Japan Cup

About this event

The Japan Cup is Japan's flagship international flat race, a Grade 1 contest over 2,400 metres on turf at Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchu. It was founded in 1981 as the country's first international invitational race, created deliberately to measure Japanese horses against the world's best and to raise the standard of domestic breeding and training. In its early years overseas raiders won regularly; over the following decades Japanese-trained horses came to dominate it, which is itself the clearest evidence that the race achieved what it was designed to do. It is among the richest turf races in the world and forms the centrepiece of the autumn racing calendar, run in late November before crowds that regularly exceed those of most European Group 1 meetings. Tokyo Racecourse's long home straight and sweeping turns favour horses with a sustained finish rather than pure early speed. The 2026 running is scheduled for 29 November.