Aoba Sho

Horse race in Japan

Horse race

Aoba Sho
青葉賞
Race information
Grade 2 race
2024 Aoba Sho winner Sugar Kun
Location	Tokyo Racecourse
Race type	Thoroughbred Flat racing
Distance	2400 metres
Surface	Turf
Track	Left-handed
Qualification	3-y-o
Weight	57 kg Allowance: Fillies 2 kg
Purse	¥ 117,540,000 (as of 2024) 1st: ¥ 54,000,000 2nd: ¥ 22,000,000 3rd: ¥ 14,000,000

The Aoba Sho (Japanese 青葉賞) is a Japanese Grade 2 flat horse race in Japan for three-year-old Thoroughbreds. It is run over a distance of 2400 metres at Tokyo Racecourse in April.^[1]

The Aoba Sho was first run in 1984 and was elevated to Grade 3 status in 1994 before being promoted to Grade 2 in 2001. It serves as a trial race for the Tokyo Yushun, with the winner and second place each awarded a slot for the race.^[2]

Among the winners of the race have been Symboli Kris S, Zenno Rob Roy and Fenomeno.

Winners since 2000

Year	Winner	Jockey	Trainer	Owner	Time
2000	Carnegie Daian	Shinji Fujita	Hiroyoshi Matsuda	Toshikazu Higuchi	2:28.2
2001	Le Zele	Hiroki Goto	Yasuhito Tamura	Takashi Kurisaka	2:26.9
2002	Symboli Kris S	Yutaka Take	Kazuo Fujisawa	Symboli Stud	2:26.4
2003	Zenno Rob Roy	Norihiro Yokoyama	Kazuo Fujisawa	Shinobu Osako	2:26.3
2004	Higher Game	Masayoshi Ebina	Yokichi Okubo	Hiroyoshi Usuda	2:24.1
2005	Dantsu Kitcho	Shinji Fujita	Kenji Yamauchi	Tetsuji Yamamoto	2:26.9
2006	Admire Main	Yutaka Take	Mitsuru Hashida	Riichi Kondo	2:25.3
2007	Hiraboku Royal	Koshiro Take	Ryuji Okubo	Hirata Farm	2:26.3
2008	Admire Commando	Yuga Kawada	Mitsuru Hashida	Riichi Kondo	2:26.9
2009	Apres Un Reve	Hiroyuki Uchida	Yasuo Ikee	Sunday Racing	2:26.2
2010	Pelusa	Norihiro Yokoyama	Kazuo Fujisawa	Hidetoshi Yamamoto	2:24.3
2011	Win Variation	Katsumi Ando	Masahiro Matunaga	WIN	2:28.8
2012	Fenomeno	Masayoshi Ebina	Hirofumi Toda	Sunday Racing	2:25.7
2013	Hiraboku Deep	Masayoshi Ebina	Sakae Kunieda	Hirata Farm	2:26.2
2014	Shonan Lagoon	Yutaka Yoshida	Yokichi Okubo	Tetsuhide Kunimoto	2:26.5
2015	Reve Mistral	Yuga Kawada	Hiroyoshi Matsuda	Sunday Racing	2:26.9
2016	Vanquish Run	Hiroyuki Uchida	Katsuhiko Sumii	Takaya Shimada	2:24.2^[3]
2017	Admirable	Mirco Demuro	Hidetaka Otonahi	Eiko Kondo	2:23.6^[4]
2018	Go For The Summit	Masayoshi Ebina	Kazuo Fujisawa	Hidetoshi Yamamoto	2:24.4^[5]
2019	Lion Lion	Norihiro Yokoyama	Mikio Matsunaga	Chiyono Terada	2:25.0
2020	Authority	Lyle Hewitson	Tetsuya Kimura	Silk Racing	2:23.0
2021	Wonderful Town	Ryuji Wada	Yoshitada Takahashi	Masahiro Mita	2:25.2
2022	Pradaria	Kenichi Ikezoe	Manabu Ikezoe	Nagoya Yuho CO., LTD	2:24.2
2023	Skilfing	Christophe Lemaire	Tetsuya Kimura	Carrot Farm	2:23.9
2024	Sugar Kun	Yutaka Take	Hisashi Shimizu	Yorikatsu Tsujiko	2:24.2

Earlier winners

1984 - Rush And Go
1985 - Hamano Captain
1986 - Sunny Light
1987 - Chokai Fleet
1988 - Gakuen To Beat
1989 - Sir Pen Up
1990 - Bigmouth
1991 - Leo Durban
1992 - Golden Zeus
1993 - Stage Champ
1994 - Air Dublin
1995 - Summer Suspicion
1996 - Mountain Stone
1997 - Tokio Excellent
1998 - Tayasu Again
1999 - Painted Black

References

Netkeiba:^[6]^[7]
- 1994 en, 1995 en, 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, 2024 en

^ "Aoba Sho". Horse Racing in Japan.
^ "歴史・コース：テレビ東京杯青葉賞　今週の注目レース　JRA". jra.jp (in Japanese). Japan Racing Association. Archived from the original on 2024-04-21. Retrieved 2024-05-27.
^ "2016 result". Racing Post. 30 April 2016.
^ "2017 result". Racing Post. 29 April 2017.
^ "2018 result". Racing Post. 28 April 2018.
^ "青葉賞". Netkeiba.
^ "TV Tokyo Hai Aoba Sho". Netkeiba.

List of Japanese Grade II horse races

(Note: JRA races bracketed with "exchange" below, and all dirt/3-year-old races are Japan Racing Association(JRA)-National Association of Racing(NAR) exchange races)

Japan Racing Association(JRA) GII races
(International GII)