Princess Zahra (owner), Francis Graffard (trainer) and Mickael Barzalona (jockey) talk about how the European Horse of the Year ended a 20-year drought for overseas visitors in Japan’s most celebrated race.
Calandagan became the first overseas horse to win the Japan Cup for two decades on Sunday [Nov 30] when he got the better of favourite Masquerade Ball in a thrilling finish at Tokyo racecourse.
In front of a crowd of 77,029, the four-year-old gelding produced his trademark finishing burst to score by a head – in a stakes record time of 2m20.3s for the 2,400 metres (about a mile and a half).
Sent off a 5.2-1 shot, the European Horse of the Year was completing a G1 four-timer following victories in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and the Champion Stakes at Ascot.
The son of Gleneagles, who carries the famous colours of the late Aga Khan’s stud operation, was completing a memorable year for his trainer Francis-Henri Graffard, whose tally of 14 top-level level victories in 2025 establishes a new record mark for a French-based trainer.
Calandagan is the first overseas winner of the Japan Cup since Alkaased scored for Luca Cumani in 2005, and only the second French-trained winner (following Le Glorieux in 1987). No horse trained outside Japan had made the frame in the ¥1.090bn ($7.05m/£5.37m) contest since dual Breeders’ Cup winner Conduit finished fourth in 2009.
Here’s what the Calandagan team had to say after a famous victory.
Princess Zahra (owner)
It has been a very good year thanks to the people sitting next to me and the rest of the team – it’s, I think, the best year we’ve had in a very long time.
Of course, I miss my father very much and he was involved, but in terms of the operation, I think we continue to do what we need to do, and with the new training policies thanks to Francis and in collaboration with Mickael, we’ve had a fantastic year.
Calandagan is a good horse – he’s trained and has improved throughout the year. Both Francis and Mickael know how to read the horse and bring him to the best place on the right day at the right time.
I don’t think our operation has ever had a Japan Cup runner before because we didn’t have a horse for the day. Calandagan, as Francis said to me at the beginning of the year, was the horse for this race and he had planned this for a very long time.
I wasn’t sure in March that we were going to get here. But it’s very amazing, the enthusiasm … we went to Shad
ai yesterday and saw the stallions there and the breeding operations. It’s fascinating to see the bloodlines that exist in this country – actually very remote to the bloodlines we have today standing in Europe, so it’s very interesting to me to see what Japan has produced in terms of stallions and bloodlines and I think it’s going to be fascinating to see what those bloodlines do in the future.
Calandagan is the perfect horse to travel for international races, and next year’s Japan Cup is an option. Of course, for next year, we never know, they're horses. But if we can, we can do it. If we can, we probably will.
It's been a great honour to win this race today and to be here. It's been truly an amazing experience.”
Francis-Henri Graffard (trainer)
I was really nervous before the race. It's one thing bringing the best horse in the world to this race but he faced a really high-quality field.
The horse traveled really well and he was in very good form coming to this race. As Princess Zahra said, we had planned that for some time, and everything went according to plan, and we were delighted with how the horse traveled. He was weighing 10 kilos more than before Dubai, so we knew the horse had improved through the season and we were very happy with it.
We were a little bit worried with the speed in the early parts of the race, but Mickael found a good lead behind Christophe Lemaire [on Masquerade Ball], and he travelled the whole way behind the right horse in the race, so that gave me a lot of confidence.
Everything seemed to go well and we never had any trouble in the running – but Christophe seemed to get a dream run through. He went a head up and I thought we were beaten but Calandagan is tough and he battled back; he was really, really brave. He’s an exceptional horse to have put his head in front on the line. He’s a real champion, as everybody saw today.
He is a very well-balanced horse; the mechanics of this horse are just unbelievable, and obviously, he has a very big heart. His action is fantastic – he is able to accelerate for a long period and keep that acceleration for a long time – so I think he has a physical attributes to be the champion he is.
Mickael Barzalona (jockey)
Calandagan has had some experience now and was very relaxed today – he was actually very quiet all the way before the race. We did a little bit of a warm-up canter before entering the gate and he broke quick from the gate.
We were a bit roughed up by the horses coming from the outside and it was tight in the beginning, but once we found our position and we found our rhythm, he traveled all the way very well. I'm very happy with where I ended up during the race, which is when Christophe came up with the favourite [Masquerade Ball].
I knew that a good horse like that could bring me very close but just when we got to the straight, I wasn't sure if he was going or not, so I had to give a clear run to Calandagan and started to increase my pace.
Chris, of course, actually was very close to us and he even got probably a head in front of me when we got to the top of the hill, but Calandagan was the strongest.
Calandagan had a perfect season and proved in Europe that he was the best and then coming here, he proved he was the best again in Japan.
Calandagan’s connections were speaking to the Japan Racing Association
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