Takarazuka Kinen

The Takarazuka Kinen (宝塚記念) is a Grade I flat horse race in Japan for Thoroughbreds aged three and over a distance of 2,200 metres (approximately 1+3⁄8 miles) at Hanshin Racecourse (阪神競馬場) in late June. It is one of the two "All-Star" races in Japanese horse racing; the other being the Arima Kinen (the Grand Prix) held in late December.

Takarazuka Kinen
宝塚記念

2022 Takarazuka Kinen winner Titleholder
Class	Grade 1
Location	Hanshin Racecourse, Takarazuka, Hyōgo, Japan
Inaugurated	1960
Race type	Thoroughbred
Website	japanracing.jp/
Race information
Distance	2200 meters (About 11 furlongs / 1+3⁄8 miles)
Surface	Turf
Track	Right-handed (inner course)
Qualification	3-y-o & Up, Thoroughbreds
Weight	3-y-o 53 kg \ 4-y-o & up 58 kg Allowance : Fillies & Mares 2 kg
Purse	¥ 648,000,000 (as of 2025) 1st: ¥ 300,000,000 2nd: ¥ 120,000,000 3rd: ¥ 75,000,000
Bonuses	Winner of Osaka Hai, Tenno Sho (Spring), Takarazuka Kinen[1] Domestic: ¥ 200,000,000 International: ¥ 100,000,000

The Takarazuka Kinen was first run in 1960 with a distance of 1,800 metres. From 1961 to 1965 the race was run over 2,000 metres and since 1966 it has been run over its present distance.

The race is run on the turf and is named after the city of Takarazuka, Hyōgo, the location of Hanshin Racecourse, which is the venue of the race.

As with the Arima Kinen, the majority of the runners in the field are selected by a vote from racing fans, while the remainder are determined by the amount of prize money won.

Winners since 1984

Year	Winner	Age	Jockey	Trainer	Owner	Time
1984	Katsuragi Ace	4	Katsuichi Nishiura	Kazumi Domon	Ichizo Node	2:12.4
1985	Suzuka Koban	5	Yoshiyuki Muramoto	Minoru Kobayashi	Eiichi Nagai	2:15.9
1986	Persian Boy	4	Masato Shibata	Kunio Takamatsu	Hidekazu Date	2:14.4
1987	Suzu Parade	6	Seiji Ebisawa	Rokuro Tomita	Yoshio Koshiki	2:12.3
1988	Tamamo Cross	4	Katsumi Minai	Isami Obara	Tamamo Stable	2:13.2
1989	Inari One	5	Yutaka Take	Kiyoshi Suzuki	Hiroki Hotehama	2:14.0
1990	Osaichi George	4	Katsuhide Maruyama	Kazumi Domon	Choichi Node	2:14.0
1991[a]	Mejiro Ryan	4	Norihiro Yokoyama	Shinji Okuhira	Mejiro Farm	2:13.6
1992	Mejiro Palmer	5	Taisei Yamada	Masaaki Okubo	Mejiro Farm	2:18.6
1993	Mejiro McQueen	6	Yutaka Take	Yasuo Ikee	Mejiro Farm	2:17.7
1994	Biwa Hayahide	4	Yukio Okabe	Mitsumasa Hamada	Biwa Co Ltd	2:11.2
1995[a]	Dantsu Seattle	5	Yoshiyuki Muramoto	Kenji Yamauchi	Tetsuji Yamamoto	2:10.2
1996	Mayano Top Gun	4	Seiki Tabara	Masahiro Sakaguchi	Yuu Tadokoro	2:12.0
1997	Marvelous Sunday	5	Yutaka Take	Makoto Osawa	Sadao Sasahara	2:11.9
1998	Silence Suzuka	4	Katsumi Minai	Mitsuru Hashida	Keiji Nagai	2:11.9
1999	Grass Wonder	4	Hitoshi Matoba	Mitsuhiro Ogata	Y. Hanzawa	2:12.1
2000	T M Opera O	4	Ryuji Wada	Ichizo Iwamoto	Masatsugu Takezono	2:13.8
2001	Meisho Doto	5	Yasuhiko Yasuda	Isao Yasuda	Yoshio Matsumoto	2:11.7
2002	Dantsu Flame	4	Shinji Fujita	Kenji Yamauchi	Tetsuji Yamamoto	2:12.9
2003	Hishi Miracle	4	Koichi Tsunoda	Masaru Sayama	Masaichiro Abe	2:12.0
2004	Tap Dance City	7	Tetsuzo Sato	Shozo Sasaki	Yushun Horse Club	2:11.1
2005	Sweep Tosho	4	Kenichi Ikezoe	Akio Tsurudome	Tosho Sangyo	2:11.5
2006[a]	Deep Impact	4	Yutaka Take	Yasuo Ikee	Kaneko Makoto Holdings	2:13.0
2007	Admire Moon	4	Yasunari Iwata	Hiroyoshi Matsuda	Riichi Kondo	2:12.4
2008	Eishin Deputy	6	Hiroyuki Uchida	Akira Nomoto	Toyomitsu Hirai	2:15.3
2009	Dream Journey	5	Kenichi Ikezoe	Yasutoshi Ikee	Sunday Racing	2:11.3
2010	Nakayama Festa	4	Yoshitomi Shibata	Yoshitaka Ninomiya	Shinichi Izumi	2:13.0
2011	Earnestly	6	Tetsuzo Sato	Shozo Sasaki	Koji Maeda	2:10.1
2012	Orfevre	4	Kenichi Ikezoe	Yasutoshi Ikee	Sunday Racing	2:10.9
2013	Gold Ship	4	Hiroyuki Uchida	Naosuke Sugai	Eiichi Kobayashi	2:13.2
2014	Gold Ship	5	Norihiro Yokoyama	Naosuke Sugai	Eiichi Kobayashi	2:13.9
2015	Lovely Day	5	Yuga Kawada	Yasutoshi Ikee	Kaneko Makoto Holdings	2:14.4
2016	Marialite	5	Masayoshi Ebina	Takashi Kubota	U.Carrot Farm	2:12.8
2017	Satono Crown	5	Mirco Demuro	Noriyuki Hori	Hajime Satomi	2:11.4
2018	Mikki Rocket	5	Ryuji Wada	Hidetaka Otonashi	Mizuki Noda	2:11.6
2019	Lys Gracieux	5	Damian Lane	Yoshito Yahagi	U Carrot Farm	2:10.8
2020	Chrono Genesis	4	Yuichi Kitamura	Takashi Saito	Sunday Racing	2:13.5
2021	Chrono Genesis	5	Christophe Lemaire	Takashi Saito	Sunday Racing	2:10.9
2022	Titleholder	4	Kazuo Yokoyama	Toru Kurita	Hiroshi Yamada	2:09.7[b]
2023	Equinox	4	Christophe Lemaire	Tetsuya Kimura	Silk Racing Co., Ltd.	2:11.2
2024[a]	Blow the Horn	5	Akira Sugawara	Tatsuya Yoshioka	Makio Okada	2:12.0
2025	Meisho Tabaru	4	Yutaka Take	Mamoru Ishibashi	Yoshio Matsumoto	2:11.1

1. The race took place at Kyoto Racecourse
2. Set the current stakes record

Earlier winners

• 1960 - Homare Hiro
• 1961 - Caesar
• 1962 - Kodama
• 1963 - Ryu Forel
• 1964 - Hikaru Pola
• 1965 - Shinzan
• 1966 - Eight Crown
• 1967 - Taiyo
• 1968 - Hikaru Takai
• 1969 - Date Horai
• 1970 - Speed Symboli
• 1971 - Mejiro Musashi
• 1972 - Shofu Midori
• 1973 - Hamano Parade
• 1974 - Haiseiko
• 1975 - Naoki
• 1976 - Fujino Parthia
• 1977 - Tosho Boy
• 1978 - Erimo George
• 1979 - Sakura Shori
• 1980 - Teru Tenryu
• 1981 - Katsu R
• 1982 - Monte Prince
• 1983 - Hagino Kamui O

Vote leaders since 2004

Year	Leader	Age	Votes Received	Race Result
2004[2]	Lincoln	4	60,865	3rd
2005[3]	Zenno Rob Roy	5	67,667	3rd
2006[4]	Deep Impact	4	89,864	Winner
2007[5]	Meisho Samson	4	76,932	2nd
2008[6]	Vodka	4	75,594	Not in race
2009[7]	Vodka	5	139,507	Not in race
2010[8]	Buena Vista	4	92,024	2nd
2011[9]	Buena Vista	5	97,429	2nd
2012[10]	Orfevre	4	72,253	Winner
2013[11]	Orfevre	5	70,519	Not in race
2014[12]	Gold Ship	5	51,366	Winner
2015[13]	Gold Ship	6	66,123	15th
2016[14]	Kitasan Black	4	82,121	3rd
2017[15]	Kitasan Black	5	101,621	9th
2018[16]	Satono Diamond	5	63,599	6th
2019[17]	Almond Eye	4	78,778	Not in race
2020[18]	Almond Eye	5	111,842	Not in race
2021[19]	Chrono Genesis	5	137,448	Winner
2022[20]	Titleholder	4	191,394	Winner
2023[21]	Equinox	4	216,379	Winner
2024[22]	Do Deuce	5	238,367	6th
2025[23]	Bellagio Opera	5	228,950	2nd

See also

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