John Ingles looks at Equinox's potentially record-breaking Japan Cup bid and some of the horses who could be taking him on.
Being acclaimed as ‘the world’s best horse’ is a huge accolade, of course, but it comes with the weight of expectation every time that horse steps out onto the track. But for Equinox, who’s due to face international competition again, on home turf this time, in the Japan Cup later this month, it’s a burden he’s evidently carrying lightly on his big, black frame.
Last weekend at Tokyo, Equinox delivered his latest top-class performance when winning a fifth straight Group 1 contest in the Tenno Sho (Autumn), the race which had also begun that sequence of top-level victories 12 months earlier. By Japanese Group 1 standards, the field of 11 was small and Equinox’s task was a relatively straightforward one, even if his rivals did include one of the only two horses to have beaten him so far. That was Do Deuce who had Equinox a neck behind him in last year’s Japanese Derby, the Tokyo Yushun.
As it happened, Do Deuce didn’t prove a threat on this occasion, finishing only seventh as Equinox strolled to his seventh win from nine starts. But the most astonishing expect of his performance was the time of the race. Anything under two minutes for a mile and a quarter/2000m race is seriously quick, but Equinox stopped the clock in an official time of 1.55.20. A Japanese record for sure, and while claims that this was also a world record are harder to substantiate, that seems very plausible.
What we do know for sure is that Equinox shaved a whole second off the time set by Almond Eye – who raced in the same Silk Racing Co Ltd colours - when she won the first of her two editions of the Tenno Sho (Autumn) in 2019. Almond Eye also won two Japan Cups, the second of those coming four weeks after her second success in the 2020 Tenno Sho, the same double which Equinox will be attempting. Equinox’s sire Kitasan Black, incidentally, also won both races, but not in the same year.
Almond Eye set her own record – again prompting speculation that it was a world best – when she won her first Japan Cup in 2018 in a time of 2.20.6, so it will be interesting to see if Equinox can get anywhere near that should he be successful again later this month.
But fast times say much more about the prevailing conditions, particularly those underfoot, and the pace of a race than they do about the ability of the horse that sets that time. They don’t hang about in Japan, and the Tenno Sho, run on typically firm ground, was set up perfectly for Equinox to lower the record.
That said, Equinox is making something of a habit of breaking records because he also lowered the Meydan track record for a mile and a half by a second when winning the Dubai Sheema Classic there in March. That was all the more impressive given that he set his own pace rather having a ‘hare’ doing it for him. That was also Equinox’s only appearance outside Japan so far, not only showcasing his talent to an international audience for the first time but giving a sound beating to rivals who have given Equinox’s claims to being the world’s best a cast-iron look in the months that have followed.
The next three home in Dubai, Westover, Zagrey and Mostahdaf, have all won Group 1 contests since in Europe. The best of that trio, King George and Arc runner-up Westover, heads to Japan to take up stallion duties but it’s a pity injury has prevented him from taking on Equinox again first in the Japan Cup. Equinox’s form was also represented in the Arc by the Japanese mare Through Seven Seas. She finished a good fourth behind Ace Impact at Longchamp (under Equinox’s regular partner Christophe Lemaire) after running Equinox to a neck in the Takarazuka Kinen in June in which neither of them enjoyed ideal trips.
Fifth behind Equinox in the Sheema Classic was Japan’s 2022 winner of that race Shahryar, a former Japanese Derby winner, who wasn’t beaten far behind Auguste Rodin when third in the Breeders’ Cup Turf this weekend.
There hasn’t been an overseas-trained Japan Cup winner since Frankie Dettori partnered the Luca Cumani-trained Alkaased to victory in 2005 and the presence of Equinox in this year’s field certainly doesn’t make the task of challengers from elsewhere ending Japan’s dominance of their most international contest any easier.
In the absence of Auguste Rodin, one who could be set to try is stablemate Continuous who was fifth in the Arc last time after winning the St Leger. He’ll need to draw on the giant-killing abilities of his sire Heart’s Cry who inflicted the only defeat on home turf on Auguste Rodin’s sire, the brilliant Deep Impact, winner of the Japan Cup in 2006. Continuous is no doubt on a mission to advertise himself to Japanese breeders before a probable stallion career at some stage back in the land of his birth. Thriving in recent months and proven on much firmer ground than he had when winning at Doncaster, Continuous should be suited by the strong pace of a Japan Cup.
Another who should have the race run to suit is reliable French gelding Iresine. Starting his career in the French provinces but nowadays boasting a fine record at Longchamp, Iresine has been a prolific winner under his regular rider Marie Velon, with their latest success coming in last month’s Group 2 Prix du Conseil de Paris. Iresine is versatile trip-wise – he won the Prix Royal-Oak over nearly two miles last year and registered a second Group 1 win at Longchamp in the Prix Ganay over an extended mile and a quarter in the spring - but both those wins came in the mud and he’ll need some luck in running if ridden in customary style from well back in the field.
Among the other Japanese horses set to take on Equinox are last year’s Japan Cup winner Vela Azul, the aforementioned Do Deuce who will be partnered as usual by Yutaka Take, and Titleholder who, like Do Deuce, got bogged down in the Longchamp mud when contesting last year’s Arc but is a three-time Group 1 winner on firmer home turf.
But by far the most interesting of Equinox’s rivals is the three-year-old filly Liberty Island, winner of five of her six starts and unbeaten this term in the three races which comprise the Fillies’ Triple Crown. Almond Eye achieved the same treble before her first Japan Cup win, as did Gentildonna before the first of her two Japan Cup victories in 2012. Liberty Island’s best performance came over the Japan Cup course and distance in the Japanese Oaks, the Yushun Himba, in July which she won most impressively by six lengths in a quick time. Liberty Island hacked up again in the Shuka Sho at Kyoto last time, and while the fillies she’s been beating so far are a far cry from a rival like Equinox, she looks to have a huge amount of ability and it will be fascinating to see how she measures up against him.
Anything other than a win for Equinox would constitute a surprise, however, and, fastest or not, there is one record which he is guaranteed to break should he be successful. He’s currently sixth on the list of highest Japanese earners but would jump to the top ahead of Almond Eye with the 500 million yen on offer to the winner of the Japan Cup.
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