Japan: Loves Only You named champion mare, Efforia Horse of the Year

Loves Only You, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf at Del Mar in November, was named Japan’s champion older filly and mare in awards announced earlier this week by the Japan Racing Association.

Loves Only You became the first Japanese-based runner to win a Breeders’ Cup race last year. Now retired, Loves Only You also won two Group 1 races in Hong Kong and the Group 2 Kyoto Kinen at Hanshin Racecourse in Japan through 2021.

Efforia was honored as Japan’s 2021 Horse of the Year and outstanding 3-year-old for a campaign in which he won 4 of 5 starts, including three Group 1 stakes – the Japanese 2000 Guineas in April, the autumn running of the Tenno Sho in October, and the Arima Kinen in December. The latter two races were against older horses and annually draw top-class runners.

Efforia is scheduled to race this year.

Other titles were given to Sodashi, 3-year-old filly; Do Deuce, 2-year-old colt; Circle of Life, 2-year-old filly; Contrail, older horse or colt; Gran Alegria, sprinter or miler; and T O Keynes, top dirt horse.