Croix du Nord wins Tenno Sho, survives nose finish at Kyoto

Croix du Nord looked like a top-class stayer for most of the straight, then nearly let the 173rd Tenno Sho (Spring) slip away in the last few jumps at Kyoto. The 4-year-old colt held on by only a nose over stable line rival Wurttemberg after a tense 3,200-meter test that exposed just how much pressure the race put on him.

The margin mattered because the finish was far shakier than the bare result suggests. Yuichi Kitamura had Croix du Nord travelling enthusiastically early from stall 7, with only five runners ahead of him as Mystery Way controlled the pace. When the tempo began to collapse on the home turn, Kitamura asked for a move and Croix du Nord immediately quickened into a clear lead. The race then flipped into a serious scare: the colt began to tire late, Wurttemberg stormed up from stall 15, and the photo finish went on long enough that Kitamura did not know whether he had won.

For Takashi Saito, it was a first Tenno Sho victory as a trainer, and for Kitamura it was also a first in the race. The result carried extra weight because Croix du Nord entered off his April 5 Osaka Hai win, listed by the JRA as his third G1 title, and already had a deep résumé that includes Japan’s 2024 Best Two-Year-Old Colt award, a perfect three-for-three juvenile campaign, the Tokyo Yushun, and a run in France. At Kyoto, he needed every inch of the final run to the line.

The broader significance goes beyond one photo finish. Croix du Nord and Wurttemberg are both by Kitasan Black, whose bloodline continues to define Japanese staying races. Kitasan Black won the Tenno Sho (Spring) in 2016 and 2017, and the 2017 edition set the race record at 3:12.5. Croix du Nord’s nose decision reinforced that lineage even as it exposed the colt’s vulnerability when stretched to 3,200 meters for the first time.

The race itself delivered the kind of elite staying test the Tenno Sho has built its reputation on. Run at 3,200 meters since 1938, moved to Kyoto in 1948 and international since 2005, this year’s running drew 18 runners and ¥651,000,000 in prize money. Admire Terra finished third, Redentor was fifth, and Croix du Nord emerged with the result that matters most, even if the final image was more nervy than dominant.