Triple treat! Crown winners Contrail and Daring Tact set for Japan Cup face-off

Newly crowned Triple Crown winners Contrail and Daring Tact will go head to head in their country's most prestigious all-aged race, the Japan Cup.

The match which every Japanese racing fan has yearned for will happen at Tokyo on November 29 after trainer Yoshito Yahagi said he had been pleasantly surprised at how well Contrail – the dominant colt of his generation – had come out of his hard-won success in the Kikuka Sho, Japan's St Leger.

Ladbrokes reacted by making Contrail 4-5 favourite to maintain his own unbeaten record at the expense of Daring Tact, who clinched the fillies' Triple Tiara when landing the Shuka Sho at Kyoto.

Yahagi said: "Contrail is recovering better than I thought, even after a hard-fought battle in the Kikuka Sho.

"We want to go to the Japan Cup for the sake of the racing fans. I thought he'd be a little more tired, but his body is in good shape and he's recovered better than I thought he would. I think that Contrail's quick recovery is one of his strengths."

Trainer Haruki Sugiyama had already earmarked the Japan Cup for Daring Tact, while Yahagi and owner Shinji Maeda have embraced the sporting nature of the challenge of a first meeting of two Triple Crown winners in what will be the the 40th running of the race.

Daring Tact became the sixth Triple Tiara winner but the first to do so while remaining unbeatenCredit: Japan Racing Association

Yahagi said: "I think he is best suited for the Japan Cup and there are some great horses out there, such as Daring Tact. Racing against these horses will increase the excitement of the Japan Cup."

After a blank year in 2019 in terms of international participation there will be at least one European challenger, with Chantilly-based Italian Andrea Marcialis set to saddle his first Japan Cup runner in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud hero Way To Paris.

Marcialis will have plenty of local knowledge to call on as the ride on the seven-year-old will be taken by compatriot Mirco Demuro, a full-time rider with the Japan Racing Association since the start of 2015 and winner of the 2008 Japan Cup on Screen Hero.

Way To Paris will become a first Japan Cup runner for Andrea MarcialisCredit: Racing Post / Scott Burton

Way To Paris was last seen when finishing more than nine lengths adrift of Sottsass in the Arc, having previously pushed the same rival all the way in the Prix Ganay back in June.

"He ran poorly in the Arc because he is essentially a good-ground horse these days and an intelligent one, so he he looked after himself on the deep going," said Marcialis.

"I hope he will get his favoured fast ground, as is often the case there, and having Mirco Demuro on board is a plus as well."

France has yet to score in the Japan Cup but Italian-born trainers have triumphed twice, thanks to Luciano d'Auria with Falbrav in 2002 and Alkaased – the last European winner and like his predecessor ridden by Franki Dettori – who was sent out by Newmarket-based Luca Cumani in 2005.

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