[5] She was descended from the American broodmare Charwoman (foaled in 1926), making her a distant relative of Bounding Home and Riva Ridge.

[6] Cafe Pharoah made his first and only appearance of 2019 in a contest for previously unraced two-year-olds over 1800 metres at Nakayama Racecourse on 14 December when he was ridden by the British jockey Ryan Moore.

Ridden by Mirco Demuro he raced towards the rear and was only eighth entering the straight but then finished strongly, took the lead in the closing stages, and won by a length from Tagano Beauty.

[9] On 9 July at the National Association of Racing's Ohi Racecourse Cafe Pharoah started favourite for the Japan Dirt Derby but sustained his first defeat as he ran disappointingly on the sloppy track and finished seventh behind Danon Pharaoh.

[10] Following a late summer break, Cafe Pharoah returned to the track in October at Chukyo Racecourse to contest the Sirius Stakes, a race which saw him matched against older horses for the first time.

Ridden for the first time by Christophe Lemaire he started the 0.7/1 favourite with the best-fancied of his fifteen opponents in the 1900 metre contest being the five-year-old Ardore.

[11] On his final run of the year the colt started second favourite behind the 2019 JRA Award for Best Dirt Horse winner Chrysoberyl in the Grade 1 Champions Cup over 1800 metres at Chukyo on 6 December.

He raced on the outside in tenth place before making steady progress in the straight but never looked like winning and came home sixth behind the five-year-old Chuwa Wizard.

In the build-up to the race, Noriyuki Hori explained that Lemaire had been unable to ride the horse in training owing to COVID-19 restrictions, and also said that the colt would be equipped with blinkers for the first time.

However, as Lemaire was slated to run with Teorema [ja] that race, Yuichi Fukunaga temporarily became Cafe Pharoah's jockey.