Japan Cup

The Japan Cup (ジャパンカップ, Japan Kappu; JPN G-1) is a Group 1 horse race in Japan, held annually on the last Sunday of November, post time of 15:40 at Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchū, Tokyo. It is a flat race run over a distance of 2,400 m (1.49 mi; 11.93 furlongs) with a maximum of 18 horses. First run in 1981, the Japan Cup was instituted by the Japan Racing Association (JRA) to give local horses the opportunity to compete against those of international calibre and to promote goodwill within the racing community worldwide. Similar to the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the Melbourne Cup and the Breeders' Cup, the Japan Cup extends invitations to top-performing horses aged three and above from around the world. The race is one of the world's richest, with a total prize purse of over one billion yen since 2023, and regularly attracts an audience of 100,000 people. It is the middle leg of the informal Japanese "Autumn Triple Crown" along with the Tennō Shō (Autumn) and the Arima Kinen. Despite a short history, the Japan Cup has established itself as an international contest with winners from all over the world, and it is regularly ranked highly in the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA)'s Top 100 Group 1 Races of the Year compilation due to its high quality and depth of racers. In its early history, the race was dominated by foreign horses, with eight of the first ten winners coming from abroad. However, in recent years the number of overseas entries has significantly declined, and in the last 20 years only one horse from outside of Japan has won.