Godolphin's reigning champion turf male Modern Games and graded/group winner With The Moonlight wasted no time getting familiar with their surroundings Sunday morning at Keeneland, where both are being aimed for top-level turf races. The homebred pair trained on the main track shortly after it opened at 5:30 (ET).
Trained by Charlie Appleby, the pair trained at Churchill Downs Saturday morning and then were vanned to Keeneland Saturday afternoon, according to Chris Connett, the head traveling lad.
Modern Games, winner of the FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile (G1) Presented by PDJF last fall at Keeneland, had Lorna Ford aboard Sunday morning, while With The Moonlight, winner of the Saratoga Oaks Invitational (G3) last summer and a two-time Group 2 winner earlier this year in Dubai, had Graham Colbert in the saddle.
Modern Games, a 4-year-old Dubawi colt, is expected to start in Friday's 35th running of the $600,000 Maker's Mark Mile (G1), and With The Moonlight, a 4-year-old Frankel filly, is pointed toward Saturday's 35th running of the $600,000 Jenny Wiley (G1) for fillies and mares going 1 1/16 miles. Both races are on the turf.
12th-Santa Anita, $75,888, Alw, 4-8, (NW1$X), 3yo/up, f/m, 1m (off turf), 1:37.10, ft, 6 lengths. ANCIENT PEACE (f, 3, War Front–Deceptive Vision {GSW & GISP-Can, GSW-USA, $501,441}, by A.P. Indy), off the board in her one-mile turf debut at Del Mar last December, graduated by a front-running 4 1/4 lengths going that same distance over the Santa Anita lawn Dec. 30 for Mike Ryan and trainer Graham Motion, just days before selling for $650,000 to Travis Boersma's Boardshorts Stables at this year's Keeneland January sale. Ryan had purchased the well-bred filly for $180,000 at the 2021 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga sale. Favored at 4-5 in this field shortened to five when the race came off the turf, the dark bay filly jumped right out to the early lead. She was well in hand while loose through fractions of :22.84 and :46.06 and was some 10 lengths in front entering the far turn. The favorite sailed down the lane as a much-the-best winner under a motionless Flavien Prat. Chloe's Crown (Declaration of War) was second. Deceptive Vision has a 2-year-old filly by War Front, who was sent to Japan after selling for $400,000 to Masahiro Miki at last year's Keeneland September sale. The mare also has a yearling colt by American Pharoah who sold for $150,000 to the Albaugh Family Stables at last year's Keeneland November sale. A full-sister to champion Eye of the Leopard, the 13-year-old mare, who sold for $900,000 to Hill 'n' Dale at Xalapa as part of the Sam-Son dispersal at the 2021 Keeneland January sale, was bred to Uncle Mo last year. Click for the Equibase.com chart\fs21plain or VIDEO, sponsored by TVG. Lifetime Record: 3-2-0-0, $83,900.
O-Boardshorts Stables, LLC; B-Sam-Son Farm (ON); T-John W. Sadler.
Ridden with supreme confidence by Yuga Kawada, reigning champion Japanese 2-year-old filly Liberty Island (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}) was given her cue with 400 metres to race and stormed home down the centre of the course to post a breathtaking victory in Sunday's G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) at Hanshin Racecourse. Kona Coast (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) was swamped late and completed a Sunday Racing 1-2, while Carrot Farm colourbearer Perifania (Jpn) (Maurice {Jpn}) checked in a sound third.
Void of early speed, the odds-on favourite was content to drop out to race with just two rivals behind her as G2 Tulip Sho winner Mozu Meimei (Jpn) (Real Impact {Jpn}) showed the way at a good clip in advance of Kona Coast, who just failed to reel in Mozu Meimei in the Tulip Sho. Still third last, but quietly ridden by Kawada as the Oka Sho field raced midway on the turn, Liberty Island peeled off heels once heads were turned for home, with the better part of 10 lengths to find. Kona Coast took over from the weakening front-runner at the 200-metre mark and Perifania also laid down a challenge, but by this time, Liberty Island was in high gear and she whistled home to score a shade cosily in the finish. She covered her final three furlongs in a wicked :32.9.
“I feel relieved to have done my job of guiding her to the wire in time,” said Kawada. “We [landed] an inside draw and she wasn't keen to hurry out of the gate so the position was where it was going to be. But she was relaxed today, was in good rhythm in the race and clicked into gear nicely so this is where she ended up [winning], so I am glad. Now that we have accomplished our aim in the first of the Triple Crown, I hope that we can meet expectations in the following title.”
The late Duramente also accounted for last year's Oka Sho heroine Stars on Earth (Jpn), who doubled up in the G1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) (2400m) before falling just short in the G1 Shuka Sho (2000m) when attempting to sweep the Classic series. This year's Oaks takes place at Tokyo Racecourse May 21.
A debut winner over a mile last July–in which she finished off in an other-worldly :31.4–Liberty Island struck trouble and was second to Ravel (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) in the G2 Artemis S. in October before stamping her authority on the G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies over this course and distance Dec. 11.
Pedigree Notes:
A son of the late King Kamehameha (Jpn), Duramente was sadly lost to a bout of acute colitis in September 2021, but had already left his mark as the leading first-crop sire in Japan the previous season. From just three crops of racing age, Duramente is already responsible for Classic and three-time Group 1 winner Titleholder (Jpn) and last year's G1 Hopeful S. hero Dura Erede (Jpn), recent runner-up in the G2 UAE Derby and pointing towards the G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby). Duramente has now accounted for the winner of four Classic races.
Liberty Island's dam was purchased for just A$10,000 at the 2015 Inglis Sydney Classic Yearling Sale and went on to take three of her first four career starts, inclduding the G1 Inglis Sires' S. two weeks after finishing a half-length second to Capitalist (Aus) (Written Tycoon {Aus}) in the G1 Longines Golden Slipper S. She would add the G1 Spring Champion S. in October 2016 and retired with four wins from 10 runs and earnings in excess of US$1.6 million before being acquired privately and exported to Japan.
Yankee Rose's first foal, the current 4-year-old filly Romneya (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), was purchased by that sire's owner Kaneko Makoto for $1.9 million as a foal at the 2019 JRHA Select Sale and won her most recent start at Kokura back in February. The current 2-year-old out of the mare, a colt by Lord Kanaloa (Jpn), fetched $3.35 million at the same event in 2021. Yankee Rose produced a filly by Kizuna (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in 2022 and was among the first book of mares served by Triple Crown winner Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}).
Sunday, Hanshin, Japan OKA SHO (JAPANESE 1000 GUINEAS)-G1, ¥304,020,000, Hanshin, 4-9, 3yo, f, 1600mT, 1:32.10, fm.
1–LIBERTY ISLAND (JPN), 121, f, 3, by Duramente (Jpn) 1st Dam: Yankee Rose (Aus) (Ch. 2yo & 3yo Filly & MG1SW-Aus, $1,627,487), by All American (Aus) 2nd Dam: Condesaar (Aus), by Xaar (GB) 3rd Dam: Condescendance, by El Gran Senor
O-Sunday Racing; B-Northern Farm; T-Mitsumasa Nakauchida; J-Yuga Kawada; ¥166,614,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 2yo Filly-Jpn, 4-3-1-0, ¥252,046,000. Werk Nick Rating: B. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. Click for the free Equineline.com pedigree.
2–Kona Coast (Jpn), 121, f, 3, Kitasan Black (Jpn)–Kona Brewers (Jpn), by King Kamehameha (Jpn). O-Sunday Racing; B-Northern Farm; ¥63,604,000.
3–Perifania (Jpn), 121, f, 3, Maurice (Jpn)–Katies Heart (Jpn), by Heart's Cry (Jpn). O-Carrot Farm; B-Northern Farm; ¥38,802,000.
Margins: 3/4, NK, 1 3/4. Odds: 0.60, 17.40, 16.60.
Also Ran : Harper (Jpn), Doe Eyes (Jpn), Shinryokuka (Jpn), Sing That Song (Jpn), Light Quantum (Jpn), Bouton d'Or (Jpn), Emu (Jpn), Ravel (Jpn), Kita Wing (Jpn), Mozu Meimei (Jpn), Dura (Jpn), Conch Shell (Jpn), June Orange (Jpn), Moon Probe (Jpn), Tosen Laurier (Jpn). Click for the JRA chart.
Whisper Hill Farm and Gainesway Stable's Tapit Trice, gritty winner of Saturday's $1-million Toyota Blue Grass (G1), will head to Churchill Downs next Sunday to prepare for the Kentucky Derby (G1).
Amelia Green, who is overseeing trainer Todd Pletcher's Keeneland string, said Tapit Trice would be joined at Churchill the following day by Pletcher's two other Kentucky Derby (G1) hopefuls: champion Forte, owned by Repole Stable and St. Elias Stable, and Spendthrift Farm's Kingsbarns, who will be shipping next Sunday from Palm Beach Downs in South Florida.
Pletcher, who won his record fourth Blue Grass on Saturday, plans to stay in Louisville through the Derby after all his hopefuls for the first jewel of the Triple Crown arrive next week.
Tapit Trice prevailed by a neck over over Verifying in the Blue Grass.
“He ran great,” said Blake Cox, assistant to his father, Brad, of Verifying's first start in six weeks. “He's very good this morning and will head to Churchill on Monday.”
Blazing Sevens, who secured a Derby berth by finishing third in the Blue Grass for trainer Chad Brown, likely will stay at Keeneland for a couple weeks.
“We may do like we did with (Blue Grass winner) Zandon last year and have a work here and then ship to Churchill,” said Baldo Hernandez, assistant to Brown.
Sun Thunder, who finished fourth in the Blue Grass, returned to Churchill Saturday night.
Trainer Kenny McPeek said plans for the Kentucky Derby are undecided. Sun Thunder has compiled 54 points on the Road to the Derby and has secured a spot in the starting gate should his connections decide to run.
Raise Cain rallied to finish fifth, a neck behind Sun Thunder.
“We will train up to the Derby at Keeneland and most likely will give the Derby a shot,” trainer Ben Colebrook said of Raise Cain, who has secured a spot in the Derby starting gate.
