February Stakes

The February Stakes (フェブラリーステークス) is a Grade 1 flat horse race in Japan for thoroughbreds aged four years and above. It is run over a distance of 1,600 metres (approximately 8 furlongs) at Tokyo Racecourse in late February.

February Stakes
フェブラリーステークス

2023 February Stakes winner Lemon Pop
Class	Grade 1
Location	Tokyo Racecourse
Inaugurated	1984
Race type	Thoroughbred
Race information
Distance	1,600 meters
Surface	Dirt
Track	Left-handed
Qualification	4-y-o+
Weight	4-y-o & up 58 kg Allowances 2 kg for fillies and mares[1]
Purse	¥ 259,200,000 (as of 2025) 1st: ¥ 120,000,000 2nd: ¥ 48,000,000 3rd: ¥ 30,000,000

It was first run in 1984 as February Handicap, and was given Domestic Grade 3 status. This was elevated to Domestic Grade 2 in 1994, Domestic Grade 1 in 1997, and to its present level in 2007.

It was renamed February Stakes in 1994. Horses from National Association of Racing (NAR) have been eligible to run in the race since 1995, and 2007 for horses not trained in Japan.

In February 2025, Rachel King became the first female jockey to win a flat Grade 1 race in Japan due to winning the February Stakes.^[2]

This race and Champions Cup are the only Grade 1 dirt races organized by the JRA (the other international Grade 1 dirt race (Tokyo Daishōten) and domestic Grade1 races are all organized by NAR).

It is considered as the stepping race to the Dubai World Cup Night meetings' dirt races.

Records

Speed record:

• 1.33.8 – Cafe Pharoah (2022)

Most wins by a horse (2):

• Copano Rickey (2014, 2015)
• Cafe Pharoah (2021, 2022)

Most wins by a jockey (5):

• Yutaka Take (2003, 2006, 2008, 2015, 2019)

Most wins by a trainer (3):

• Akira Murayama (2012, 2014, 2015)

Most wins by an owner (2):

• Katsumi Yoshida (2012, 2017)
• Sachiaki Kobayashi (2014, 2015)
• Shadai Race Horse Co (2003, 2013)
• Takao Matsuoka (2002, 2007)
• Yoshio Matsumoto (1993, 2005)
• Koichi Nishikawa (2021, 2022)

Winners

Year	Winner	Age	Jockey	Trainer	Owner	Time
1984	Robaria Amon	5	Masato Yoshinaga	Kichisaburo Matsuyama	Uraichi Suga	1:40.1
1985	Andre Amon	6	Hiroyuki Nakajima	Yasuhisa Matsuyama	Amon Inc.	1:36.9
1986	Hatsuno Amoy	5	Eizaburo Otsuka	Yoshio Nakazumi	Hatsutaro Nakagawa	1:36.7
1987	Rikisan Power	6	Masato Shibata	Kunio Takamatsu	Saburo Iwai	1:36.5
1988	Roman Prince	7	Sueo Masuzawa	Seizuke Sato	Long Shoji co.	1:37.7
1989	Velvet Glob	6	Hiroyuki Gohara	Fusamatsu Okubo	Hideo Kuribayashi	1:37.2
1990	Carib Song	4	Masato Shibata	Shuho Kato	Ogifushi Bokujo RC co.	1:36.7
1991	Narita Hayabusa	4	Norihiro Yokoyama	Kentaro Nakao	Hidenori Yamaji	1:34.9
1992	Russian Gold	4	Masayoshi Ebina	Yokichi Okubo	Akihiro Ohara	1:35.4
1993	Meisho Homura	5	Masato Shibata	Shigetada Takahashi	Yoshio Matsumoto	1:35.7
1994	Cheers Atom	5	Masaru Honda	Kaoru Hoshikawa	Kiyoko Kitamura	1:37.8
1995	Lively Mount	4	Mamoru Ishibashi	Fujio Shibata	Tetsuo Kato	1:36.4
1996	Hokuto Vega	6	Norihiro Yokoyama	Takayoshi Nakano	Kanamorimori Shoji	1:36.5
1997	Shinko Windy	4	Yukio Okabe	Kiyotaka Tanaka	Osamu Yasuda	1:36.0
1998	Gourmet Frontier	6	Yukio Okabe	Kiyotaka Tanaka	Masayoshi Ishii	1:37.5
1999	Meisei Opera #	5	Isao Sugawara	Shuichi Sasaki	Meisei Shoji co.	1:36.5
2000	Wing Arrow	5	Olivier Peslier	Yoshimi Kudo	Minoru Ikeda	1:35.6
2001	Nobo True	5	Olivier Peslier	Hideyuki Mori	Ikebata	1:35.6
2002	Agnes Digital	5	Hirofumi Shii	Toshiaki Shirai	Takao Watanabe	1:35.1
2003	Gold Allure *	4	Yutaka Take	Yasuo Ikee	Shadai Race Horse co.	1:50.9
2004	Admire Don	5	Katsumi Ando	Hiroyoshi Matsuda	Riichi Kondo	1:36.8
2005	Meisho Bowler	4	Yuichi Fukunaga	Toshiaki Shirai	Yoshio Matsumoto	1:34.7
2006	Kane Hekili	4	Yutaka Take	Katsuhiko Sumii	Kaneko Makoto Holdings Co., Ltd.	1:34.9
2007	Sunrise Bacchus	5	Katsumi Ando	Hidetaka Otonashi	Takao Matsuoka	1:34.8
2008	Vermilion	6	Yutaka Take	Sei Ishizaka	Sunday Racing	1:35.3
2009	Success Brocken	4	Hiroyuki Uchida	Hideaki Fujiwara	Tetsu Takashima	1:34.6
2010	Espoir City	5	Tetsuzo Sato	Akio Adachi	Yushun Horse Club	1:34.9
2011	Transcend	5	Shinji Fujita	Takayuki Yasuda	Koji Maeda	1.36.4
2012	Testa Matta	6	Yasunari Iwata	Akira Murayama	Kazumi Yoshida	1.35.4
2013	Grape Brandy	5	Suguru Hamanaka	Takayuki Yasuda	Shadai Race Horse co.	1.35.1
2014	Copano Rickey	4	Hironobu Tanabe	Akira Murayama	Sachiaki Kobayashi	1.36.0
2015	Copano Rickey	5	Yutaka Take	Akira Murayama	Sachiaki Kobayashi	1.36.3
2016	Moanin	4	Mirco Demuro	Sei Ishizaka	Yukio Baba	1.34.0
2017	Gold Dream	4	Mirco Demuro	Osamu Hirata	Katsumi Yoshida	1.35.1
2018	Nonkono Yume	6	Hiroyuki Uchida	Yukihiro Kato	Kazumasa Yamada	1.36.0
2019	Inti	5	Yutaka Take	Kenji Nonaka	Shigeo Takeda	1.35.6
2020	Mozu Ascot	6	Christophe Lemaire	Yoshito Yahagi	Capital System	1.35.2
2021	Cafe Pharoah	4	Christophe Lemaire	Noriyuki Hori	Koichi Nishikawa	1.34.4
2022	Cafe Pharoah	5	Yuichi Fukunaga	Noriyuki Hori	Koichi Nishikawa	1.33.8
2023	Lemon Pop	5	Ryusei Sakai	Hiroyasu Tanaka	Godolphin	1.35.6
2024	Peptide Nile	6	Yusuke Fujioka	Hidenori Take	Kazuhiko Numakawa	1:35.7
2025	Costa Nova	5	Rachel King	Tetsuya Kimura	Katsumi Yoshida	1:35.5

# Meisei Opera, winner of the 1999 race, belongs to the National Association of Racing(NAR) but not Japan Racing Association(JRA).
* The 2003 race took place at Nakayama Racecourse in distance of 1,800m.

See also

• Horse racing in Japan
• List of Japanese flat horse races