The Keeneland Cup () is a Grade 3 horse race for Thoroughbreds aged three and above. It is run in August over a distance of 1200 meters on turf at Sapporo Racecourse, located in Chūō-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. It serves as a trial race for the Sprinters Stakes, which takes place annually in late September or early October, with the winner of the race being given an entry slot to the race since 2014.
The Keeneland Cup was first run in 1996 as an open class race over a distance of 1000 meters before the distance was extended to the current 1200 meters in 2000. It would hold a Grade 3 status since 2006. It was run at Hakodate Racecourse in 2013.
It is named after the Keeneland racecourse and breeding operations, with the winner being awarded a trophy from the Keeneland Association.
Weight 55 kg for three-year-old, 57 kg for four-year-old and above.
Allowances:
2 kg for fillies / mares 1 kg for southern hemisphere bred three-year-old
Penalties (excluding two-year-old race performance):
If a graded stakes race has been won within a year: 2 kg for a grade 1 win (1 kg for fillies / mares) 1 kg for a grade 2 win If a graded stakes race has been won for more than a year: 1 kg for a grade 1 win
Winners since 2006 Year Winner Age Jockey TrainerOwner Time 2006 Cheerful Smile 6 Yasunari Iwata Yasuo IkeeAcademy 1:08.4 2007 Couverture 3 Norihiro Yokoyama Sakae KuniedaHidaka Breeders Union 1:08.6 2008 Tanino Martini 8 Shinichiro Akiyama Hikozo SugaiYuzo Tanimizu 1:07.9 2009 B B Guldan 5 Katsumi Ando Masazo RyokeBando Bokujo 1:08.4 2010 One Carat 4 Yusuke Fujioka Kenichi FujiokaYoichi Aoyama 1:08.4 2011 Curren Chan 4 Kenichi Ikezoe Takayuki YasudaTakashi Suzuki 1:08.6 2012 Pas de Trois 5 Katsumi Ando Ippo SameshimaTeruya Yoshida 1:07.6 2013 Forever Mark 5 Issei Murata Eiichi YanoYoichi Aoyama 1:11.7 2014 Robe Tissage 4 Kousei Miura Naosuke SugaiSilk 1:09.0 2015 Ukiyono Kaze 5 Hirofumi Shii Takanori KikuzawaJun Kokubu 1:08.6 2016 Blanc Bonheur 3 Keita Tosaki Kazuya NakatakeYoko Maeda 1:08.5 2017 Epoisses 9 Christophe Lemaire Kazuo FujisawaNobutaka Tada 1:09.0 2018 Nac Venus 5 João Moreira Hiroaki SugiuraKinya Komatsu 1:09.4 2019 Danon Smash 4 Yuga Kawada Takayuki YasudaDanox 1:09.2 2020 Eighteen Girl 4 Ryusei Sakai Yuji IidaYasushi Nakayama 1:10.6 2021 Lei Halia 3 Heart Kameda Toshiaki TajimaHidaka Breeders Union 1:09.1 2022 Vento Voce 5 Christophe Lemaire Mitsunori MakiuraEden Association 1:09.1 2023 Namura Clair 4 Suguru Hamanaka Kodai HasegawaMutsuhiro Namura 1:09.92024Satono Reve5Damian LaneNoriyuki HoriHajime Satomi1:07.92025Panja Tower3Kohei MatsuyamaShinsuke HashiguchiDeep Creek Ltd, Co.1:08.22026Sound Moryana4Yutaka TakeHidenori TakeYuichi Masuda1:07.7
The 2013 race took place at Hakodate Racecourse.
Earlier Winners Year Winner Age Jockey TrainerOwner Time 1996 Ogi Tiffany 5 Hiroshi Gohara Hiroyuki GoharaOgifushi Bokujo Racing Club 0:56.5 1997 A.P.Rahy 5 Yasuhiko Yasuda Hiroshi TakedaDel Mar Club 0:57.2 1998 Super Nakayama 4 Katsuharu Tanaka Kazuo KonishiShinwa Shokai 0:58.1 1999 Symboli Sword 4 Yukio Okabe Kazuo FujisawaSymboli Stud 0:58.5 2000 Mejiro Darling 4 Koshiro Take Yokichi OkuboMejiro Stud 1:09.5 2001 Epigraph 4 Mikio Matsunaga Kenji YamauchiHideo Yokoyama 1:09.4 2002 Blue Shotgun 3 Mikio Matsunaga Kohei TakeOgifushi Racing Club 1:09.5 2003 Takao Ruby 3 Takanori Kikuzawa Isamu ShibasakiTerada Komuten 1:08.4 2004 Lord Dalmatian 5 Mikio Matsunaga Masanori ItoLord Horse Club 1:09.3 2005 More Than Best 3 Fuyuki Igarashi Yoshitaka NinomiyaMasako Iida 1:08.9
See also Horse racing in Japan List of Japanese flat horse races
References Netkeiba: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,