The Hopeful Stakes (ホープフルステークス) is a Grade 1 race held at Nakayama Racecourse held for two-year-old thoroughbreds. The Hopeful Stakes is the only Grade 1 middle-distance race for two-year-old thoroughbreds in the JRA. This race was started as the Radio Tampa Hai Sansai Hinba Stakes in 1984, which was a mile race that was held at Hanshin Racecourse for two-year-old fillies. In 1991, the race was changed from a filly-only race to a colt-and-gelding only race, with the distance extended to the current 2,000 meters. Its name was changed several times. This race was considered important because no other graded race over 2,000 meters for two-year-olds existed in those days. In particular, it was a good chance for horses with ambition for Triple Crown Races to experience a middle-distance race. In fact, some triple crown race winners had previously won this race. Logi Universe (2008), One and Only (2013) and Rey de Oro (2016) won the Japanese Derby, Victoire Pisa (2009) won the Satsuki Shō, Epiphaneia (2012) won the Kikuka Shō, and Contrail, who won the race in 2019, became the winner of the Triple Crown in 2020.

Nakayama Racecourse was built in 1990 in Funabashi, Chiba, Japan, for horse racing and up to 165,676 spectators.