Calandagan tops the Longines Worlds' Best Racehorses Rankings and is fresh from being named Cartier Horse of the Year but he still faces one more challenge to close out the 2025 season—the Japan Cup (G1) Nov. 30 at Tokyo Racecourse.
Calandagan, star of the Aga Khan Stud roster, comes to Japan seeking to extend a three-race winning streak encompassing the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (G1) in June, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1) in July at Ascot and the QIPCO Champion Stakes (G1) Oct. 18 back at Ascot.
Early in the season, the 4-year-old Gleneagles gelding was runner-up to Danon Decile in the Dubai Sheema Classic (G1) at Meydan Racecourse and second again, behind Jan Brueghel, in the Coronation Cup (G1) at Royal Ascot. For his career, he has produced seven wins, five seconds and a third from 13 starts for trainer Francis-Henri Graffard.
Graffard, at the pre-race media conference Nov. 27, said Calandagan traveled well and, ever since the Saint-Cloud win, "his confidence and physical ability have gotten stronger … We think he will run well."
Calandagan will have to run well if he is to become the first foreign-trained horse to win the Japan Cup since Alkaased in 2005.
Granted, there are no tigers like Equniox, whose victory in 2023 came amid a campaign that earned him the No. 1 spot on the Longines World's Best Racehorses rankings and a rating of 135—best ever by a Japanese horse—or Do Deuce, last year's winner and 2022 Yushun Himba (Japanese Derby, G1) winner. Both are off to stud.
But this year's home team does include seven group I or grade 1 winners, including the winners of the last three runnings of the Derby. Among them, notably, is Danon Decile, the 2024 Derby winner whose résumé, as noted, also includes a victory in April in the Sheema Classic, in which he defeated Calandagan by 1 1/4 lengths.
Danon Decile, a 4-year-old Epiphaneia colt, was last seen finishing fifth in the Juddmonte International (G1) at York, a race so strangely influenced by an early runaway leader as to be a throw-out for handicapping purposes. Proof? Daryz, who went on to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) a month and a half later, finished sixth and last in the Juddmonte.
Tastiera, the 2023 Derby winner, and Croix du Nord, this year's winner, also take their chance in the Japan Cup.
Tastiera, by Satono Crown, has been inconsistent since the Derby win. In April, he won the Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1) in Hong Kong. But in his last start, he could do no better than eighth in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) (G1), a defeat trainer Noriyuki Hori blames on poor tactics.
"The pace was slow, but the main reason for the poor result was the jockey making a move in the fastest lap over a course with a hill," Hori said. "Any horse would have stalled."
Croix du Nord also has the distinction of finishing in front of Daryz. He was first to that rival's second in the Prix du Prince d'Orange (G3) as a prep for the Arc. A disastrous draw for the Arc itself compromised his chances in the big race.
"He had a tough run in the Arc, with the outside draw and, not being able to move inside, he was pulling at the bit," said trainer Takashi Saito. "The horse he'd beat in the prep won, so I don't think the loss was due to a lack of ability."
Masquerade Ball could be the proverbial "horse for the course" in the Japan Cup. His runner-up finish in this year's Derby was his only defeat in four starts on the Tokyo turf, a record that includes an impressive score in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) in his last start Nov 2.
Masquerade Ball's trainer, Takahisa Tezuka, noted there has been "little time between races, so the horse's mental state does concern me somewhat. I'll be paying close attention to that during his preparation."
On the plus side of that relatively short turnaround, the last three Tenno Sho (Autumn) winners to next contest the Japan Cup—Equinox, Do Deuce, and Almond Eye in 2020—all won. Jockey Christophe Lemaire is another plus.
Shin Emperor, a 4-year-old son of Siyouni, is a proven international competitor with a victory in the Neom Turf Cup (G2) in Saudi Arabia in February to his credit. He was well beaten in subsequent starts in Dubai and Ireland, then scrubbed from Arc consideration because of a health issue and will need to show full recovery to be competitive in the Japan Cup, where he finished second in 2024 in a dead heat with Durezza.
