It was the biggest betting race run anywhere in the world in 2020 - as well as being the joint sixth richest - so it’s only fitting that Sunday’s Arima Kinen at Nakayama in Japan should have the most significant impact of any in the final weekly update of the year to the TRC Global Rankings.
The 2,500-metre (1m4½f) highlight - reported wagering turnover ￥46,425,894,400 (around $450 million) - produced a thrilling contest (see video below) and a result that reinforced the reputation of year-end world #1 Almond Eye, as well as throwing sharp focus once again on the rate of success fillies and mares are having (surely the time has come to rethink the weight allowance they receive in open races).
Winner Chrono Genesis climbs 15 places to #25 in the standings, making her the fourth-highest-ranked horse trained in Japan, behind Almond Eye, Triple Crown hero Contrail (#6) and the outstanding miler Gran Alegria (#10). But she had to battle to do it, overcoming a field of 16 that included eight G1 winners, notably the dual Tenno Sho (Spring) winner Fierement, the mount of world #2 jockey Christophe Lemaire, who started second favourite behind Chrono Genesis and lost out in a driving finish, beaten two necks. Runner-up was the first-finishing Salacia, a 5-year-old Deep Impact mare who has improved notably for a step up in trip.
Chrono Genesis, who was winning her third G1, last ran at the start of November, when a close third to Almond Eye and Fierement in the Tenno Sho (Autumn), and she will certainly be a tough nut to crack in 2021, when chief among her rivals will be the two Triple Crown winners Contrail and the filly Daring Tact (currently world-ranked 28).
The Arima Kinen is one of two ‘Grand Prix’ races in Japan in which the runners are selected by a public vote. The other is June’s G1 Takarazuka Kinen (over 2,000 metres - ten furlongs), which was also won by Chrono Genesis. The Bago filly is now the 15th horse and the second mare to take both Grand Prix, following Lys Gracieux last year.
Worldwide, fillies and mares have had a spectacular 2020 (there are six of them in the top ten in the TRC standings), and nowhere illustrates that better than Japan. The Arima Kinen was the ninth G1 open to runners of both sexes to fall to a female this year.
This has also been a vintage year for owners Sunday Racing (current world #7). This was their fifth Arima Kinen (a record for an owner) and their ninth JRA G1 win of 2020 (three with Gran Alegria, two each with Lucky Lilac and Chrono Genesis, one with Fierement and one with the juvenile Grenadier Guards) - a single-season ownership record.
With a purse of $6 million, the Arima Kinen is the joint richest race in Japan, alongside the Japan Cup. This year, only the Saudi Cup, The Everest, the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Melbourne Cup have been worth more.