Race-favorite Almond Eye captured a record ninth turf Grade 1 victory on Sunday in the 40th running of the Japan Cup, her final race before retirement.

In the first head-to-head matchup between three winners of the Japanese Triple Crowns for colts and fillies, Almond Eye, the 2018 fillies champion, beat out this year’s champs, 3-year-old colt Contrail and 3-year-old filly Daring Tact, who both suffered their first career defeats.

With Christophe Lemaire aboard, the 5-year-old mare got off to a fast start and took a strong position along the rail with second-favorite Contrail as they stalked runaway leader Kiseki.

In the final stretch of the 2,400-meter race held at Tokyo Racecourse, Contrail broke first and jetted past Kiseki but could not hold off Almond Eye.