2025 Sprinters Stakes


Race Information



Date
Sunday September 28


Racecourse
Nakayama (Right-Handed)


City
Funabashi


Local Status
Group 1


International Status
Group 1


Conditions
3YO+


Surface
Turf


Distance
1200m


Prizemoney (Local)
Â¥369,900,000


Prizemoney (USD)
About $2,466,000


First Run
1967 (Onward Hill)


IHFA World’s Top 100 Races Ranking
Equal 89th

The G1 Sprinters Stakes is Japan’s autumn highlight for their fastest horses. Won by international legends like Silent Witness and Takeover Target as well as local heroes like Lord Kanaloa and Gran Alegria, it kicks off Group 1 racing in the back half of the year in Japan.

No Sprinters Stakes-winning stallion has gone on to produce another Sprinters Stakes winner but, this year, the great Lord Kanaloa – a two-time winner of this race – will be represented by likely favourite Satono Reve in his bid for history.

Past winners Lugal (2024) and Mama Cocha (2023) return in an attempt to win once again, while Hong Kong’s Lucky Sweynesse aims to become the first foreign winner of the race since Ultra Fantasy in 2010.


Statistics

While the winner generally comes from the favoured group – 11 of the last 14 winners were among the top three in the market – it can often be a race in which playing wide in the exotics pays off handsomely. Since 2011, three winners, seven seconds and 11 thirds have been outside the top four in betting; in that time, six of the 14 years have featured a horse at longer than 40-1 in the trifecta.

The G2 Centaur Stakes has been the best guide to the Sprinters Stakes in recent years, producing seven of the last 13 winners. This year, Kangchenjunga (first), Mama Cocha (second), Toshin Macau (third) and Yoshino Easter (seventh) come through that Hanshin lead-up.

In the last 10 years, eight runners have entered off an overseas run – none have finished in the top three. That will be something that Satono Reve will have to overcome, while Danon McKinley, Lucky Sweynesse and Lugal will also enter off last-start efforts internationally.

An inside draw has proven beneficial – seven winners and a further 15 placegetters have come from gates one to eight, while three winners and a further five placegetters have drawn out wider.

Intriguingly, horses who have been positioned between fifth and ninth at the home turn – the fourth corner, in Japanese parlance – at their most recent run have provided nine of the last 10 winners. June Blair, Ka Pilina, Lugal, Toshin Macau and Yoshino Easter fit that bill.


Speed Map


Michael Cox

Angle: Class

Let’s not over-think this. Since a disappointing seventh in last year’s Sprinters Stakes, #7 Satono Reve has emerged as the best Japanese sprinter since his sire Lord Kanaloa and has a clear class edge on his local rivals. 

Lord Kanaloa won back-to-back Sprinters Stakes in 2012 and 2013. After the first he was given a criminally low international rating of 120 before the handicappers woke up to his greatness and granted him a 128 for his dominant victory in the 2013 Hong Kong Sprint. 

We’re not suggesting Satono Reve is anywhere near those lofty heights but after winning the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen in March he was second to Ka Ying Rising at Sha Tin and then runner-up to Lazzat at Royal Ascot. 

Those two form references are as good as you will find in the sprint division right now. Satono Reve hasn’t been given his international rating for either but a two and quarter length defeat will likely have him at 119. History says that replicating that at Nakayama would have put him ahead of every Sprinters Stakes winner since Lord Kanaloa except Gran Alegria, but even she only rated 121. 

None of the current crop of Japanese sprinters seem in that 120 or higher category and a couple of potential rivals have head aboard, leaving Satono Reve as the clear local standout. 

What of Hong Kong raider Lucky Sweynesse? He finished second by the same margin to Ka Ying Rising last start but that was in receipt of nine pounds from the world’s highest rated sprinter, whereas Satono Reve lined up at level weights. Even if Lucky Sweynesse reclaimed his best at age seven and after leg surgery, that might not be good enough to win here. 

Barrier seven is perfect – Joao Moreira can find an ideal speed stalking position from there, making Satono Reve an excellent banker for exotics. 

Selections: 7-2-4-13

Suggested bet: Suggested bet standout tierce or quartet #7 Satono Reve from #2 Yoshino Easter, #4 Mama Cocha and #13 June Blair.


Andrew Hawkins

Angle: Track & distance form

Compared to many jurisdictions worldwide, Japan has the most straightforward tracks for its big races. However, Nakayama is as much of a specialist track as any – particularly when compared to its cross-town rival, Tokyo.

Nakayama’s tight, angular turns and famous uphill rise make for a tough test for the hardiest galloper – perhaps why the Arima Kinen is considered the end-of-year championship.

Course and distance form has often proven key when it comes to the Sprinters Stakes. In particular, horses that have won over the Nakayama 1200m in the same calendar year have a strong record in recent times, often outperforming their odds: 2022 winner Gendarme ($20.30), 2015 runner-up Sakura Gospel ($28.80) and 2017 third Once In A Moon ($16) are among that group. 

#13 June Blair is unbeaten from three starts over the track and trip, including in a two-year-old newcomers race on this card in 2023. Her most recent outing at Nakayama saw her lead all of the way to win the Aquamarine Stakes, a three-win contest, in March.

She is one of three Nakayama 1200m winners this year, alongside 2023 Sprinters Stakes winner Mama Cocha and the consistent Yoshino Easter.

#13 June Blair comes out of the G3 CBC Sho at Chukyo last start, a race with major international implications: winner, Australian-bred Invincible Papa, heads to the G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar while third Strauss goes to the Russell Balding Stakes at Randwick. A strong performance here could see her joining that group in heading abroad, perhaps for the G1 Hong Kong Sprint.

Banking on Nakayama form with June Blair at the head of affairs is the way to play this year’s Sprinters Stakes.

Selections: 13-7-4-2

Suggested bet: Trifecta Banker 13 with 2, 4, 5, 7


Costa Rolfe

Angle: Tactical speed

The horse that brought us the insane tempo of last year’s Sprinters Stakes is back (who remembers that 9.9s split?!), but with – it would appear – an all-new approach. #1 Puro Magic may not have the class of a Satono Reve, but a change of pattern first demonstrated two starts ago in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint brings the Shogo Yasuda’s ‘reformed tearaway’ into consideration at a big price.

Oisin Murphy rode the mare quietly in Dubai after she was half a step slow out of the gates and squeezed. This was the first time Puro Magic had not led to the turn since breaking her maiden in September 2023, having set the tempo in front at all nine subsequent starts. The result was an eye-catching fifth behind Believing, Puro Magic finishing by far the best of the off-speed runners.

Despite a smart beginning, new pilot Christophe Lemaire again elected to take hold of Puro Magic after the first few strides in her autumn re-appearance in the G3 Summer Dash on August 3, when dropping down to 1000m for the first time in her career. The tactics were even more effective for Lemaire, the 4.6 second favourite coming from worse than midfield to wear down another renowned speedster in T M Spada to score narrowly.

Rather than be tasked with setting an unrelenting tempo as she was when fading late for eighth last year, jockey Kohei Matsuyama can instead use his mount’s tactical speed and new-found versatility to take up the key stalking position from the inside draw, perhaps aiming for that sweet spot just behind the leading brigade.

A strong left-field option for exotics.

Selections: 6-7-1-11

Suggested bet: Quinella Place #1 Puro Magic with #6 Namura Clair, #7 Satono Reve


2025 Sprinters Stakes: Tips

IDOL HORSE TIPSTERSELECTIONSMICHAEL COX7-2-4-13ANDREW HAWKINS13-7-4-2COSTA ROLFE6-7-1-11


Sprinters Stakes Video Replays

LUGAL / 2024 G1 Sprinters Stakes

MAMA COCHA / 2023 G1 Sprinters Stakes

GENDARME / 2022 G1 Sprinters Stakes

PIXIE KNIGHT / 2021 G1 Sprinters Stakes

GRAN ALEGRIA / 2020 G1 Sprinters Stakes