| Surface: | Turf |
| Class: | Grade 1 |
| Horse Race: | Hopeful Stakes (Japan) |
| Location: | Nakayama Racecourse Funabashi, Chiba, Japan |
| Inaugurated: | 1984(as Radio Tanpa Hai Sansai Hinba Stakes) |
| Race Type: | Thoroughbred - Flat racing |
| Distance: | 2,000 meters (about 10 furlongs / 1.1/4 mile) |
| Track: | Right-handed (inner course) |
| Qualification: | Two-year-old, Colts & Fillies |
| Weight: | Colt 55 kg, Filly 54 kg |
| Purse: | ¥152,200,000 (as of 2023) 1st: ¥ 70,000,000 |
The Hopeful Stakes (ホープフルステークス) is a Grade 1 race held at Nakayama Racecourse held for two-year-old thoroughbreds. The Hopeful Stakes is the only Grade 1 middle-distance race for two-year-old thoroughbreds in the JRA. This race was started as the Radio Tampa Hai Sansai Hinba Stakes (Grade 3) in 1984, which was a mile race that was held at Hanshin Racecourse for two-year-old fillies. In 1991, the race was changed from a filly-only race to a colt-and-gelding only race, with the distance extended to the current 2,000 meters. Its name was changed several times (Radio Tampa Hai Sansai Stakes (1991-2000), Radio Tampa Hai Nisai Stakes (2001-2005) and Radio Nikkei Hai Nisai Stakes (2006-2013)). This race was considered important because no other graded race over 2,000 meters for two-year-olds existed in those days (and to date the only other graded race held on a middle distance by the JRA is the Kyoto Nisai Stakes). In particular, it was a good chance for horses with ambition for Triple Crown Races to experience a middle-distance race. In fact, some triple crown race winners had previously won this race. Logi Universe (2008), One and Only (2013) and Rey de Oro (2016) won the Japanese Derby, Victoire Pisa (also Dubai World Cup winner) (2009) won the Satsuki Shō, Epiphaneia (2012) won the Kikuka Shō, and Contrail, who won the race in 2019, became the winner of the Triple Crown in 2020.
In 2014, the Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes, a grade 1 race for two-year-old colts previously held at Nakayama Racecourse, was moved to Hanshin Racecourse.[1] Then the Radio Nikkei Hai Nisai Stakes was moved to Nakayama Racecourse. With this transfer, its name was changed to Hopeful Stakes, and the grade of the race was elevated to Grade 2, and the race was once again opened to fillies, although this time geldings were barred from entering. The race was later promoted to Grade 1 level in 2017.[2]
Until 2016, this race was held on Arima Kinen day. But since 2017, the race was moved to December 28, which is the final day of the JRA racing season.
| Year | Winner | Jockey | Trainer | Owner | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Radio Tampa Hai Sansai Himba Stakes | ||||||
| 1984 | Nihon Pillow Vicky | Hiroshi Kawachi | Kotaro Tanaka | Hyakutaro Kobayashi | 1:35:9 | |
| 1985 | Dyna Campari | Hiroshi Higuchi | Mitsumasa Hamada | Shadai Race Horse | 1:37:1 | |
| 1986 | Dokanjo | Nobuyuki Tajima | Yasuo Ikee | Arai Kogyo | 1:35:5 | |
| 1987 | Princess Ski | Yoshiyasu Tajima | Kota Tanaka | Kiyoharu Okuyama | 1:36.6 | |
| 1988 | Tanino Target | Sadahiro Kojima | Tameo Toyama | Yuzo Tanimizu | 1:36.1 | |
| 1989 | Legacy Wice | Yutaka Take | Masahiro Sakaguchi | Horse Tajima | 1:35.8 | |
| 1990 | Isono Roubles | Tadashi Igarashi | Hisao Shimizu | Toshio Isono | 1:35:0 | |
| Radio Tampa Hai Sansai Stakes | ||||||
| 1991 | Northern Contact | Shinji Fujita | Shuji Ito | Shadai Race Horse | 2:05:9 | |
| 1992 | Narita Taishin | Eiji Shimizu | Masaaki Okubo | Hidenori Yamaji | 2:05.8 | |
| 1993 | Namura Kokuo | Hiroyuki Uemura | Akihiko Nomura | Nobushige Namura | 2:05.7 | |
| 1994 | Tayasu Tsuyoshi | Sadahiro Kojima | Akio Tsurudome | Kanichi Yokose | 2:03.4 | |
| 1995 | Royal Touch | Olivier Peslier | Yuji Ito | Yoshimi Ota | 2:02.7 | |
| 1996 | Mejiro Bright | Mikio Matsunaga | Kuniichi Asami | Mejiro Farm | 2:03.1 | |
| 1997 | Lord Ax | Yukio Okabe | Kazuo Fujisawa | Lord Horse Club | 2:03.8 | |
| 1998 | Admire Vega | Yutaka Take | Mitsuru Hashida | Riichi Kondo | 2:04.1 | |
| 1999 | Rugger Regulus | Tetsuzo Sato | Masaaki Okubo | Keiji Okumura | 2:03:7 | |
| 2000 | Agnes Tachyon | Hiroshi Kawachi | Hiroyuki Nagahama | Takao Watanabe | 2:00.8 | |
| Radio Tampa Hai Nisai Stakes | ||||||
| 2001 | Mega Stardom | Kunihiko Watanabe | Shoji Yamamoto | North Hills Management | 2:03.4 | |
| 2002 | That's the Plenty | Hiroshi Kawachi | Kojiro Hashiguchi | Shadai Race Horse | 2:04.5 | |
| 2003 | Cosmo Bulk | Fuyuki Igarashi | Kazunori Tabe | Misako Okada | 2:01.6 | |
| 2004 | Vermillion | Yutaka Take | Sei Ishisaka | Sunday Racing | 2:03.5 | |
| 2005 | Sakura Mega Wonder | Katsumi Ando | Yasuo Tomomichi | Sakura Commerce | 2:01.9 | |
| Radio NIKKEI Hai Nisai Stakes | ||||||
| 2006 | Fusaichi Ho O | Katsumi Ando | Kunihide Matsuda | Fusao Sekiguchi | 2:02:1 | |
| 2007 | Subject | Olivier Peslier | Yasuo Ikee | North Hills Management | 2:07:0 | |
| 2008 | Logi Universe | Norihiro Yokoyama | Kiyoshi Hagiwara | Masaaki Kumeta | 2:01:7 | |
| 2009 | Victoire Pisa | Yutaka Take | Katsuhiko Sumii | Yoshimi Ichikawa | 2:01:3 | |
| 2010 | Danon Ballade | Yutaka Take | Yasuo Ikee | Danox | 2:02:2 | |
| 2011 | Adam Speak | Christophe Lemaire | Sei Ishisaka | Carrot Farm Co. Ltd. | 2:02:4 | |
| 2012 | Epiphaneia | Yuichi Fukunaga | Katsuhiko Sumii | Carrot Farm Co. Ltd. | 2:05:4 | |
| 2013 | One and Only | Christophe Lemaire | Kojiro Hashiguchi | North Hills | 2:04.3 | |
| Hopeful Stakes | ||||||
| 2014 | Shining Lei | Yuga Kawada | Tomokazu Takano | U Carrot Farm | 2:01.9 | |
| 2015 | Hartley | Takahisa Tezuka | Sunday Racing | 2:01.8 | ||
| 2016 | Christophe Lemaire | Kazuo Fujisawa | U Carrot Farm | 2:01.3 | ||
| 2017 | Time Flyer | Kunihide Matsuda | Sunday Racing | 2:01.4 | ||
| 2018 | Mirco Demuro | Kazuya Nakatake | U Carrot Farm | 2:01.6 | ||
| 2019 | Yuichi Fukunaga | Yoshito Yahagi | Shinji Maeda | 2:01.4 | ||
| 2020 | Yuga Kawada | Takayuki Yasuda | Danox | 2:02.8 | ||
| 2021 | Killer Ability | Takeshi Yokoyama | Takashi Saito | Carrot Farm Co. Ltd. | 2:00.6 | |
| 2022 | Dura Erede | Bauyrzhan Murzabayev | Manabu Ikezoe | Three H Racing | 2:01.5 | |
| 2023 | Regaleira | Christophe Lemaire | Tetsuya Kimura | Sunday Racing | 2:00.2 | |