She was from the ninth crop of foals sired by Deep Impact, who was the Japanese Horse of the Year in 2005 and 2006, winning races including the Tokyo Yushun, Tenno Sho, Arima Kinen and Japan Cup.

Lemaire settled Gran Alegria in mid-division before moving to the front 200 metres from the finish and pulling clear to win by five lengths from the five-year-old Fiano Romano.

For her first run of the year Gran Alegria was dropped back to sprint distances for the Grade 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen over 1200 metres at Chukyo Racecourse on 29 March in which she was ridden by Kenichi Ikezoe and started at the 3.1/1 second favourite.

[11] On 7 June at Tokyo, with Ikezoe again in the saddle, Gran Alegria went off the 11/1 third choice behind Almond Eye and Indy Champ for the 70th running of the Grade 1 Yasuda Kinen over 1600 metres.

She took the lead approaching the last 200 metres and broke clear of her rivals to win by two and a half lengths from Almond Eye, who got the better of Indy Champ and Normcore in a close finish for second place.

Ridden by Lemaire, she started the 1.2/1 favourite against fifteen opponents including Danon Smash, Mozu Superflare, Mr Melody, Diatonic and Kurino Gaudi.

Gran Alegria started slowly and was in fifteenth place as she move to the outside on the final turn, but then "mowed down" the opposition, took the lead 50 metres from the finish and won by two lengths from Danon Smash.

"[13] On 22 November at Hanshin Gran Alegria started the 0.6/1 favourite for the 37th running of the Mile Championship in a seventeen-runner field which also included Salios, Indy Champ, Resistencia, Admire Mars, Lauda Sion and Persian Knight.

She started well and settled behind the leaders as Resistencia set a steady pace before making a forward move approaching the final turn but appeared to be boxed in and unlikely to obtain a clear run in the straight.

She had to be switched to the outside to find room to race but then produced a strong burst of acceleration to gain the advantage in the final strides and won by three quarters of a length from Indy Champ.

After the race Lemaire said "She's matured and a lot easier to ride now being a four-year-old so she was relaxed and we had a good trip until the last turn where, as a favorite you're marked and it so happens, but we weren’t able to make our move to the outside smoothly for the stretch run.