The February Stakes (フェブラリーステークス) is a Grade 1 flat horse race in Japan for four-year-old and above thoroughbreds. It is run over a distance of 1,600 metres (approximately 8 furlongs) at Tokyo Racecourse in late February.
| Grade 1 race | |
 2023 February Stakes winner Lemon Pop | |
| 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 2024) 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. This race and Champions Cup are the only Grade 1 dirt race 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
editSpeed 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
edit| 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 |
# 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.
* The 2003 race took place at Nakayama Racecourse in distance of 1,800m.
See also
editReferences
edit- Netkeiba:[2][3]
- 1984 en, 1985 en, 1986 en, 1987 en, 1988 en, 1989 en, 1990 en, 1991 en, 1992 en, 1993 en, 1994 en, 1995 en, 1996 en, 1997 en, 1998 en, 1999 en, 2000 en, 2001 en, 2002 en, 2003 en, 2004 en, 2005 en, 2006 en, 2007 en, 2008 en, 2009 en, 2010 en, 2011 en, 2012 en, 2013 en, 2014 en, 2015 en, 2016 en, 2017 en, 2018 en, 2019 en, 2020 en, 2021 en, 2022 en, 2023 en, 2024 en
- Racing Post:
- ^ February Stakes
- ^ "フェブラリーS". Netkeiba.
- ^ "February Stakes". Netkeiba.
External links
edit- Horse Racing in Japan
- (in Japanese) official results from 1997