The Nikkei Sho (Japanese 日経賞) is an annual Grade 2 flat horse race in Japan for Thoroughbreds of at least four years of age. It is run over a distance of 2,500 metres at Nakayama Racecourse in March.
The Nikkei Sho was first run in 1953 and was elevated to Grade 2 status in 1984. The award money is donated by Nikkei Inc, a newspaper company headquartered in Tokyo and Osaka.
Some of the race's most notable winners include Symboli Rudolf, Rice Shower, Meisho Doto, Matsurida Gogh, Fenomeno and Gold Actor.
History The race was established in 1953 as a Jūshō ("Big race", 重賞) for horses aged 5 years or older (now 4 years or older) under the name "Nihon Keizai Sho" (日本経済賞), or "Japan Economic Award". It was renamed in 1979.
The inaugural race was held over 3200m on turf, at Nakayama Racecourse, but the venue, distance, and time of year have undergone several changes, with the distance settling at 2500m on turf, the same course as the Arima Kinen, since 1967. The race has been held at Nakayama during the March-April season since 1984. Today, it is one of two preliminary races for the Tennō Shō (Spring); since 2014, the winner of the Nikkei Sho has been granted priority entry.
Foreign-bred horses have been allowed to participate since 1989, and horses belonging to local racetracks since 1995. In 2002, it become an international race, in which foreign-trained horses can also participate.
Race details The race is run at Nakayama Racecourse over a distance of 2,500 meters on turf, using the right-handed (clockwise) inner curve.
Weight Requirements 56 kg for four-year-olds, and 57 kg for five-year-olds and above.Allowances:2 kg for fillies / mares 1 kg for southern hemisphere-bred three-year-olds Penalties:
If a graded stakes race has been won within a year, 2 kg for a Grade 1 win (1 kg for fillies / mares), 1 kg for a Grade 2 win
If a graded stakes race has been won for more than a year (excluding two-year-old race performance), 1 kg for a Grade 1 win
Winners since 2000 Year Winner Age Jockey TrainerOwner Time 2000 Leo Ryuho 5 Takanori Kikuzawa Hiroaki SugiuraLeo 2:35.4 2001 Meisho Doto 5 Yasuhiko Yasuda Isao YasudaYoshio Matsumoto 2:33.7 2002 Active Bio 5 Hiroki Goto Hiroki SakiyamaBio 2:37.0 2003 Ingrandire 4 Junichi Kobayashi Yoshinami ShimizuChizu Yoshida 2:31.3 2004 Win Generale 4 Masayoshi Ebina Sakae KuniedaWIN 2:32.8 2005 Yukina Sun Royal 8 Jiro Ono Sueo MasuzawaMotoyuki Ito 2:33.3 2006 Lincoln 6 Norihiro Yokoyama Hidetaka OtonashiEiko Kondo 2:33.0 2007 Never Bouchon 4 Hiroshi Kitamura Masanori ItoT H 2:31.8 2008 Matsurida Gogh 5 Masayoshi Ebina Sakae KuniedaFumie Takahashi 2:32.7 2009 Al Nasrain 5 Masayoshi Ebina Shigeki MatsumotoSunday Racing 2:31.2 2010 Meiner Kitz 7 Masami Matsuoka Sakae KuniedaThoroughbred Club Ruffian 2:34.1 2011 To The Glory 4 Yuichi Fukunaga Yasutoshi IkeeCarrot Farm 2:25.4 2012 Neko Punch 6 Teruo Eda Shinobu HoshinoShigeru Kiritani 2:37.4 2013 Fenomeno 4 Masayoshi Ebina Hirofumi TodaSunday Racing 2:32.0 2014 Win Variation 6 Yasunari Iwata Masahiro MatsunagaWIN 2:34.4 2015 Admire Deus 4 Yasunari Iwata Mitsuru HashidaRiichi Kondo 2:30.2 2016 Gold Actor 5 Hayato Yoshida Tadashige NakagawaKaname Ishiro 2:36.8 2017 Sciacchetra 4 Hironobu Tanabe Katsuhiko SumiiMakoto Kaneko 2:32.8 2018 Ganko 5 Yusuke Fujioka Shigeki MatsumotoMitsuo Sugisawa 2:33.9 2019 Meisho Tekkon 4 Yutaka Take Yoshitada TakahashiYoshio Matsumoto 2:34.2 2020 Mikki Swallow 6 Norihiro Yokoyama Takanori KikuzawaMizuki Noda 2:32.9 2021 Win Marilyn 4 Takeshi Yokoyama Takahisa TezukaWIN 2:33.3 2022 Titleholder 4 Kazuo Yokoyama Toru KuritaHiroshi Yamada 2:35.4 2023 Titleholder 5 Kazuo Yokoyama Toru KuritaHiroshi Yamada 2:36.82024Struve5Katsuma SameshimaNoriyuki HoriKatsuko Muraki2:31.42025Meiner Emperor5Yuji TannaiHisashi ShimizuThoroughbred Club Ruffian2:36.12026My Universe4Norihiro YokoyamaKoshiro TakeToshio Terada2:30.7
The 2011 race took place at Hanshin Racecourse over a distance of 2,400 metres.
Earlier winners
See also Horse racing in Japan List of Japanese flat horse races
References Netkeiba: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,