Step Race Trend

(WED) February 25th, 2026

8:15 p.m. Turning to the step races for Nakayama Kinen.

As the pace rarely gets tight, horses that have finished above third place in either of their recent two races are performng well. There were a few cases in the past 10 years such as Maltese Apogee, Logotype, and Ambitious which didn't meet this codition, but still these horses had won in grade races before their recent two step races.

Of all top 3 finishers in the past 10 years, the only two horses that hadn't performed well in either of their recent three races were Geoglyph and Soul Stirring. Geoglyph was in a slump running both dirt and turf races throughout 2023, the year before he ran Nakayama Kinen, while Soul Stirring also struggled during the year before she ran Nakayama Kinen. What these tow horses had in common, though was that they'd both won a G1 when they were 3 years old.

Oh, my. A considerable number of horses should be crossed out if I followed this step race trend.

The End

Caterpillar