Last year’s Japanese St Leger winner Kitasan Black stamped himself as a stayer of the highest quality when he won the prestigious G1 Tenno Sho Spring in Kyoto on Sunday.

Kitasan Black, ridden by veteran champion jockey Yutaka Take, bounded clear in the straight the first time and fought back after being headed to beat Curren Mirotic, last year’s third placegetter, by a nose.

Cheval Grand finished third with Fame Game, ridden by Hugh Bowman, finishing eighth after making some ground from the rear.

Last year’s Arima Kinen winner Gold Actor started favourite but travelled wide and after putting in a bid came up empty in the stretch and faded to 12th

Take, winning the Tenno Sho Spring for the seventh time and first since his success with the champion Deep Impact in 2006, admitted he didn’t plan to lead on Kitasan Black.

“I was intending to settle him in a good position after the start,” said Take, whop has now won 70 JRA G1 races.

“He ran an ideal race–he responded beautifully.

“He’s not the type with an enormous burst of speed so we made an early bid.

“It was so close but I’m glad he never gave up, and stretched the way he did.”

The Hisashi Shimizu-trained Kitasan Black won his first three career starts last year including the G2 Japanese 2000 Guineas Trial.

He was third in the G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) three weeks later but only 14th in the G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) in May before coming back to take the G2 Asahi Hai Lite Kinen and the G1 Kikuka Sho (St Leger) over 3000m in October.

He finished the year with a third against the older stayers in the G1 Arima Kinen and resumed with a second in the G2 Sankei Osaka Hai over 2000m on April 3.