Croix du Nord leads weights for Japan's Tenno Sho Spring showdown

The weight release for Japan’s Tenno Sho Spring put the spotlight where it belonged: on Croix du Nord, the Derby winner and three-time Grade 1 horse trying a crushing 3,200 meters for the first time. At Kyoto Racecourse, where the race starts halfway down the backstretch, climbs hard into the first turn and finishes on a flat straight, the numbers did not hand out much mercy. The male runners carried 58 kilos, the mares 56, and the question was less who got a break than who could survive the trip.

Croix du Nord was the horse everyone watched because the ceiling was obvious. If he handled the distance, he would become the first Derby winner in 19 years to take the Tenno Sho Spring and only the ninth Derby winner overall to complete that double. He also would be chasing the same staying crown his sire, Kitasan Black, won twice, in 2016 and 2017. Takashi Saito said Croix du Nord had looked better in recent work and more professional in his handling, the kind of detail that matters when a top-class miler or classic horse is asked to keep finding for nearly two miles.

That is what makes the weights so interesting. Croix du Nord, Redentor and the other leading male contenders all faced the same 58-kilo assignment, so the race was not about a hidden handicap edge. It was about whether class could carry a horse through one of Japan’s harshest tests. The spring Tenno Sho has been run at 3,200 meters since 1939, making it the longest Grade 1 flat race in Japan, and Kyoto’s right-handed outer turf course has a way of exposing any weakness in stamina, rhythm or position.

Redentor was the main horse standing in Croix du Nord’s way. The defending champion was back to defend the crown he won in 2025, and Tetsuya Kimura said the horse had looked full of energy in his latest gallop and was being targeted at a back-to-back victory. That matters because Redentor already proved he could handle the trip, while Croix du Nord still had to prove it. In a race like this, that difference can decide the whole shape of the contest.

Shin Emperor added another layer after being rerouted from the GI Turf Classic at Churchill Downs to Kyoto. Assistant trainer Yukihiko Araki said the horse was doing fine after the switch, and that is no small point in a race built on stamina and tactical speed. The 173rd running carried JPY651 million in total purse money, with JPY300 million to the winner, and 16 horses aged 4 to 9 were nominated for 18 berths. The prize may be huge, but the real pressure came from the same old Tenno Sho Spring demand: stay every yard, or get swallowed by Kyoto.