Japan: Masquerade Ball looks to become fourth to win two runnings of Tenno Sho
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Masquerade Ball can become the fourth horse to win two runnings of the Grade 1 autumn running of the Tenno Sho at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday, yet he may not be favored.
As of Friday morning, the four-time Grade 1 winner Croix du Nord was 3-2 in early betting, the slightest choice over 8-5 Masquerade Ball. Those two outstanding 4-year-old colts are expected to dominate the $3.65 million race at 1 1/4 miles on turf that annually is a prep race for the Grade 1 Japan Cup at 1 1/2 miles at Tokyo Racecourse. This year’s Japan Cup will be run on Nov. 29.
Masquerade Ball and Croix do Nord were second and fourth behind the French shipper Calandagan in the Japan Cup last November. Calandagan, and the star British older horse Ombudsman, are candidates for this year’s Japan Cup.
Masquerade Ball is winless in two starts in Group 1 races this year, both outside of Japan – a second by a length in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup at 1 1/4 miles at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong in April, and a seventh-place finish in a field of nine in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at 1 1/2 miles at Ascot in Britain in July.
A winner of 4 of 10 starts, Masquerade Ball has been effective following a layoff in the past. He won the 2025 autumn running of the Tenno Sho five months after he finished second by three-quarters of a length behind Croix du Nord in the Grade 1 Japanese Derby in May 2025.
With a win on Sunday, Masquerade Ball would join Symboli Kris S (2002-2003), Almond Eye (2019-2020) and Equinox (2022-2023) as two-time winners of the autumn running of the Tenno Sho, a race first run in 1937.
Croix du Nord, the champion 2-year-old colt in Japan in 2024, has won 7 of 11 starts and has been in outstanding form in Japan this year. He won consecutive Grade 1 races in the Osaka Hai at 1 1/4 miles at Hanshin in April, and the spring running of the Grade 1 Tenno Sho at two miles at Kyoto in May.
In his most recent start, Croix du Nord was second by a neck to Meisho Tabaru in the Grade 1 Takarazuka Kinen at 1 3/8 miles at Hanshin on June 14.
Meisho Tabaru was 14th in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Oct. 4 and is not part of a field of 17 in Sunday’s Tenno Sho.
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