Oka Sho (Japanese 1,000 Guineas) Preview, Tips, Runners & Trends

Horse Racing stats man, Andy has contributed to OLBG for 18 years - An Ipswich fan and F1 fanatic, he also contributes EFL football and Motor Sport opinion.

2025 Oka Sho Preview

The Oka Sho is a Grade 1 race in Japan which is the Japanese 1,000 Guineas and takes place at the Hanshin racetrack in April of each year and carries a purse of over £1.5m.

Established in 1939, the race, like the English equivalent is restricted to three-year-old fillies, it is contested over 1,600m (One MIle) on the outer turf course.

There are three trial races for this, the Tulip Sho and the Fillies' Revue which are both run here at Hanshin and where the top three finishes get spots and the Anemone Stakes, run at Nakayama where the top two are eligible for a place in this race.

The top five from this race get an automatic entry into the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) and Almond Eye (2018), Daring Tact (2020), Stars On Earth (2022) and Liberty Island (2023) have all recently done the double.

How competitive is the Oka Sho market? When looking at the over-rounds for the last 10 renewals, the most competitive market was in 2023 when the race had an over-round of 126%. The race in 2017 was a race that was most in the bookie's favour with an over-round of 129%, whilst on average over the last 10 renewals of the Oka Sho, the over-round has been 127%, which means the bookie expects to pay out £100 for every £127 which is bet.

Oka Sho Trends:

2025 Oka Sho Trends
Oka Sho Trend Analysis

Looking at the future form, is the winner worth following next time out? From the past 10 if you had followed the winner of the Oka Sho next time out then you would have backed a total of 4 winners. Backing all 9 runners who have been out since to win at SP next time out, would have returned an LSP of +2.20. Remember to bookmark the racing tips page so you can get easy access to the OLBG racing picks daily.

When looking over the past 10 renewals, a time of 1:31.10 was set by Sodashi in 2021, which is the quickest time over that period, the runner was trained by Naosuke Sugai and ridden by Hayato Yoshida. The slowest winning time was set in 2020 when Daring Tact won in a time of 1:36.10, booked to ride was Kohei Matsuyama on this Haruki Sugiyama trained runner.

These are the top three quickest-run Oka Sho over the last 10 renewals:

Sodashi (1:31.10) in 2021
Liberty Island (1:32.10) in 2023
Stellenbosch (1:32.20) in 2024

Oka Sho Past Winners

Here are the Oka Sho past winners for the last 10 renewals. Each row details the year of the race, the horse which won along with the age & weight of the horse. Also detailed is the stall where the horse came from and the total number of runners in the race. The trainer of the horse at the time of winning the Oka Sho as well as the jockey is also displayed along with the starting price the horse was sent off.

Year	Horse (Drawn)	Info
2024 1:32.20	Stellenbosch (JPN) 3yo 8-9 (12 of 18) 33/10	Joao Moreira Sakae Kunieda (JPN)
2023 1:32.10	Liberty Island (JPN) 3yo 8-9 (3 of 18) 3/5F	Yuga Kawada Mitsumasa Nakauchida (JPN)
2022 1:32.90	Stars On Earth (JPN) 3yo 8-9 (8 of 18) 135/10	Yuga Kawada Mizuki Takayanagi (JPN)
2021 1:31.10	Sodashi (JPN) 3yo 8-9 (4 of 18) 13/5	Hayato Yoshida Naosuke Sugai (JPN)
2020 1:36.10	Daring Tact (JPN) 3yo 8-9 (9 of 18) 16/5	Kohei Matsuyama Haruki Sugiyama (JPN)
2019 1:32.70	Gran Alegria (JPN) 3yo 8-9 (8 of 18) 12/5	Christophe-Patrice Lemaire Kazuo Fujisawa (JPN)
2018 1:33.10	Almond Eye (JPN) 3yo 8-9 (13 of 17) 29/10	Christophe-Patrice Lemaire Sakae Kunieda (JPN)
2017 1:34.50	Reine Minoru (JPN) 3yo 8-9 (10 of 17) 40/1	Kenichi Ikezoe Masaru Honda (JPN)
2016 1:33.40	Jeweler (JPN) 3yo 8-9 (13 of 18) 4/1	Mirco Demuro Kenichi Fujioka (JPN)
2015 1:36.00	Lets Go Donki (JPN) 3yo 8-9 (6 of 18) 92/10	Yasunari Iwata Tomoyuki Umeda (JPN)

Oka Sho Trainer Statistics

The leading trainer in the Oka Sho over the last 10 renewals is Sakae Kunieda who has won the race two times with those two winners coming from Almond Eye (2018) and Stellenbosch (2024).

Here are some of the top Oka Sho trainer statistics over the last 10 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

Trainer	R-W-P	Win	EW
Sakae Kunieda	7-2-3	+1.20	-1.40
Kenichi Fujioka	6-1-2	-1.00	-2.50
Mitsumasa Nakauchida	6-1-1	-4.40	-4.70
Naosuke Sugai	4-1-2	-0.40	-1.20
Kazuo Fujisawa	4-1-2	-0.60	-1.30
Masaru Honda	3-1-1	+38.00	+18.00
Mizuki Takayanagi	3-1-1	+11.50	+4.75
Tomoyuki Umeda	1-1-1	+9.20	+4.60
Haruki Sugiyama	1-1-1	+3.20	+1.60
Hideaki Fujiwara	7-0-0	-7.00	-7.00

Oka Sho Jockey Statistics

There are two leading jockeys in the Oka Sho over the last 10 renewals with both Yuga Kawada and Christophe-Patrice Lemaire who have both won the race two times. Yuga Kawada winners have been with Stars On Earth (2022) and Liberty Island (2023). Christophe-Patrice Lemaire winners have been with Almond Eye (2018) and Gran Alegria (2019).

Here are some of the top Oka Sho jockey statistics over the last 10 renewals (R = Runners, W = Winners, P = Places including winners, Win LSP is based on 1pt Win and EW LSP is based on 0.5pt Win & 0.5pt Place):

Jockey	R-W-P	Win	EW
Yuga Kawada	10-2-3	+6.10	-0.45
Christophe-Patrice Lemaire	9-2-5	-1.70	-2.85
Kenichi Ikezoe	9-1-3	+32.00	+13.00
Mirco Demuro	9-1-1	-4.00	-6.00
Yasunari Iwata	7-1-1	+3.20	-1.40
Kohei Matsuyama	7-1-1	-2.80	-4.40
Hayato Yoshida	4-1-1	-0.40	-1.70
Joao Moreira	1-1-1	+3.30	+1.65
Yutaka Take	9-0-3	-9.00	-7.50
Yuichi Fukunaga	8-0-2	-8.00	-7.00

2025 Oka Sho Trends

Favourites finishing positions (oldest to latest): 9, 4, 3, 2, 4, 2, 2, 10, 1, 2

The percentage shown is the percentage of the total number of runners who fell under that factor. High percentages are less appealing than lower ones as you would expect them to do well. The trend information is based on the available information on the racing post in terms of previous runs etc.

10 / 10 (45%) - Within the first 8 of the market
10 / 10 (49%) - No bigger than 40/1
10 / 10 (81%) - Placed within last 1 start
10 / 10 (89%) - Not BL/BR/GR in colour
9 / 10 (49%) - No bigger than 63/5 (Career)
9 / 10 (52%) - Highest Placed is not G2/LST/Cl2
9 / 10 (55%) - No bigger than 77/10 (LTO)
9 / 10 (62%) - Beaten no more -1½l (Debut)
9 / 10 (64%) - Furthest Placed 1m - 1m1f
9 / 10 (67%) - Highest Run is not G2/LST/Cl2
9 / 10 (68%) - Break of 27 - 118 days (Last Place)
9 / 10 (70%) - Beaten no more -2½l (LTO)
9 / 10 (79%) - Not in a G2/LST (Debut)
9 / 10 (87%) - In a field of 11 - 18 (LTO)
9 / 10 (88%) - Not in a LST/Cl2 (LTO)

If there is anything that you do not understand in this blog, please leave a comment or head over to the Horse Racing Terms and Abbreviations article which is available in the OLBG Betting School section.

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Oka Sho Trend Analysis

The trend factor which had produced 5+ winners and shows the best LSP, an LSP of +35.10 is when runners had 1 career place in the class. The worst performing factor that has failed to produce a single winner is when runners had 1 career place with the jockey, when backing these the trend shows a record of 0-68.

Here are the most recent winning draws along with the further placings in brackets:

2024: Winner in 12 (9,11) [18 Runners]
2023: Winner in 3 (9,14) [18 Runners]
2022: Winner in 8 (6,1) [18 Runners]
2021: Winner in 4 (18,2) [18 Runners]
2020: Winner in 9 (17,3) [18 Runners]

The course which has produced the most winners of the Oka Sho is Hanshin, there has been a total number of 7 winners of this race who ran at Hanshin last time out.

Looking over the past renewals, these are the stallions whose offspring have produced multiple winners of the Oka Sho:

Duramente (2 Wins)
Epiphaneia (2 Wins)

These are the stallions whose offspring have not produced a winner of the Oka Sho despite multiple attempts:

Kizuna (0 Wins from 9 runners)
Harbinger (0 Wins from 7 runners)
Hearts Cry (0 Wins from 7 runners)
Just A Way (0 Wins from 5 runners)
Rulership (0 Wins from 5 runners)

Looking at the winning odds over the last 10 renewals, the biggest-priced winner was Reine Minoru in 2017, winning for Masaru Honda at odds of 40/1 under the guidance of Kenichi Ikezoe. Looking at the runners at the head of the market over the last 10 renewals there has been 1 winning favourite in the race. All figures and trends above, such as the horse's previous runs are based on the information that is available on the racing post.

Article Contributor Information

We are blessed with an excellent team of specialists and experts at OLBG. Contributing to creating and maintaining this Oka Sho Preview are at hand, Andy and Darren. They both work on the Horse racing tips team team looking after the tipsters and managing the tips settlement, whilst also creating and managing all of the horse racing event previews for International racing.

Darren Brett

Tipster competition manager

Darren has worked in the horse racing industry for decades bringing to OLBG for the last 20 years a wealth of knowledge, creating much of our content on these sports. Darren also manages our Grand National Guide and is the go-to font of knowledge for the world's greatest steeplechase.

Andy Powell

Content editor

Andy, a seasoned horse racing analyst with over 15 years of experience, delves into the intricacies of international horse racing, meticulously analyzing complex statistical data to uncover hidden trends. He spearheads the creation and management of OLBG's international horse racing trend blogs, providing valuable insights for bettors worldwide.

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