On Sunday, the twenty-fifth running of the Japanese Gr1 Shuka Sho will also be one of the last top-level races to be held in view of the present Kyoto grandstand, which was built 40 years ago.
Renovations on the stand and the course are scheduled to start just after the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) on November 1 and are expected to take more than two years to complete.
No matter the outcome, there will be history made.
The race is the final leg of Japan’s fillies triple crown, which starts in the spring with the mile-long Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) and the 2400-meter Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks).
With the relaxing of Covid-19 measures from last weekend and limited admission now permitted to JRA racetracks, the Shuka Sho will be only the second Gr1 race this year to be held with racing fans in the stands, and the first Gr1 since the February Stakes.
Amid so many historical moments, nothing would be more fitting than to see the crowning of a filly triple crown champion.
And that could well happen if the unbeaten Daring Tact holds tight to her pristine race record.
If Daring Tact can top the field once again, she’ll become only the sixth filly to sweep the classics and the first to do it unbeaten
