NHK Mile Cup

Grade 1 race
The 14th NHK Mile Cup (第14回NHKマイルカップ)
Location	Tokyo Racecourse, Fuchu, Tokyo, Tokyo
Inaugurated	1996
Race type	Thoroughbred
Website	japanracing.jp/
Race information
Distance	1600 meters (About 8 furlongs / 1 mile)
Surface	Turf
Track	Left-handed
Qualification	3-y-o, colts & Fillies only, Thoroughbreds
Weight	Colt 57 kg, Filly 55 kg; 2 kg allowance for Southern Hemisphere-breds
Purse	¥ 281,800,000 (as of 2023) 1st: ¥ 130,000,000

The 6th (2001) winner Kurofune

The NHK Mile Cup (NHKマイルカップ, NHK Mairu Kappu) is a Grade 1 flat horse race in Japan for three-year-old thoroughbred colts and fillies, run over a distance of 1,600 metres (approximately one mile) on the turf at Tokyo Racecourse in May.^[1]

The NHK Mile Cup is sponsored by the Japanese public broadcasting organization NHK, and as such, it is broadcast not only on Fuji TV (one of NHK's competitors) but on one of the NHK channels that cover horse racing (NHK General TV; the other, BS-1, covers certain other races such as the Japan Cup). (In Japanese horseracing, "Sponsor" does not mean that an individual or organization provides prize money. They provide only the prize, cup, trophy etc.)

Before the year 2001, this was the only G1 race for colts and fillies that non-Japanese bred three-year-olds could participate in, which led to this race being considered informally as the "Japanese Derby for non-Japanese bred horses" until foreign-bred entry restrictions were lifted in 2001. Until 2010 it was limited to domestic-trained horses, but this restriction was removed that year (as for the Japanese classics). A maximum of nine foreign horses are allowed entry in the NHK Mile Cup. It is considered one of the prep races for both the Yushun Himba (the Japanese Oaks) and the Tokyo Yushun (the Japanese Derby).^[2]

Step races

Of the above races the New Zealand Trophy is the only formal trial for the NHK Mile Cup. The first three finishers in the former gain the right to participate in the latter. If a horse from the National Association of Racing (NAR) finishes in the first three in the New Zealand Trophy, at most two extra participation rights will be issued for runners in the other four races.

Winners

(Winners in italic are also later winners from either Yushun Himba or Tokyo Yushun that year)

See also

• Horse racing in Japan
• List of Japanese flat horse races

References

• Racing Post:
  • 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
  • 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
  • 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023

• Netkeiba:^[3][4]
  • 1996 en, 1997 en, 1998 en, 1999 en, 2000 en, 2001 en, 2002 en, 2003 en, 2004 en, 2005 en, 2006 en, 2007 en, 2008 en, 2009 en, 2010 en, 2011 en, 2012 en, 2013 en, 2014 en, 2015 en, 2016 en, 2017 en, 2018 en, 2019 en, 2020 en, 2021 en, 2022 en, 2023 en