Six-year-old favorite T O Royal unleashed a furious sprint around the final turn and the home stretch to win the spring Tenno-Sho in the race's 169th running Sunday.
The victory, by two lengths over 3,200 meters on turf at Kyoto Racecourse, was the first Grade-1 win for T O Royal, trainer Inao Okada and jockey Yuji Hishida.
"I don't have words for this," Hishida said. "I was surprised at how calm I was, and my thoughts drifted back to 20 years earlier when I came to see this race. I want to say thank you to that boy and to all the people who have supported me since then."
Runner-up Blow the Horn ran into traffic ahead of its final sprint and was forced to make an extra-wide turn into the final stretch. And though it finished two lengths back, Blow the Horn nearly overtook the winner.
"I didn't see what was coming behind me. We were just going all out," Hishida said. "The horse was a little out of sorts before the race but moved forward well and found a tremendous rhythm."
Deep Bond was third, a half-length back of Blow the Horn.
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