Croix du Nord targets historic spring Triple Crown at Takarazuka Kinen

Croix du Nord is going to Hanshin with a chance to do something no horse has ever done: complete the Spring Triple Crown by adding the Takarazuka Kinen to wins in the Osaka Hai and Tenno Sho (Spring). That is why this is not just another Grade 1 entry. It is the final, and hardest, leg of a sequence that stretches a horse from 2000 meters to 3200 meters and back to 2200 meters, then drops it into one of Japan’s most loaded fan-driven fields.

The 2026 Takarazuka Kinen is set for Sunday, June 14 at Hanshin Racecourse, with declarations closing June 11. The race is run over 2200 meters on turf and carries total prize money of ¥651,000,000, including ¥300,000,000 to the winner. As one of Japanese racing’s two fan-voted All-Star races, alongside the Arima Kinen, it usually brings together the ten horses that earn the most fan votes, with the rest of the field filled out by earnings. That voting system matters here: Croix du Nord will not just have to prove he belongs, he will have to beat a crowd that should include proven names and popular runners.

He arrives after winning the Tenno Sho (Spring) on May 3 at Kyoto by a nose, a result that gave him his fourth Group 1 victory and made him the first Derby winner to capture that race since Meisho Samson in 2007. The victory also sharpened the Kitasan Black storyline. Kitasan Black won the Tenno Sho (Spring) in 2016 and 2017, and now his son is trying to turn that same staying pedigree into a rare speed-and-stamina double at 2200 meters.

That is what makes Croix du Nord so compelling for bettors and fans alike. The form says he can handle elite company. The margin says he knows how to win ugly. But the assignment changes again at Takarazuka Kinen, where he must turn a grinding 3200-meter win into a sharp enough performance against a stacked field. Meisho Tabaru, the reigning Takarazuka Kinen winner, is the obvious obstacle. Regaleira adds another established Group 1 threat, and both raise the level of resistance in a race that already lives on depth.

Yuichi Kitamura rode Croix du Nord in the Tenno Sho (Spring), and Takashi Saito trained him through that breakthrough. If they do it again at Hanshin, they will not just land another trophy. They will finish a spring campaign that Japanese racing has never seen completed.