Sprinters Stakes
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Sprinters Stakes is a Grade I flat horse race in Japan for three-year-old and above thoroughbreds run over a distance of 1,200 metres (approximately 6 furlongs) at Nakayama Racecourse in late September / early October.
It was first run in 1967, and was given Group 3 status when race grading was introduced to Japan in 1984. This was elevated to Group 2 in 1987 and to its present level in 1990. Horses trained outside Japan have been eligible to run in the race since 1994. Prior to 2000 the race was run in December.
It is now the penultimate leg in the seven race Global Sprint Challenge series, preceded by the Centaur Stakes and followed by the Hong Kong Sprint.
[edit] Winners since 1994
| Year | Winner | Age | Jockey | Trainer | Owner | Time |
| 1994 | Sakura Bakushin O | 5 | Futoshi Kojima | K Sakai | Sakura Commerce | 1:07.1 |
| 1995 | Hishi Akebono | 3 | Koichi Tsunoda | Masaru Sayama | Masaichiro Abe | 1:08.1 |
| 1996 | Flower Park | 4 | Seiki Tabara | Shigeki Matsumoto | Kazuko Yoshida | 1:08.8 |
| 1997 | Taiki Shuttle | 3 | Yukio Okabe | Kazuo Fujisawa | U Taiki Farm | 1:07.8 |
| 1998 | Meiner Love | 3 | Yutaka Yoshida | Ryuichi Inaba | Thoroughbred Club Ruffian | 1:08.6 |
| 1999 | Black Hawk | 5 | Norihiro Yokoyama | Sakae Kunieda | Makoto Kaneko | 1:08.2 |
| 2000 | Daitaku Yamato | 6 | Teruo Eda | Sei Ishizaka | Kazuo Nakamura | 1:08.6 |
| 2001 | Trot Star | 5 | Masayoshi Ebina | Eiji Nakano | Minoru Takano | 1:07.0 |
| 2002 | Believe * | 4 | Yutaka Take | Shigeki Matsumoto | Koji Maeda | 1:07.7 |
| 2003 | Durandal | 4 | Kenichi Ikezoe | Masahiro Sakaguchi | Teruya Yoshida | 1:08.0 |
| 2004 | Calstone Light O | 6 | Naohiro Onishi | Hiroyuki Oneda | Sadamitsu Shimizu | 1:09.9 |
| 2005 | Silent Witness | 6 | Felix Coetzee | Tony Cruz | Archie & Betty da Silva | 1:07.3 |
| 2006 | Takeover Target | 7 | Jay Ford | Joe Janiak | Joe & Ben Janiak | 1:08.1 |
* The 2002 race took place at Niigata Racecourse.
