Kokura Himba Stakes


The Kokura Himba Stakes is a Grade 3 flat horse race in Japan.

Background

The Kokura Himba Stakes is a Grade III Thoroughbred handicap race in Japan, restricted exclusively to mares aged four years and older. It is held annually in late January at Kokura Racecourse over a distance of 2,000 meters on turf. Eligible entrants must have raced at least once between January 20, 2024, and January 22, 2025, and unraced or maiden horses are excluded. The field includes JRA-trained mares, up to two certified NAR mares, and foreign-trained mares with priority entry. As a handicap race, weights are assigned by the racing secretary based on each mare’s past performance. The first-place prize in 2026 was ¥38 million.

History

The Kokura Himba Stakes is a newly established race, with its inaugural running held on January 25, 2025, at Kokura Racecourse. It was created as part of a major restructuring of JRA’s stakes calendar announced on September 23, 2024. Specifically, it inherits the timing, grade, distance, surface, and handicap format of the former Aichi Hai, which had been run at Chukyo Racecourse. Concurrently, the Aichi Hai itself was reconfigured to adopt the conditions of the former Kyoto Himba Stakes, moving to March and shortening to 1,400 meters.
Although it carries forward the competitive role of the Aichi Hai, the Kokura Himba Stakes is officially designated as a brand-new stakes race, with its first edition counted as “第1回” per the Spring 2025 racing program announced on November 17, 2024. The inaugural 2025 edition resulted in a dead heat between two mares: Verehrung and Scintillation, both trained by prominent JRA stables and ridden by veteran jockeys.

Past winners

Netkeiba

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