Overwhelming favorite Liberty Island claimed this year's $1,822,000 Shuka Sho (G1) Sunday at Kyoto Racecourse to sweep Japan's Triple Crown for fillies, which includes her victories this spring in the Oka Sho (G1) (Japanese 1000 Guineas) and the Yushun Himba (G1) (Japanese Oaks).
Liberty Island is the seventh filly to dominate all three' Triple Crown races for fillies, following Mejiro Ramonu (1986), Still in Love (2003), Apapane (2010), Gentildonna (2012), Almond Eye (2018),and Daring Tact (2020). She also extended her Group 1-winning streak to four, including last year's Hanshin Juvenile Fillies, which earned her the JRA Award's Best Two-Year-Old Filly title.
Starting this year, a Japanese-bred horse that achieves the filly Triple Crown title will receive a bonus of 100 million yen (approximately $668,846).
Liberty Island broke smoothly and settled two-wide in good position behind the leaders, around seventh along the backstretch, and made headway 600 meters out while turning the last corners wide. After taking command around the 400-meter pole, the Duramente filly found another gear to exert a strong drive along the stretch and, although threatened by the fast-closing chase by Masked Diva before the wire, managed to hold off the Rulership filly by a length margin for her Triple Crown title.
Time for the 2,000 meters (about 1 1/4 miles) was 2:01.1 on turf rated as good.
“I'm grateful that we were able to achieve the Triple Crown,” said winning rider Yuga Kawada. “She is a horse with great ability, so I placed top priority on letting her run comfortably and finding a good path for her. I was confident of her victory when we had an open space at the third corner. She has great potential, and her dreams for the future are wide open, but first of all, I would like to praise her for achieving the Triple Crown.”
Liberty Island is trained by Mitsumasa Nakauchida for owner Sunday Racing Co. Ltd. She was bred by Northern Racing from the All American mare Yankee Rose.
Third pick Masked Diva broke sharply and eased back to settle around 13th. Though meeting traffic at the top of the stretch, the filly found an opening 300 meters out and dislodged a powerful late charge that timed the fastest last three furlongs to close in on the leader but was a length short at the wire to finish second.
Second pick Harper sat around fifth in front of the winner, angled out slightly turning the final corner and, while unable to keep up with the winner's speed, managed to pass the tiring frontrunners 100 meters out but missed the runner-up spot before the wire for third.
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