Japan’s sire race tightens as Kizuna, Kitasan Black, Lord Kanaloa duel

Kizuna, Kitasan Black and Lord Kanaloa finished June with only ¥76,957,000 separating first from third, leaving Japan’s leading sire race on a knife edge. BloodHorse’s June 26 standings put Kizuna on top at ¥2,454,877,000, with Kitasan Black at ¥2,385,662,000 and Lord Kanaloa at ¥2,377,920,000. In a title fight driven by elite runners and prize-money spikes, the margin is thin enough that one major placing can turn the order.

Kizuna has the clearest recent push. Sixpence, his son, won the Yasuda Kinen on June 7 at Tokyo Racecourse and earned ¥180,000,000 for a first Group 1 victory. That one result added real ballast to a sire already carrying the weight of a 2024 breakthrough, when Kizuna topped Japan’s sire standings for the first time, his progeny earned ¥4,759,448,000, and he sired 12 graded stakes winners, including Justin Milano in the Satsuki Sho. Kizuna then repeated at the top of the 2025 JRA sire rankings.

Kitasan Black answered through Croix du Nord, who finished second in the June 14 Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin Racecourse and collected ¥120,000,000. He also had Gaia Force dead-heat for second with World’s End in the Yasuda Kinen, a double hit that kept him within striking distance even as Kizuna held the lead. On a separate June 24 JBIS-Search update, Kitasan Black was listed first, with Kizuna second and Lord Kanaloa third, a reminder of how quickly the order can move when different update dates and earnings filters are applied.

Lord Kanaloa remains the wild card. World’s End’s dead-heat second in the Yasuda Kinen gave him a useful boost, and his camp still has the appeal of a stallion who has finished second in Japan’s leading sire rankings for five straight years. He has yet to land the crown, but the gap is small enough that one late-season Group 1 could still change that. The broader backdrop is stark: Deep Impact ruled Japan for 11 straight years from 2012 to 2022, Sunday Silence for 13 straight years from 1995 to 2007, and Kizuna is now the first stallion to give Japan three consecutive generations of sire champions.

The second half now belongs to the horses with the biggest engines. Kizuna has the current edge, Kitasan Black has the most obvious challenger in Croix du Nord, and Lord Kanaloa has the depth to keep landing punches through the autumn. With the leading trio this tight, the next elite finish may decide more than a weekly ranking.