Horse racing fans have cast their votes to select the 16 runners for the Dec. 26 Arima Kinen (The Grand Prix, G1) at Nakayama Racecourse. Japan's year-end championship race worth ¥648,000,000, the co-highest purse of the Japan Racing Association, will include Efforia, who will make his bid for Japan's Horse of the Year title.
DMM Dream Club's Loves Only You is the leading candidate for Horse of the Year. She has collected three grade/group 1 victories this year, winning the FWD Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1) early in the year at Sha Tin, the Maker's Mark Breeders Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) at Del Mar in November, and most recently the Longines Hong Kong Cup (G1) in December at Sha Tin.
U Carrot Farm's Efforia won the Satsuki Sho (Japanese Two Thousand Guineas, G1) at Nakayama in April and the Tenno Sho (Autumn, G1) at Tokyo in October, defeating older horses including Contrail, who subsequently won Japan Cup (G1) in November.
If Efforia manages to win the Arima Kinen, horse racing journalists, who hold voting rights for JRA Awards, must make a hard decision between Loves Only You and Efforia.
Efforia's two main threats to beat in the Arima Kinen are Sunday Racing's Chrono Genesis and Shinji Maeda's Deep Bond, both of which represented Japan in the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) at ParisLongchamp in October.
