W Heart Bond's slow but sure surge led to a victory by a nose over Wilson Tesoro in the terrific 2025 Champions Cup, with a time of 1:50:2. Ramjet, Meisho Hario, and Outrange rounded out the top five.
W Heart Bond sat in third near the front of the pack for the first 1400m, with Narukami and Hagino Alegrias close by. Entering the final straight, Ryusei Sakai made his move, slowly creeping closer to the front and taking the lead without issue.
Simultaneously, Yuga Kawada did a terrific job navigating Wilson Tesoro through the fading front runners Sixpence and William Barows. As Wilson Tesoro accelerated and the two pulled ahead together, he cut to the inside rail. The two were level in the last 50m, but W Heart Bond clearly prevailed by a nose at the line.
W Heart Bond now has a terrific record of seven wins in eight starts, and back-to-back graded stakes wins. Her only loss was a second-place finish by a length in a half to Riot Grrrl in August's Breeders' Gold Cup. Jockey Ryusei Sakai has won the Champions Cup for the third year in a row, after riding Lemon Pop to success in the previous two years.
Wilson Tesoro has his third second-place finish in a row in the Champions Cup, and just like last year, has heartrendingly lost by a nose. 2026 will be his 7-year-old year, and while he's still proven himself to be one of the top horses on dirt with his Mile Championship Nambu Hai victory and tonight's runner-up performance, time may be running out for him to claim a G1 JRA win.
Heavy race favorite Narukami suddenly faded with 400m remaining, and finished a surprising 13th out of 16. 6th-favorite Luxor Cafe also failed to accelerate on the final straight, finishing 15th. It's a surprising failure for both of the three-year-old contenders, and it'll be interesting to see how their connections respond. Notably, Narukami's only loss up to this point was also on Chukyo's 1800m dirt course in a 1-win class allowance race in January.
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