G1 Mile Championship | Horse Racing Free Tips

Serifos Bests Elders In Mile Championship

G1 Racing's Serifos (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) steamed home impressively from near the back of the pack to take the G1 Mile Championship at Hanshin on Sunday. Sent off at 8-1, he is the first 3-year-old colt to defeat his elders in the race since Stelvio (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) in 2018.

Caught in midfield Serifos relaxed beautifully under Damian Lane as Piece Of Eight (Jpn) (Screen Hero {Jpn}) raced hard on the steel while shadowed by Falconia (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), with that duo swapping positions in the backstretch. The pace remained hot, with Falconia covering the first 1000 metres in a blistering :58.5, and he continued to hold the advantage on the bend. Fanning across the track for the stretch drive, Falconia still led under pressure, but his position appeared tenuous, as Danon The Kid (Jpn) (Just A Way {Jpn}) and Sodashi (Jpn) (Kurofune) were winding up with their runs. Lane had Serifos over nine paths off the fence, but once he saw daylight a furlong from home, he picked up the field in a matter of strides to win going away by 1 1/4 lengths.

His rivals played bumper cars in late stretch, with 2020 Japanese Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Danon The Kid best of the remainder, a half-length to the good of 2020/21 Japanese filly champion Sodashi, who was seeking her fourth crown at the top table. She, in turn, was a nose ahead of Group 2 scorer Soul Rush (Jpn) (Rulership {Jpn}) in a bunched finish.

“I'm very happy, the horse was super today,” said jockey Damian Lane. “He's very consistent and I knew he would improve after watching his videos. I wanted to show how really competitive he is. The pace was good and he was a bit keen early but I was always confident.”

A winner of his first three starts as a juvenile including the G3 Niigata Nisai S. and the G2 Daily Hai Nisai S., he ran second to subsequent 2022 G1 Japanese Derby hero Do Deuce (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) in the G1 Asahi Hai Futurity S. last December. Benched until the G1 NHK Mile Cup in May, he ran fourth, and filled that spot again in June in the G1 Yasuda Kinen. Given some time on the sidelines, he returned to take the G2 Fuji S. by a neck as the 6-5 crowd's pick on Oct. 22.

Pedigree Notes

Daiwa Major's stakes winners stand at 42, and Serifos is one of 19 group scorers for the 21-year-old. With his Mile Championship victory, the 3-year-old is his seventh Group 1 winner, anchored by three-time Group 1 winner Admire Mars (Jpn), who did his best running over a mile in Hong Kong and Japan. The much lamented Le Havre (Ire) is still in the early stages of his broodmare sire career, but three of his four stakes winners have struck at group level. Pyledriver (GB) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), successful in the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. and G1 Coronation Cup, was Le Havre's first top-level scorer, and Serifos is his second.

Sea Front took time to come to hand, placing at two, wining twice at three, and then taking her first listed victory, the Prix Maurice Zilber at four. Also stakes placed twice more that year, she returned at five to take third in the G3 Prix Bertrand du Breuil. Picked up for just €135,000 out of the 2016 Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale by Haruya Yoshida, Sea Front was sent to Japan and covered by Orfevre (Jpn), who despite his slew of Japanese accolades, is best known for finishing runner-up in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe twice. The resulting foal, the three-time winner Forte Dei Marmi (Jpn), won over 2400m on turf at three, and added a brace of wins on dirt at 1800m and 1900m at the tail end of last year and in January of 2022. Serifos is her second foal. The best foal out of the unraced Freedom Herself (Fr) (Freedom Cry {GB}), she has not produced a foal since.

Serifos's third dam, the multiple stakes-placed Redeem Herself (Ire) (General Assembly), threw Irish listed winner and triple group-placed Mediation (Ire) to the cover of Caerleon. That mare would go on to account for a brace of stakes winners led by GI Pacific Classic S. victor Go Between (Point Given), as well as the winning dam of the GI Chandelier S. and GI Starlet S. third K P Dreamin (Union Rags).

Sunday, Hanshin, Japan
MILE CHAMPIONSHIP-G1, ¥347,100,000, Hanshin, 11-20, 3yo/up, 1600mT, 1:32.50, fm.
1–SERIFOS (JPN), 123, c, 3, by Daiwa Major (Jpn)
                1st Dam: Sea Front (Fr) (SW & GSP-Fr, $217,499),
                                by Le Havre (Ire)
                2nd Dam: Freedom Herself (Fr), by Freedom Cry (GB)
                3rd Dam: Redeem Herself (Ire), by General Assembly
1ST GROUP 1 WIN. O-G1 Racing; B-Oiwake Farm (Jpn);
T-Mitsumasa Nakauchida; J-Damian Lane; ¥183,570,000.
Lifetime Reoprd: 8-5-1-0. Click for the
   free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Werk Nick
   Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Danon the Kid (Jpn), 126, c, 4, Just a Way (Jpn)–Epic Love
(Ire), by Dansili (GB). (¥100,000,000 Wlg '18 JRHAJUL).
O-Danox Inc.; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); ¥73,020,000.
3–Sodashi (Jpn), 121, f, 4, Kurofune–Buchiko (Jpn), by King
Kamehameha (Jpn). O-Makoto Kaneko Holdings; B-Northern
Farm (Jpn); ¥45,510,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, HF, NO. Odds: 8.20, 25.00, 3.40.
Also Ran: Soul Rush (Jpn), Schnell Meister (Ger), Justin Café (Jpn), Air Lolonois (Jpn), Lotus Land, Piece of Eight (Jpn), Matenro Orion (Jpn), Danon Scorpion (Jpn), Win Carnelian (Jpn), Falconia (Jpn), Salios (Jpn), Ho O Amazon (Jpn), Happy Hour (Jpn), Besten Dank (Jpn). Click for the JRA chart & video.

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Gran Exit For Alegria in Mile Championship

Japanese champion Gran Alegria (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) signed off her career with her second consecutive G1 Mile Championship victory, her sixth top-level score, at Hanshin on Sunday. She is the first horse to win back-to-back Mile Championships since Daiwa Major (Jpn) (Sunday Silence) in 2006/07.

Tabbed the heavy favourite at 70 cents on the dollar, the 5-year-old mare was content to race near the rear of the field as Ho O Amazon (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) sped through fractions of :23.70 and :47.60. Jockey Christophe Lemaire had a ton of horse under him at all points in the race, and steered Gran Alegria out widest of all as the field entered the straight. Asked for her run, she responded under confident handling and steamed home to win easily by three-quarters of a length as much the best. Group 1 winner Schnell Meister (Ger) (Kingman {GB}) closed from midpack to report home second, a half-length to the good of Danon the Kid (Jpn) (Just a Way {Jpn}).

“I am relieved and happy,” said Lemaire, who was winning his 40th Japan Racing Association Group 1 and 1,500th race in the JRA's jurisdiction. The most important mission for me in her last run of her career was to bring out the best performance, her true form and she did just that. We were positioned a little further back but it didn't worry me much and she has this really good finishing speed at the stretch like she showed today.

“She's been a special horse since a 2-year-old, winning all those big races and today she showed us again that she's of a different class. I will miss her.”

A group winner at two and third in the G1 Asahi Hai Futurity S. against males in December of 2018, Gran Alegria made just three starts at three, taking the G1 Japanese 1000 Guineas in the spring and the G2 Hanshin Cup at the end of the year and was named Japanese Champion 3-Year-Old Filly. At four, Gran Alegria won three of her four appearances, starting with a second in the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen in March. She ended her year with three straight Group 1 wins-the June 7 Yasuda Kinen, Oct. 4 Sprinters S. and Nov. 22 Mile Championship en route to year-end honours as the Japanese Champion Sprinter/Miler. In 2021, she returned with a fourth in the Apr. 4 G1 Osaka Hai, prior to a victory in the G1 Victoria Mile on May 16. Second defending her Yasuda Kinen title in June, she ran third in the 2000-metre G1 Tenno Sho (Autumn) on Oct. 31.

Pedigree Notes
Gran Alegria is, in terms of Group 1 wins, the second most decorated progeny of the late Deep Impact (Jpn) after Gentildonna (Jpn), who has 53 Group 1 winners in total. The Northern Farm-bred is among his 179 worldwide black-type winners and 144 group winners. Tapit's broodmare sire career is going from strength to strength, and he also has the listed stakes winner and Group 3 placed Arusha (Jpn) by Deep Impact. Fifty-three progeny out of his daughters have won a black-type race, 24 of them are group winners and his very best so far has been the Mile Championship heroine from his seven Group 1 scorers.

The first reported foal out of the dual Grade I-winning turf star Tapitsfly, who also won the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf back when it was a listed race, Gran Alegria has a winning 4-year-old full-brother named Blutgang (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). Her dam sold for $1,850,000 to Katsumi Yoshida out of the Fasig-Tipton November Sale in 2012. Tapitsfly's full-sister Flying Tipat (Tapit) was stakes placed at Indiana Downs, while the fourth dam, the winning Pink Dove (Argument {Fr}) was a half-sister to the 1990 GI Arlington Million hero Golden Pheasant (Caro {Ire}), who also took the Japan Cup in 1991.

Other half-siblings to Pink Dove are Group/Grade 3 winners Seewillo (Pleasant Colony), and Trial By Error (Caro {Ire}). At stud, Pink Dove foaled two stakes winners-Moonshine Hall (Spinning World), third in the GIII Toronto Cup H. and Malli Star (Baldski), a dual stakes winner and runner-up in the GI Del Mar Invitational Oaks. The latter went on to produce Japanese stakes winner Bella Rheia (Jpn) (Narita Top Road {Jpn}), Classic-placed and third in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup.

Sunday, Hanshin, Japan
MILE CHAMPIONSHIP-G1, ¥252,920,000, Hanshin, 11-20, 3yo/up, 1600mT, 1:32.60, fm.
1–GRAN ALEGRIA (JPN), 121, m, 5, by Deep Impact (Jpn)
                1st Dam: Tapitsfly (MGISW-US, $1,495,503), by Tapit
                2nd Dam: Flying Marlin, by Marlin
                3rd Dam: Morning Dove, by Fortunate Prospect
O-Sunday Racing; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); T-Kazuo Fujisawa;
J-Christophe Lemaire. ¥133,444,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 3yo
Filly-Jpn, Ch. Sprinter-Jpn, Ch. Miler-Jpn, 15-9-2-2. Werk Nick
   Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*. Click for the
   eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Schnell Meister (Ger), 123, c, 3, Kingman (GB)–Serienholde
(Ger), by Soldier Hollow (GB). O-Sunday Racing; B-Northern
Farm (Jpn); ¥52,984,000.
3–Danon the Kid (Jpn), 123, c, 3, Just a Way (Jpn)–Epic Love
(Ire), by Dansili (GB). (¥100,000,000 Wlg '18 JRHAJUL).
O-Danox Inc.; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); ¥33,494,000.
Margins: 3/4, HF, NO. Odds: 0.70, 3.60, 15.10.
Also Ran: Indy Champ (Jpn), Ho O Amazon (Jpn), Salios (Jpn), Darlington Hall (GB), Soind Chiara (Jpn), Catedral (Jpn), Cadence Call (Jpn), Rainbow Flag (Jpn), Lotus Land, Grenadier Guards (Jpn), Kurino Gaudi (Jpn), Ripresa (Jpn), Sound Kanaloa (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart & video or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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Gran Alegria Imperious in Mile Championship

Although she left it until late, Gran Alegria (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) displayed a scintillating turn of foot once she found running room to rush by her rivals and claim the G1 Mile Championship at Hanshin on Sunday. It was the fourth Group 1 win for the daughter of Breeders’ Cup heroine Tapitsfly and she is the eighth horse-after the runner-up Indy Champ (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn})–to claim both mile events in Japan having earlier scored in the G1 Yasuda Kinen.

The first filly or mare to claim the Mile Championship since Blumenblatt (Jpn) (Admire Vega {Jpn}) in 2008 and the third horse to double up in the G1 Sprinters S./Mile Championship following Durandal (Jpn) (Sunday Silence) in 2003, the 3-5 chalk settled in between horses in fifth as Resistencia (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) set the pace, covering the first quarter in :23.50 while shadowed by Lauda Sion (Jpn) (Real Impact {Jpn}).

Unhurried with 600 metres to travel, the bay was poised to pounce, but Gran Alegria’s rally was stymied, as a gap closed in front of her inside the final quarter mile. Christophe Lemaire prepared to send his charge through another hole, but her path forward was once again blocked, this time by the strong-closing Indy Champ who surged up to lead inside the final 100 metres. Undeterred, Lemaire steered his charge to the outside of Indy Champ and she burst past last year’s winner in a matter of strides to win by a deceptive three-quarter lengths as much the best. Admire Mars (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}), who had stalked the pace throughout, hung on for third a neck in front of Scarlet Color (Jpn) (Victoire Pisa {Jpn}).

“She had a good break so we were able to sit in a good position,” said Lemaire. “She’s matured and a lot easier to ride now being a 4-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. I was a little worried but the way she exploded into gear in the last 150 meters, it just shows how powerful she is and I’m looking forward to a great season from her as a 5-year-old.”

A winner of the G3 Saudi Arabia Royal Cup and third in the G1 Asahi Hai Futurity S. in December of 2018, Gran Alegria captured the 2019 G1 Japanese 1000 Guineas first up that April and added the G2 Hanshin Cup two starts later last December. Promoted to second in the 1200-metre G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen resuming this March, the 4-year-old saluted in the one-mile G1 Yasuda Kinen on June 7 and added the Oct. 4 G1 Sprinters S. cutting back to 1200 metres.

Pedigree Notes

One of 47 Group 1 winners for her late supersire, Gran Alegria also has the second highest tally of top-level victories of Deep Impact progeny with four. Only Gentildonna (Jpn), with seven, was more successful. The 4-year-old filly is also the fourth Mile Championship scorer for Deep Impact following Danon Shark (Jpn), Tosen Ra (Jpn) and Mikki Isle (Jpn). To date, the former Shadai Stallion Station supremo has sired 165 black-type winners 132 of them at the group level. In addition to Gran Alegria, he is also responsible for Japanese listed winner and group-placed Arusha (Jpn), who is also out of a Tapit mare.

A winner of the then-Listed Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2009, the late Tapitsfly progressed to take the GI Just a Game S. and GI First lady S. as a 5-year-old. Knocked down to Katsumi Yoshida for $1.85 million at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, Tapitsfly’s first foal is Gran Alegria after a barren year in 2015. She also has a 3-year-old full-brother to the Mile Championship winner named Blutgang (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who sports a victory in one start.

Tapit’s daughters have produced four Grade/Group 1 winners so far among 40 black-type winners, and the Gainesway sire was in the spotlight earlier this weekend with Finite (Munnings)’s win in the GIII Chilukki S. at Churchill Downs.

Sunday, Hanshin, Japan
MILE CHAMPIONSHIP-G1, ¥253,100,000 (US$2,436,714/£1,835,394/€2,055,149), Hanshin, 11-22, 3yo/up, 1600mT, 1:32.00, fm.
1–GRAN ALEGRIA (JPN), 121, f, 4, by Deep Impact (Jpn)
                1st Dam: Tapitsfly (MGISW-US, $1,495,503), by Tapit
                2nd Dam: Flying Marlin, by Marlin
                3rd Dam: Morning Dove, by Fortunate Prospect
O-Sunday Racing; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); T-Kazuo Fujisawa;
J-Kenichi Ikezoe. ¥133,570,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 3yo
Filly-Jpn, 10-7-1-1. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*.
   Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Indy Champ (Jpn), 126, h, 5, Stay Gold (Jpn)–Will Power
(Jpn), by King Kamehameha (Jpn). O-Silk Racing; B-Northern
Farm (Jpn); ¥53,020,000.
3–Admire Mars (Jpn), 126, c, 4, Daiwa Major (Jpn)–Via Medici
(Ire), by Medicean (GB). (¥52,000,000 Ylg ’17 JRHAJUL).
O-Junko Kondo; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); ¥33,510,000.
Margins: 3/4, NK, 1. Odds: 0.60, 7.80, 10.10.
Also Ran: Scarlet Color (Jpn), Salios (Jpn), Vin de Garde (Jpn), Persian Knight(Jpn), Resistencia (Jpn), Besten Dank (Jpn), Soind Chiara (Jpn), Meikei Die Hard (Jpn), A Will a Way (Jpn). Keiai Nautique (Jpn), Taisei Vision (Jpn), Lauda Shion (Jpn), Black Moon (Jpn), Katsuji (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart & video or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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Gran Alegria Seeks Fourth Group 1 in Mile Championship

A diverse group of 17 runners Sunday in Hanshin’s G1 Mile Championship, the second leg of the Japan Autumn International Series. Headlining the 1,600-meter test,

Gran Alegria (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) accounted for a pair of Goup 1 wins in her two latest starts–the Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo in June followed by Nakayama’s Sprinters S. Oct. 4. The daughter of Grade I-winning Tapitsfly (Tapit) won last season’s G1 Oka Sho over the same course and distance of this weekend’s Mile.

“She was in great condition for the Sprinters S., and although she didn’t start so quickly, the blistering turn of foot she showed at the end of the race was quite amazing,” said Daisuke Tsumagari, assistant to trainer Kazuo Fujisawa. “She had a break at Northern Farm Tenei after the race, and since returning to the stable she’s been relaxed and in good order.”

Attempting to repeat in this season’s Mile Championship, Indy Champ (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) proved best in the 1,600-meter G2 Yomiuri Milers Cup at Kyoto in April before finishing third to Gran Alegria and the star mare Almond Eye (Jpn) in the Yasuda Kinen, a race he won in 2019. The 5-year-old boasts an impressive 50% win strike rate at the 1,600-meter distance. Assistant trainer Kenichi Shono commented: “He had some pain in his right hindquarters, so we had to skip the Sprinters S. In recent training he’s been working on the woodchip course, as the going on the uphill training track hasn’t been so good. It’ll be his first race since finishing third in this year’s Yasuda Kinen, and his regular rider, Yuichi Fukunaga, is expected to be in the saddle once more.”

Victorious in Tokyo’s G3 Saudi Arabia Royal Cup last fall, Salios (Jpn) (Heart’s Cry {Jpn}) recorded a career-high victory in the

G1 Asahi Hai Futurity S. over this course and distance in December. Runner-up behind Contrail (Jpn) in the G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas) and Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) earlier this spring, the 3-year-old took the 1,800-meter G2 Mainichi Okan at Tokyo Oct. 11. The colt has never finished worse than second in six career starts.

“He won well in the Mainichi Okan after being off for a while, and it just took him a bit longer to recover after that race,” said trainer Noriyuki Hori. “We’re just being careful with him and checking his condition as this race approaches.”

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