Here is Calandagan winning the Japan Cup. It is an amazing race
I have nothing but praise for this wonderful horse who has done what no overseas horse has done in 20 years. Calandagan has won the Japan Cup and our QEII cup in consecutive months. It is a wonderful thing this horse has done!
Thanks to Racing Post for the photo and report
Calandagan became the first overseas winner of the Japan Cup in 20 years after fending off local favourite Masquerade Ball in a thrilling finish.
The four-year-old surged home in the straight to strike in a photo-finish, making it four consecutive top-level wins in a row after wins in the Grand Prix Saint-Cloud, King George and Champion Stakes.
He scoops a whopping £2.6 million for the victory in prize-money and an additional £2.3 million bonus, having won the King George, one of the qualifying races in the invitation bonus scheme.
Mickael Barzalona positioned him in midfield and he surged home in Tokyo’s wide straight to break Almond Eye’s record time.
Barzalona and the jockey of eventual runner-up Christophe Lemaire shook hands shortly after passing the post together, with the two French riders pulling clear of the field. But Lemaire was one of two riders to unseat shortly after the line, with Keita Tosaki also unshipped on Danon Decile on his first start since the Juddmonte International.
Victory continues a brilliant season for connections after Daryz struck in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for Barzalona and trainer Francis-Henri Graffard.
Calandagan was the first visitor to prevail since the Luca Cumani-trained Alkaased prevailed under Frankie Dettori in 2005, while the wait for the last French-trained winner stretches to Le Glorieux in 1987.
How Calandagan was described prior to the race. It has been a long time since Europe let alone France had the best horse in the world
The win comes shortly after a brilliant display at Ascot
It is a small world! Ascot is on the doorstop of Eton – where I am today. Tokyo and Japan seem far away but for Calandagan they are just race tracks where he shows his immaculate talent.
When the video is available, I will post it here. I am not a racing man, I’m just a fan of this great sport and delighted that the Labour Government spared racing from the taxes that will hurt other areas of gambling.
Whether Japan, the American Breeders Cup or Britain, Ireland and Frances’s wonderful tracks, horse racing is a wonderful sport which we promote properly. You could have watched the race this morning at 6.30 am on Sky Sports!
It’s a multi-channel thing – wherever you look Canandagan is champ!
Born in Ireland, trained in France.
http://www.racingandsports.com.au/amp/thoroughbred/horse/calandagan/2075062
AI says
While Calandagan excels in the modern era, he falls short of all-time greats like Frankel (Timeform 147), Sea The Stars (140), or Winx (132 over multiple seasons), whose sustained brilliance across diverse distances and longer careers set unmatched benchmarks.
His current 130 rating places him among elite contemporaries but not in the pantheon of historical icons, as greatness often requires multiple seasons of unchallenged supremacy rather than one stellar year.
Experts praise his potential for further improvement at age four, yet historical comparisons emphasise the rarity of transcending eras.
Frankel won 14 of 14 races compared with Calandagan’s 8 of 14.
Do you agree, Henry?
A couple of things that make Calandagan’s future different from Frankel. Firstly he’s a gelding – so no kids and a longer career. Secondly , he runs over longer distances – one a half miles – not something Frankel did.
This is a little distressing to the French as their top race is for horses that do this 1 and a half mile thing but they have to have their balls to enter- Calandagan’s excluded – this makes QE2 and Japan Cup more prestigious. Calandagan’s top of what the world’s got but he wouldn’t beat Frankel over a mile!
Of course Frankel is nearly 18 now, so even a mile might be too much?
(Frankel stands at stud at Banstead Manor Stud at Cheveley in Cambridgeshire, where he was born.)
Or maybe not.
I’m reminded from another sport of Dean Jones, an Australian middle-order batsman, asking Sir Donald Bradman in Adelaide how he would have fared against the West Indies attack of the 1988/89 tour, after they’d won a 5-test series 3-1.
Bradman indicated that he would probably have averaged 60 or 70 against them.
The admission took Jones (who had made 216 in the first innings of the final test) and his Australian team-mates by surprise.
Sixty or seventy, that wasn’t a lot for The Don?
But before anybody had the chance to speak Bradman said: “But I am 80 years old now.”