Japan G1 Horse Races

Japan's racing year has a shape that fans learn quickly: the G1 races, the highest grade on the calendar, are spread from late March to late December, and each one is a national event with crowds, television coverage and heavy betting turnover. If you are visiting Japan and want to see one in person, or want to bet on one from a betting shop or online, this page covers the calendar, the money, the main venues and the practical details of race day. For the wider picture of the sport, see horse racing in Japan.

The G1 calendar at a glance

The JRA's G1 schedule for 2026 gives you the pattern. The Takamatsunomiya Kinen opens the top-level sprint season at Chukyo on Sunday, March 29³. Spring brings the Tenno Sho (Spring), run at Kyoto over 3,200 meters on turf for horses four years old and up, in May⁶. Then comes the Tokyo stretch: the Japanese Derby (Tokyo Yushun) on Sunday, May 31, followed a week later by the Yasuda Kinen on Sunday, June 7, both at Tokyo Racecourse³.

The second half of the year builds to the two biggest days. The Japan Cup is run at Tokyo in December over 2,400 meters on turf for three-year-olds and up⁶, and the season closes with the Arima Kinen (The Grand Prix) at Nakayama Racecourse, which in 2026 falls on Sunday, December 27³. The Sprinters Stakes, another G1, is staged at Nakayama, a right-handed track, in the autumn⁷.

A rough 2026 calendar of confirmed dates looks like this:

One practical note for race day: on a major Grade 1 day, such as the Japan Cup, the meeting may actually run fewer races than a normal card, because the feature event dominates the day⁴. So a G1 day is not "more racing" but bigger racing: bigger fields, bigger crowds and a longer build-up to the main event.

It is also worth knowing that "G1" is a grade used across Japanese public sports, not only horse racing. Boat racing and keirin (track cycling) have their own G1 and GP events with their own calendars and prize structures, which we touch on in the prize money section below. This page is about horse racing's G1 races, which are run under the JRA (central racing) and the NAR (local racing) systems⁸.

What the winners earn

The prize money at the top of Japanese racing is serious money by any standard. The largest first-place purse in JRA racing is JPY 500 million, and it is paid in two races: the Japan Cup in December and the Arima Kinen (The Grand Prix) at the end of the year¹. At the other end of the scale, the smallest JRA first-place purses are JPY 5.8 million, for races restricted to winless three-year-olds and two-year-olds¹. Every level in between exists, which is why the grade of a race matters when you read a race card.

Local racing (NAR) has its own flagship G1 events. The JBC Classic, part of the Japan Breeding Farm Cup program run at local racecourses, pays JPY 100 million to the winner⁸. The NAR has also simulcast its year-end Tokyo Daishoten (G1) overseas since 2016, with the race available for separate-pool wagering in Australia and New Zealand, which tells you something about how far the reach of Japanese racing now extends¹.

For comparison, if you see "G1" or "GP" in other Japanese sports: the boat racing Grand Prix, the highest-prize event in that sport, offers JPY 110 million to the winner⁹, and the Keirin Grand Prix, held every year on December 30 for the year's top riders, pays JPY 100 million to the champion¹⁰. Horse racing's Japan Cup and Arima Kinen sit above all of these at JPY 500 million to the winner¹.

Prize money is not the same as betting payouts, which are pari-mutuel: the pool is divided among winning tickets, so a popular horse pays less per ticket than a long shot. The mechanics of the bet types are covered in Japanese horse racing bet types.

Tokyo Racecourse: the left-handed mile and classic track

If you only visit one Japanese racecourse for a G1, it will probably be Tokyo Racecourse in Fuchu, in the west of the city, because it hosts more top-level races than anywhere else in the country. Its major races are²:

• The Japan Cup (G1)
• The Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) (G1)
• The Tenno Sho (Autumn) (G1)
• The Yasuda Kinen (G1)
• The Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) (G1)
• The February Stakes (G1)
• The NHK Mile Cup (G1)
• The Victoria Mile (G1)

That is eight G1 races across the year at a single venue.

Tokyo is a left-handed track, meaning horses run counter-clockwise¹¹. This matters more than you might think when reading form, because several other major venues are right-handed: Nakayama Racecourse, home of the Arima Kinen and the Sprinters Stakes, is right-handed⁷, and some horses clearly handle one direction better than the other. When the Yasuda Kinen page lists its racecourse as "Tokyo Racecourse (Left-handed)," that detail is there for bettors comparing performances across tracks¹¹.

Getting in is cheap. Admission at Tokyo Racecourse on a live race day is JPY 200². The racecourse is at 1-1 Hiyoshi-cho, Fuchu-shi, Tokyo 183-0024, Japan¹². Major race days here include the Yasuda Kinen, a Grade 1 mile contest run over 1,600 meters with JPY 100,000,000 for the winner, JPY 45,000,000 for third and JPY 18,000,000 for fifth².

Race day timing

A JRA racing day is not a single-venue affair nationwide. On any racing day, races are held at two, or at times three, racecourses, with at least one each from the eastern region (Tokyo, Nakayama, Fukushima, Niigata) and the western region (Kyoto, Hanshin, Chukyo, Kokura)⁴. So on Yasuda Kinen day, Tokyo is running, but a western track is racing at the same time, and the television coverage and betting windows switch between them.

Races start in the morning and run through the afternoon. A Nakayama meeting in September 2026, for example, had its second race off at 10:40 in the morning, with the card building to the feature races in mid-afternoon¹³. The exact post time of a G1 varies meeting by meeting and is published in the race card, so check the day's program rather than assuming a fixed time.

If you want to bet before race day, you can. JRA G1 races are sold in advance the day before at the off-course betting venues called J-PLACE, a practice that began in 2014¹⁵. Opening hours on those advance-sale days vary by venue: J-PLACE Asahikawa opens 9:20 to 17:00, while J-PLACE Sapporo Ekimae opens 10:00 to 17:00¹⁵. That means you can place your G1 bets on Saturday for a Sunday race, then watch the race anywhere.

Online, the A-PAT system sells JRA betting from 10:00 in the morning for local meetings (12:00 for night meetings, except Nagoya and Kochi), and overseas racing is sold from 7:00, either the previous day for races run in the Japan-time morning or the same day for afternoon races¹⁶. The details of betting online as a resident or visitor are covered in betting on Japanese horse racing online.

Where the other G1 races are run

Japan has 10 JRA racecourses, spread from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south⁶. The eastern group is Tokyo, Nakayama, Fukushima and Niigata; the western group is Kyoto, Hanshin, Chukyo and Kokura⁴. Sapporo and Hakodate, both in Hokkaido, fill out the ten and host the summer racing when the main city tracks pause.

The G1 calendar moves around these venues through the year. The Tenno Sho (Spring) belongs to Kyoto over 3,200 meters⁶. The Takamatsunomiya Kinen is at Chukyo³. Hanshin's 2026 season runs 41 race days across four blocks: February 21 to April 19, June 6 to June 21, September 5 to September 27, and December 5 to December 27³, and its December block sits alongside Nakayama's Arima Kinen as the year-end highlight. The Sprinters Stakes is at right-handed Nakayama⁷, and the Arima Kinen closes the year there on December 27, 2026³.

Beyond the JRA tracks, local racing (NAR) runs its own G1 races at regional courses such as Oi (Tokyo City Keiba) and others around the country, with the JBC meeting and the Tokyo Daishoten as the flagship events⁸. That side of the sport is covered in local horse racing (chiho keiba), and the biggest single race of the year, the Japan Cup at Tokyo, has its own page: the Japan Cup.

Betting on Japanese G1 races as a visitor

You can buy betting tickets at the 10 racecourses and at the off-track betting facilities around the country⁴. No special registration is needed to bet in person at a track or a J-PLACE window: you pay cash, you pick your horse, and any winnings are paid out at the window. The minimum face value of a JRA pari-mutuel betting ticket is JPY 10⁵, so you can have a day of betting on a G1 card for very little money, though most people bet in JPY 100 or JPY 200 units.

The legal position is simple and worth stating once: betting on horse racing in Japan is authorized only through the official channels under the Horse Racing Act, and betting by any other method constitutes the crime of gambling under the Penal Code¹⁴. In practice that means racecourses, J-PLACE windows and the official online systems are fine, and anything else is not. Winnings from horse racing are taxed as occasional income, with a JPY 500,000 yearly deduction and only half of the remaining amount taxable; the details are on our page about tax on gambling winnings in Japan.

For a first G1 day as a visitor, the practical routine is: arrive early afternoon, pay your JPY 200 admission at Tokyo², pick up an English race card (the JRA publishes English guidance for its racecourses⁶), place your bets at the windows or machines before the feature race, and settle in for the build-up. The crowd noise when the field turns into the straight at a Japanese G1 is something you will remember.