Calandagan Conquers The 2025 Japan Cup

The Japan Cup is Japan’s richest and most prestigious race for international competition, run on turf at Tokyo Racecourse over the classic distance of 2400m, the same distance as Japan’s most important domestic race, the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby). Nicknamed by Japanese fans as the “JC” for its initials, it was first run in 1981 as Japan’s first international race, before the race grading system was introduced to the country in 1984, when it was certified as an international Grade 1 race. It is the final race of the year on Tokyo Racecourse’s calendar, run on the final Sunday in November and open to 3-year-old horses and above. This year’s running, the 45th, was held on Sunday, Nov. 30, 2025, as the 12th and final race on the program, under sunny weather and on good turf.

Calandagan, a 4-year-old gelding from France, surged past the favorite, Masquerade Ball, in a close photo finish to take victory by a head. Starting with 6.2-to-1 odds, the horse, owned by the late Aga Khan IV’s highly successful international racing operation, started in barrier 8, ridden by the Frenchman Mickael Barzalona, the main jockey of the Aga Khan Studs, who wore their famous green silks with red shoulder epaulettes. 

The race began with a rather rocky start, with 4-year-old stallion, Admire Terra, stumbling as he exited barrier 11, throwing his jockey, seasoned Yuga Kawada, off the saddle, resulting in their immediate disqualification. Barzalona and Calandagan broke away cleanly from the gate, but ended up settling in the middle of the pack, just a couple of lengths behind the other runners in the front. They kept a good pace with the rest of the pack, still sitting nicely in the middle as the pack cruised down the backstretch. 6-year-old Seiun Hades ran at the very front for most of the race. 

Admire Terra was, amazingly, still keeping up near the front even without his jockey. As the horses approached the last corner and entered Tokyo Racecourse’s notoriously long 500m home straight, Calandagan and his jockey quickly upped the pace, fighting together with Masquerade Ball and his jockey, Christophe Lemaire. Both horses were speeding down the straight, with Barzalona making a good effort to urge his horse on with multiple strokes of the whip.

The disqualified Admire Terra was running alongside them; although it was technically Terra that crossed the line first, he officially finished 11th because of his unfortunate mishap at the start of the race. Lemaire and Masquerade Ball tried to make a last-ditch effort with just meters left before the winning post, but they failed, and Calandagan emerged as the winner, finishing with a final time of 2:20.3 and breaking the world record time set by Almond Eye in 2023 by three tenths of a second. Barzalona then performed a celebratory fist bump with Lemaire.

The win was historic, as it marked the breaking of a 20-year drought of foreign-trained horses winning the Japan Cup; no foreign-trained horse had won the race since Alkaased, who hailed from the UK, did so in 2005. Until then, it was exclusively Japanese winners. It also marked Barzalona’s first ride in Japan, first victory in Japan, and his first Grade 1 win in Japan, and Calandagan’s trainer scored both his first Japanese Grade 1 win and his first Japan Cup victory. 

It brought Calandagan’s great season to an end, and he came to Tokyo undefeated after winning three straight Grade 1 races in Europe and the UK, including the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, run at Saint-Cloud in France, as well as the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Champion Stakes, both run at Royal Ascot in Britain. His incredible race record awarded him the distinction of being the 2025 Cartier Horse of the Year and the world’s highest rated racehorse.

Commenting on the win, Barzalona said some brief but powerful words: “Very good. Mission accomplished.” He also praised Calandagan’s performance during the season and his fighting spirit near the end of the race and said, “He’s a big fighter, my horse, and proved it today. Calandagan did a perfect season. He proved in Europe he was the best. He came over here and was able to beat the best horse in Japan. So he’s definitely the best horse of the year.” Calandagan’s trainer, Francis-Henri Graffard, expressed the same praise, but he also admitted that watching the Cup was stressful. “I was really stressed today,” Graffard said after the race. However, he was still happy about the horse’s effort.  “The horse traveled well…We never had any trouble…the horse has been really, really brave. He’s a real champion, as everybody saw today.”

Calandagan’s outstanding win in the Japan Cup opens up opportunities for more intense international competition after over two decades of Japanese horses dominating the Cup. He is now enshrined forever in the rich history of horse racing in Japan and Europe.

Sources: japanracing.jp, thoroughbreddailynews.com, idolhorse.com, taipeitimes.com