Hong Kong's dual Horse of the Year Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) has been removed from consideration for the G1 Stewards' Cup on Jan. 21 after sustained a minor injury to his left front leg.
A two-time winner of that prize in 2021 and 2023, the 8-year-old gelding will face a restricted workout schedule for the next three to four weeks. Owned by Stanley Chan Ka Leung, the bay has won 10 Group 1s in Hong Kong.
“We found, the day before yesterday [Wednesday] in the morning, a little bit of filling and a little bit of heat [in his front left leg],” said trainer Francis Lui. “The vets did a check, a scan and an MRI–there's nothing serious, but they sent a report to England.
“It's very slight but, of course, for the safety side, we don't want to push him because the race is only three weeks' time. The vets said we can give him light trotting for three or four weeks and progressively we can check on him. The issue is just inside the pastern on his front left leg.”
Friday's G1 Tokyo Daishoten marked a first and much-anticipated battle between reigning G1 Dubai World Cup hero Ushba Tesoro (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) and the upstart 3-year-old Mick Fire (Jpn) (Sinister Minister), perfect in his seven starts and winner of the unofficial Japan Dirt Triple Crown this past season. The showdown never really materialized, however, as the latter never reached contention after playing up in the stalls, and the odds-on Ushba Tesoro ran down his commonly owner front-runner Wilson Tesoro (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) to successfully defend his title in the 2000-metre contest. Dura Erede (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}), who won the G1 Hopeful S. on the turf 12 months ago, but has thrived on the dirt this term, stayed on well for third after chasing the pace.
As it was on World Cup night, Ushba Tesoro was not particularly quickly away and therefore settled last but one into the first corner, as Wilson Tesoro, who flashed home to finish second behind Lemon Pop (Lemon Drop Kid) and ahead of Dura Erede in the Dec. 8 G1 Champions Cup (1800m), galloped them along at a decent tempo over the notoriously deep surface at Oi. Racing three wide as Mick Fire provided some crucial cover down the back straight, Ushba Tesoro was pulled out and around his younger rival at the 600 metres, with Wilson Tesoro and Dura Erede a good eight to 10 lengths ahead. Steered out widest leaving the 400-metre peg behind, Ushba Tesoro leveled out and grabbed Wilson Tesoro in the dying strides, covering those final 600 metres in a race-fastest :37 flat. Mick Fire could produce no rally and beat just one home.
Given a lengthy spell to recover from his World Cup success, Ushba Tesoro was an easy winner of the Listed Nippon TV Hai at Funabashi Sept. 27 as a single prep for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic. He put in a long, sustained rally over the Santa Anita mile and a quarter Nov. 4, but had too much to do and finished a creditable fifth to White Abarrio (Race Day) and compatriot Derma Sotogake (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits).
“He's a very tough horse, so I was hoping he could run well,” winning jockey Yuga Kawada told Netkeiba. “The horse will remain active next year, so we appreciate the support as he goes to challenge the world again.”
Trainer Noboru Takagi indicated that the early-season goals could include the G1 Saudi Cup in February in addition to a defence of his title at Meydan the following month.
Of the eighth-placed Mick Fire, trainer Kazuo Watanabe told Netkeiba: “The start for him was a pity. Even if he finished second or third and lost, I wanted to see him run his race. There is room for growth and we will be starting from scratch again.”
Ushba Tesoro | Horsephotos/Tomoya Moriuchi
Pedigree Notes:
Ushba Tesoro's second dam Sixieme Sens was ridden by Freddy Head to victory in the 1995 Listed Prix Bagatelle for trainer David Smaga and Mme Marc de Chambure and went on to continue her career in the US under the tutelage of the late Bobby Frankel for whom she won the GIII Athenia S. in New York and the GII Dahlia H. in 1996 and the GII San Gorgonio H. the following season. Dr Masatake Iida purchased Sixieme Sens for $750,000 when offered in foal to Gone West at the 1997 Keeneland November Sale and exported her to Japan. Her second foal for Iida's Chiyoda Farm Shizunai became the stakes-winning Bold Brian (Jpn) (Brian's Time), while Millefeui Attach, a three-time winner of better than $466,000, was Sixieme Sens's eighth produce and one of her nine winners from 12 to the races.
Ushba Tesoro races for the Ryotokuji Kenji Holdings Co., which has also campaigned the likes of US-bred Japanese listed winner Aurora Tesoro (Malibu Moon) and the multiple stakes winner and Group 1-placed Rieno Tesoro (Speightstown) to name but a few. Ushba Tesoro cost the operation ¥25 million ($219,250) as a foal when consigned by Chiyoda Farm to the 2017 JRHA Select Sales. The operation purchased the dam of Wilson Tesoro for $225,000 at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale and sent her to Equinox's sire Kitasan Black (Jpn) in 2018 after winning a pair of minor races in Japan.
Millefeui Attach is also the dam of a 2-year-old colt by Asia Express (Henny Hughes) and a yearling filly from the first crop of 2019 G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen hero Mr Melody (Scat Daddy). The mare foaled a filly by Group 1-winning turf sprinter Matera Sky (Speightstown) this past Apr. 29 and was reunited with Orfevre this year.
Friday, Oi, Japan TOKYO DAISHOTEN-G1, ¥170,000,000, Oi, 12-29, 3yo/up, 2000m, 2:07.30, std.
1–USHBA TESORO (JPN), 126, h, 6, Orfevre (Jpn) 1st Dam: Millefeui Attach (Jpn), by King Kamehameha (Jpn) 2nd Dam: Sixieme Sens, by Septieme Ciel 3rd Dam: Samalex (GB), by Ela-Mana-Mou (Ire)
(¥25,000,000 Wlg '17 JRHAJUL). O-Kenji Ryotokuji Holdings;
B-Chiyoda Farm (Jpn); T-Noboru Takagi; J-Yuga Kawada;
¥100,000,000. Lifetime Record: G1SW-UAE, 32-11-1-5,
$10,427,845. Click for the free Equineline.com catalogue- style pedigree.Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Wilson Tesoro (Jpn), 126, c, 4, Kitasan Black (Jpn)–Chesutoke
Rose, by Uncle Mo. O-Kenji Ryotokuji Holdings; B-Ryoken
Farm (Jpn); T-Hitoshi Kotegawa; J-Yusuke Hara; ¥35,000,000.
3–Dura Erede (Jpn), 123, c, 3, Duramente (Jpn)–Marchesa (Jpn),
by Orfevre (Jpn) (¥100,000,000 Ylg '21 JRHAJUL). O-Three H
Racing; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); T-Manabu Ikezoe; J-Bauyrzhan
Murzabayev; ¥20,000,000.
Margins: HF, NK, 3/4. Odds: 0.70, 13.20, 10.90.
Also Ran: Notturno (Jpn), King's Sword (Jpn), Gloria Mundi (Jpn), Tenkaharu (Jpn), Mick Fire (Jpn), Mangan (Jpn). Click for the goracing.jp chart.
As 2023 draws to a close, the TDN is asking industry members to name their favorite moment of the year. Send yours to suefinley@thetdn.com
My favorite '23 moment was watching Jena Antonucci and her team, 'vigorously' rooting home Arcangelo in the Belmont and then becoming the 'spokesperson extraordinaire' on behalf of our industry! –Headley Bell, Mill Ridge Farm
Continuing the profiles of the favourite horses of TDN Europe's editorial team in 2023, Tom Frary selects the horse be believes is the best of Aidan O'Brien's nine Derby winners.
Sectional timing wasn't around when Dancing Brave tanked down the outer to get within just under a length of Shahrastani in 1986. If it had been, we'd have been able to gauge just how unlucky he was (he was). Maybe if it had been there could also have been a proper assessment of whether El Gran Senor should have prevailed two years earlier, but hey ho. Now we have it, we know just what the elite of their generation can do in cold, clear figures and in particular during that last surging period of what is still the world's most exciting horse race.
This year's Derby was visually a lovely throwback to those wonderful ones of the 1970s and 1980s, with little between two sensational colts primed to the minute able to stamp their superiority on the rest during the last three furlongs. Unfortunately for connections of the gargantuan yet surprisingly nimble King Of Steel, who produced the fastest individual furlong of 10.66 seconds between the three and the two on what was remarkably his first start of the season, there was another in the line-up who had the ace up his sleeve.
Auguste Rodin (Ire), that melange of Japan's deity Deep Impact (Jpn) and one of the best of the faster Galileo (Ire) mares, took a while to get to fever pitch but on the first Saturday in June he caught fire. On the summer fast ground he would prove in time was essential, and granted the perfect ride from a jockey with the Epsom aptitude of the Longfellow, he thrust himself into the top of the charts of Derby heroes with an outlandish final two furlongs of 22.18 seconds. He almost broke 33 seconds for the last three! Upstaging his damsire in the process, he became to my eyes Ballydoyle's best Derby winner, under Aidan O'Brien's tenure at least.
He needed to do it again, of course, and duly did so in what was for me the race of the year in the Irish Champion Stakes. Luxembourg (Ire) killed everything bar the uber-talented Auguste Rodin, who had the audacity to idle once he had passed his truly on-song stablemate, much as his dam Rhododendron (Ire) tended to do in her day. The Leopardstown race was not for the faint-hearted, yet he found it all well within his capabilities much as he did next time in the Breeders' Cup Turf.
Thankfully, he's going to be around in 2024 and by rights he should be even better. He may never win an Arc, as ironically the one year the ground rode fast he was already being routed elsewhere, but if the rains stay away he'll probably win the King George and another Breeders' Cup Turf, much as Aidan O'Brien's other brilliant colt High Chaparral (Ire) did. And then the Japan Cup perhaps? What a shame Equinox (Jpn) will not be around to stretch him more than his contemporaries did this year.
I think only in time will that Derby performance be truly appreciated as the benchmark it really was. It is up to those who follow now to meet the standard of that barnstorming finish. Horse of the Year 2023 unquestionably for me, but whether 2024 will follow the same tune remains to be seen. In a story reminiscent of that of Riva Ridge and Secretariat, it could be that his thunder will be stolen by the “special one” housed in his own barn!
