A marker for the strength of Japanese racing is the fact that the Japan Cup in 2014 was ranked as the eighth best race in the world on the list published by the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities.

This put it just ahead of the Breeders’ Cup Turf and the Irish Champion Stakes, and just one place behind the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Exalted company indeed.

Held on the last Sunday in November, it is run over the classic mile and a half distance on turf and it is one of the richest races in the world. This year it is worth in the ballpark of €4.75 million. The race was first run in 1981 and had a few restrictions regarding participation, but these were lifted for the following and subsequent years.

American runners captured the first two runnings of the race with Mairzy Doates and Half Iced before Pay The Butler in 1988 and Golden Pheasant won it in 1991. In its third year the Irish-owned, bred and trained Stanerra recorded a famous victory for Frank Dunne, with Brian Rouse in the saddle. This was a year before the race was accorded Group 1 status.

There have been winners trained in Britain (Jupiter Island, Singspiel, Pilsudski and Alkaased a decade ago), France (Le Glorieux), New Zealand (Horlicks), Australia (Better Loosen Up), Italy (Falbrav) and Germany. The other 20 winners have been trained in Japan, with the 2012 and 2013 winner Gentildonna the only horse to win it twice.

Falbrav was an unusual winner of the race because that year the race was run over a furlong less and staged at Nakayama. Eight years later and the only winner to be disqualified was Buena Vista and she lost out to Rose Kingdom. However the multiple champion made amends the following year and claimed the spoils. The last nine winners of the race have been trained in Japan.

Twenty years ago saw the only German-trained winner and this was the mighty Lando. Though he was not the first from that country to challenge for the prize, he is and remains the only winner from there and the 20th anniversary of the occasion prompts a look back at his career. As it happens the Japan Cup was his final start and the 23rd of a racing career that spanned four seasons. He eventually headed to stud with record earnings for a horse trained in Germany.

A leading juvenile and winner of the German Derby at three, he was Horse of the Year in Germany for the following two years and was twice a Group 1 winner in Italy. His 10 career wins included seven at Group 1 level and he was an honourable fourth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe behind Lammtarra. Lando was bred and raced by the Ostermann’s Gestüt Hof Ittlingen.

It is interesting to see the names of the German-trained runners that Lando defeated. In the Derby he beat Monsun and Sternkoenig, and had Platini in second place in the Grosser Preis von Baden at three.

In the Japan Cup he faced a truly international field – six Japanese runners and seven other visitors. The best known of the overseas runners were Hernando and the classic winner Carling from France, while the Australian challenge included Danewin.

Victory went to the Heinz Jentzsch-trained Lando by a length and a half from Hishi Amazon, with Hernando a neck back in third. The South African-born Michael Roberts was the winning jockey.

Lando retired to stud at the place of his birth and stood there until the 2005 season when he went to Haras d’Etreham in France for six seasons. He then returned to Hof Ittlingen and his final season was in 2013. Then a 23-year-old he survived a colic operation but fractured a leg and had to be put down. His last crop are yearlings of 2015.

As a stallion he has been responsible for seven Group 1 winners. Five of these, Scalo, Donaldson, Prince Flori, Gonbarda and Interdant were in Germany, while Epalo won in Singapore and Paolini won the Dubai Duty Free and two Group 1 races in Italy. Lando’s dual Group 1 winning daughter Gonbarda is the dam of the Lockinge and Champion Stakes winner Farhh.