Japan Road: Arcadia Cafe seeks brotherly hat-trick in Hyacinth

Feb 19, 2026 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

Luxor Cafe wins the Hyacinth on the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby

Luxor Cafe holds on in the 2025 Hyacinth S. at Tokyo (Photo by Kentucky Derby/Yuki Shimono)

The Japan Road resumes late Saturday night (12:25 a.m. ET) with the Hyacinth S. at Tokyo, where Triple Crown nominee Arcadia Cafe will try to emulate his half-brothers by winning the metric mile affair.

Kentucky-bred Arcadia Cafe is out of the prolific mare Mary’s Follies, who has produced Hyacinth heroes Cafe Pharoah (2020) and Luxor Cafe (2025). Those two sons of American Pharoah went on to top the Japan Road leaderboard in their respective years, although Cafe Pharoah did not advance to the Kentucky Derby (G1). Luxor Cafe did take his chance in the Run for the Roses, finishing a subpar 12th on a sloppy track at Churchill Downs.

Arcadia Cafe is by a different stallion, perennial leading sire Into Mischief. But he races for the same connections as his half-brothers, owner Koichi Nishikawa and trainer Noriyuki Hori.

A maiden winner over this track and trip last fall (as shown above), Arcadia Cafe placed third in the Japan Road opener, the Cattleya S., to favored Satono Voyage and huge longshot Don Erectus. Satono Voyage has since gone on to finish third in last weekend’s Saudi Derby (G3), while Don Erectus regressed to 13th in a Jan. 31 allowance here.

Interestingly, Arcadia Cafe is not the only half-brother to a past Hyacinth winner in this year’s field. Taiki Blitzen, who just rolled to a course-and-distance maiden victory, is a half-brother to 2024 Hyacinth star Ramjet. Both half-siblings will be in action on the same day at Tokyo, with Ramjet set to contest the February (G1), a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), later on the card (1:40 a.m. ET).

Aside from Arcadia Cafe, other Triple Crown nominees in the Hyacinth are Itterasshai, Lucky Kid, and Seize the Throne.

Itterasshai moved forward from his debut third to Lucky Kid and scored his maiden win going about 1 1/8 miles at Nakayama last out. Now he steps up in class while cutting back in distance.

Godolphin homebred Lucky Kid has had mixed results in the interim. Third in the Nov. 27 Hyogo Junior Grand Prix, he was only eighth in the same Jan. 31 allowance with Don Erectus.

Seize the Throne hails from the family of popular 2016 Triple Crown competitor Lani. Likewise trained by Mikio Matsunaga, the Maeda family homebred has won just once from seven starts, but he has been fairly consistent in grabbing minor awards. Seize the Throne comes off his worst result so far, a fifth at Kyoto.

Boku Mada Nemuiyo’s most significant effort was a third last November to Pyromancer, who currently tops the Japan Road. Your Felicity wheels back from a fourth in a course-and-distance allowance Feb. 15.

Trailblazing trainer Hideyuki Mori, the first Japanese horseman to try the Kentucky Derby with Ski Captain (14th in 1995), has a pair of entrants in Summer Madness and Yu Pharoah.

Summer Madness shares the same owner (Susumu Fujita) and jockey (Ryusei Sakai) as global dirt supremo Forever Young. By champion Good Magic, Summer Madness just broke through with a win at Kawasaki. Stablemate Yu Pharoah, a son of American Pharoah, hopes to turn his form around by switching from turf to dirt.

As the third of four scoring races on the Japan Road, the Hyacinth is worth points on the 30-15-9-6-3 scale to the top five finishers. The final leg, the Fukuryu S., will be staged at Nakayama on March 28.

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