ENGLISH TEXTS
seconds— a value incompatible with horses lacking finishing speed. The average weight of winners, around 486.8 kg, illustrates a powerful yet agile model, usually in the 480 – 510 kg range. Males account for 68 % of winners, but the victorious females all belong to the upper category: Gentildonna and Almond Eye even won the race twice, an exceptional feat. From a betting perspective, the Japan Cup is an event rarely prone to upsets: 50 % of winners were favourites, and nearly 80 % were among the top three choices in the market. Finally, the tactical pattern is clearly defined: one must be able to follow a strong pace from the start and then produce a sharp acceleration in the final section. The draw is not decisive, but a good number helps conserve energy. Altogether, this has made the race hermetic to foreign challengers: the last winner trained outside Japan was Alkaased in 2005, twenty years of local resistance. The 2025 edition changes this landscape. Calandagan, a 4-yearold gelding trained in France by Francis-Henri Graffard, prevailed in a context particularly difficult for European horses, who are at the end of their racing season. His weight of 456 kg, far below the historical average of past winners and the lowest of the field, immediately placed him in an atypical category, more in line with European stayers than with the hybrid Japanese profiles. Despite this, he delivered a performance perfectly aligned with the race’ s demands. His final 600 metres in 33 " 2 sits within the elite winners’ range, and his final time of 2 ' 20 " 3 becomes the fastest of the modern era, surpassing the legendary Almond Eye( 2 ' 20 " 6). The difference, measured in a few hundredths, makes the performance exceptional. His race positioning reinforces this impression: Calandagan travelled in the rear third of the field, then unleashed a long, sustained acceleration in the home straight. His odds of 6.2, fourth choice, aligned exactly with historical market logic, which generally identifies true contenders. The victory is therefore not a market anomaly, but a technical breakthrough built on the ability of a lighter horse to exploit a very fast tempo. The reading of the beaten horses confirms this view. Masquerade Ball, second by a head, recorded a final 600 metres in 33 " 4— identical to recent Japanese stars— with a weight of 470 kg and early maturity. He essentially lost in the last 200 metres, unable to match the winner’ s change of gear. Danon Decile, third in 2 ' 20 " 8, remained very close to a classic-winning level, but his 33 " 8 finish marks a limit at very high cruising speeds. Croix du Nord, fourth, delivered a strong performance but his 34 " 4 was above the threshold required to win such a fast edition. Comparing these figures with the 2003 – 2024 reference frame, Calandagan satisfies 5 out of 6 criteria of the winner’ s profile:
• Age: perfect( 4 years)
• Final 600 metres: perfectly within the standard(< 34 s)
• Final time: exceptional
• Odds: consistent with betting hierarchy
His weight is the only parameter that diverges significantly from the Japanese matrix. This edition reveals several key elements. First, the overall lev- el rises again: three horses ran under 2’ 21’’, something that had never happened. Next, heavier profiles( over 500 kg) showed their limits in races run at extremely high intensity, confirming a trend already visible for five years. Finally, the close finishes of two 3-year-old Japanese horses( Masquerade Ball and Croix du Nord) in the top five reflect the rising level of new generations. Calandagan’ s success demonstrates that a foreign horse lighter than the local opposition, agile, possessing continuous speed and optimised energy management, can now challenge the best Japanese runners when the tempo increases the importance of mechanical efficiency over pure power. It is a rare shift, but built on indisputable technical foundations. And for the first time in twenty years, the fortress of the Japan Cup has trembled.
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REPOR- TAGE
MAISONS-LAFFITTE: BACK IN THE RACE?
BY MÉLODIE JANVIER
Wednesday, 12 November 2025, will remain a date carved in stone for the Maisons-Laffitte racecourse. Six years after its closure, racehorses once again set foot on the turf of the mythical racecourse, and even if it was only for training gallops, the joy among industry professionals was palpable. After pony races were held there in September and with the announcement that
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