophy, at most two extra participation rights will be issued for runners in the other four races.
Winners edit
(Winners in italic are also later winners from either Yushun Himba or Tokyo Yushun that year)
| Year |
Winner |
Jockey |
Trainer |
Owner |
Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1996 | Taiki Fortune | Yoshitomi Shibata | Yoshiyasu Takahashi | Taiki Farm | 1:32.6 |
| 1997 | Seeking the Pearl | Yutaka Take | Hideyuki Mori | Tomoko Uenaka | 1:33.1 |
| 1998 | El Condor Pasa | Hitoshi Matoba | Yoshitaka Ninomiya | Takashi Watanabe | 1:33.7 |
| 1999 | Symboli Indy | Norihiro Yokoyama | Kazuo Fujisawa | Symboli Bokujo | 1:33.8 |
| 2000 | Eagle Cafe | Yukio Okabe | Futoshi Kojima | Kiyoshi Nishikawa | 1:33.5 |
| 2001 | Kurofune | Yutaka Take | Kunihide Matsuda | Makoto Kaneko | 1:33.0 |
| 2002 | Telegnosis | Masaki Katsuura | Hiroaki Sugiura | Shadai Racehorse co. | 1:33.1 |
| 2003 | Win Kluger | Koshiro Take | Shigeki Matsumoto | Win Co. Ltd. | 1:34.2 |
| 2004 | King Kamehameha | Katsumi Ando | Kunihide Matsuda | Makoto Kaneko | 1:32.5 |
| 2005 | Rhein Kraft | Yuichi Fukunaga | Tsutomu Setoguchi | Shigemasa Ohsawa | 1:33.6 |
| 2006 | Logic | Yutaka Take | Kojiro Hashiguchi | Koji Maeda | 1:33.2 |
| 2007 | Pink Kameo | Hiroyuki Uchida | Sakae Kunieda | Kaneko Makoto Holdings Co., Ltd. | 1:34.3 |
| 2008 | Deep Sky | Hirofumi Shii | Mitsugu Kon | Toshio Fukami | 1:34.2 |
| 2009 | Jo Cappuccino | Kota Fujioka | Kazuya Nakatake | Keiko Ueda | 1:32.4 |
| 2010 | Danon Chantilly | Katsumi Ando | Kunihide Matsuda | Danox Co. Ltd. | 1:31.4 |
| 2011 | Grand Prix Boss | Craig Williams | Yoshito Yahagi | Grand Prix Co. Ltd. | 1:32.2 |
| 2012 | Curren Black Hill | Shin-ichiro Akiyama | Osamu Hirata | Takashi Suzuki | 1:34.5 |
| 2013 | Meiner Ho O | Daichi Shibata | Yoshihiro Hatakeyama | K Thoroughbred Club Ruffian | 1:32.7 |
| 2014 | Mikki Isle | Suguru Hamanaka | Hidetaka Otonashi | Mizuki Noda | 1:33.2 |
| 2015 | Clarity Sky | Norihiro Yokoyama | Yasuo Tomomichi | Tadakuni Sugiyama | 1:33.5 |
| 2016 | Major Emblem | Christophe Lemaire | Yasuhito Tamura | Sunday Racing | 1:32.8 |
| 2017 | Aerolithe | Norihiro Yokoyama | Takanori Kikuzawa | Sunday Racing | 1:32.3 |
| 2018 | Keiai Nautique | Yusuke Fujioka | Osamu Hirata | Kazuhiro Kameda | 1:32.8 |
| 2019 | Admire Mars | Mirco Demuro | Yasuo Tomomichi | Riichi Kondo | 1:32.4 |
| 2020 | Lauda Sion | Mirco Demuro | Takashi Saito | Silk Racing | 1:32.5 |
| 2021 | Schnell Meister | Christophe Lemaire | Takahisa Tezuka | Sunday Racing | 1:31.6 |
| 2022 | Danon Scorpion | Yuga Kawada | Takayuki Yasuda | Danox Co. Ltd. | 1:32.3 |
| 2023 | Champagne Color | Hiroyuki Uchida | Tsuyoshi Tanaka | Yoichi Aoyama | 1:33.8 |
See also edit
References edit
- ^ "2011.05.03 2011 NHK Mile Cup (G1) - Preview - News - Horse Racing in Japan". Japanracing.jp. 2011-05-03. Retrieved 2011-12-24.
- ^ "Japanese Derby hopefuls look to cement credentials in NHK Mile Cup". Thoroughbred Times. 2010-05-07. Retrieved 2011-12-24.
- ^ "NHKマイルC". Netkeiba.
- ^ "NHK Mile Cup". Netkeiba.