Tennō Shō (Spring)

The Tennō Shō (Spring)(天皇賞（春）; lit.'Emperor Prize (Spring)') is an International Grade I horse race held at Kyoto Racecourse, Japan in late April or early May. It is run over a distance of 3,200 metres (10,500 ft) on turf, and is the longest Grade 1 race in Japan.

Deep Impact won the 2006 version of the race setting the world record for a 3,200-metre race with a time of 3:13.4, beating the World Record set in the 1988 Wellington Cup by Daria's Fun, held for almost 20 years of 3:15.59, the closest time run in the Melbourne Cup is 3:16.3. Deep Impact's record stood until Kitasan Black won in 3:12.5 in 2017. The average time for the Tennō Shō from 1990 to 2018 is 3:16.7, while the same for the Melbourne Cup is 3:21.1, a difference of 4.4 seconds. In the race's history only one mare has won; Leda, in 1953.

Winners since 1990

Year	Winner	Age	Jockey	Trainer	Owner	Time
1990	Super Creek	5	Yutaka Take	Syuuji Itou	Makoto Kikura	3:21.9
1991	Mejiro McQueen	4	Yutaka Take	Yasuo Ikee	Mejiro Stud	3:18.8
1992	Mejiro McQueen	5	Yutaka Take	Yasuo Ikee	Mejiro Stud	3:20.0
1993	Rice Shower	4	Hitoshi Matoba	Yoshitsugu Iizuka	Hideo Kurabayashi	3:17.1
1994	Biwa Hayahide[a]	4	Yukio Okabe	Mitsumasa Hamada	Biwa Co Ltd	3:22.6
1995	Rice Shower	6	Hitoshi Matoba	Yoshitsugu Iizuka	Hideo Kurabayashi	3:19.9
1996	Sakura Laurel	5	Norihiro Yokoyama	Katsutarou Sakai	Sakura Commerce	3:17.8
1997	Mayano Top Gun	5	Seiki Tabara	Masahiro Sakaguchi	Yuu Tadokoro	3:14.4
1998	Mejiro Bright	4	Hiroshi Kawachi	Hidekazu Asami	Mejiro Stud	3:15.3
1999	Special Week	4	Yutaka Take	Toshiaki Shirai	Hiroyoshi Usuda	3:17.1
2000	T. M. Opera O	4	Ryuji Wada	Ichizo Iwamoto	Masatsugu Takezono	3:17.6
2001	T. M. Opera O	5	Ryuji Wada	Ichizo Iwamoto	Masatsugu Takezono	3:16.2
2002	Manhattan Cafe	4	Masayoshi Ebina	Futoshi Kojima	Ken Nishikawa	3:19.5
2003	Hishi Miracle	4	Koichi Tsunoda	Masaru Sayama	Masaichiro Abe	3:17.0
2004	Ingrandire	5	Norihiro Yokoyama	Yoshinami Shimizu	Chizu Yoshida	3:18.4
2005	Suzuka Mambo	4	Katsumi Ando	Mitsuru Hashida	Keiji Nagai	3:16.5
2006	Deep Impact	4	Yutaka Take	Yasuo Ikee	Makoto Kaneko	3:13.4
2007	Meisho Samson	4	Mamoru Ishibashi	Shigetada Takahashi	Yoshio Matsumoto	3:14.1
2008	Admire Jupiter	5	Yasunari Iwata	Yasuo Tomomichi	Riichi Kondo	3:15.1
2009	Meiner Kitz	6	Masami Matsuoka	Sakae Kunieda	Thoroughbred Club Ruffian	3:14.4
2010	Jaguar Mail	6	Craig Williams	Noriyuki Hori	Kazumi Yoshida	3:15.7
2011	Hiruno d'Amour	4	Shinji Fujita	Mitsugu Kon	Hashimoto Bokujo	3:20.6
2012	Beat Black	5	Syu Ishibashi	Hitoshi Nakamura	Koji Maeda	3:13.8
2013	Fenomeno	4	Masayoshi Ebina	Hirofumi Toda	Sunday Racing	3:14.2
2014	Fenomeno	5	Masayoshi Ebina	Hirofumi Toda	Sunday Racing	3:15.1
2015	Gold Ship	6	Norihiro Yokoyama	Naosuke Sugai	Kobayashi Eiichi Holdings	3:14.7
2016	Kitasan Black	4	Yutaka Take	Hisashi Shimizu	Ono Shoji	3:15.3
2017	Kitasan Black	5	Yutaka Take	Hisashi Shimizu	Ono Shoji	3:12.5
2018	Rainbow Line	5	Yasunari Iwata	Hidekazu Asami	Masahiro Mita	3:16.2
2019	Fierement	4	Christophe Lemaire	Takahisa Tezuka	Sunday Racing	3:15.0
2020	Fierement	5	Christophe Lemaire	Takahisa Tezuka	Sunday Racing	3:16.5
2021	World Premiere[b]	5	Yuichi Fukunaga	Yasuo Tomomichi	Ryoichi Otsuka	3:14.7
2022	Titleholder[b]	4	Kazuo Yokoyama	Toru Kurita	Hiroshi Yamada	3:16.2
2023	Justin Palace	4	Christophe Lemaire	Haruki Sugiyama	Masahiro Miki	3:16.1
2024	T O Royal	6	Yuji Hishida	Inao Okada	Tomoya Ozasa	3:14.2
2025	Redentor	4	Damian Lane	Tetsuya Kimura	U Carrot Farm	3:14.0

a The 1994 race was contested at Hanshin Racecourse. b The 2021 and 2022 races were contested at Hanshin Racecourse, due to construction at Kyoto Racecourse.

Tennō Shō (Spring)

Winners since 1990

Earlier winners

See also