Tag: Sunday Racing

Duramente’s Liberty Island Romps In Japanese Oaks

The G1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) was not without its challenges for last month's G1 Japanese 1000 Guineas heroine Liberty Island (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}) as she was trying a distance beyond a mile for the first time, but ultimately the 2400 metres held no fears, as she strolled home a sixth-length winner in 2:23.10 in Tokyo.

Sunday Racing's imperious dame became the 17th filly–following her paternal half-sister Stars On Earth (Jpn) in 2022–to win the first two legs of the Japanese Fillies' Triple Crown. It was the largest winning margin in the Oaks since 1975.

Bet down to 2-5 favouritism, the Mitsumasa Nakauchida trainee strode out to a dramaless beginning to sit in midfield as Light Quantum (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) clicked off fractions of :22.80 and :47.70 and 1:00 flat while stalked by Kiminonawa Maria (Jpn) (Harbinger {GB}) and Ravel (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}). The strong pace saw the field well spaced out, and, the 2-year-old star had a fair amount of distance to make up as noses pointed toward home. Predictably, the pacesetter came under pressure from the stalkers with 600 metres left to run, and pilot Yuga Kawada was poised aboard an enthusiastic Liberty Island as the leading trio began to come back to the field.

Swung out into the six path to obtain a clear run, Liberty Island loomed up into contention at the quarter pole as Ravel took up the running on the front end, and finally Kawada asked his filly for her bid after remaining motionless for the previous 2000 metres. Generous when asked, Liberty Island collared Ravel at the furlong grounds and dashed away to a stylish victory. Harper (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) and Dura (Jpn) both closed well to take second and third, by six lengths, and a neck, respectively. Group winner Ravel hung on gamely in fourth, another three-quarters of a length back.

“Having run the Oka Sho and being transported here to Tokyo for another big race, the filly was quite tense coming into this race, so I had to make an effort to reserve her energy and calm her down before the race,” said jockey Yuga Kawada, who was winning his 23rd top-level race. “She settled well once in the gate, allowing us to make a safe start, and we were able to race in good rhythm while I still had the task of keeping her under control up to the critical stages. I knew we were already in a position to finish clear of the other horses once taking the lead, but I wanted her to finish off the race strongly to the wire so I kept driving her to the wire which led to a big margin.”

A winner of a Niigata newcomer affair over a mile last July, Liberty Island suffered her only defeat at the hooves of Sunday's fourth-place finisher Ravel (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) in the G3 Artemis S. going that trip in Tokyo in October. Kept in training through December, she swept the G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies by 2 1/2 lengths, and was named the 2022 Japanese Champion 2-Year-Old Filly. The Northern Racing-bred bay made her 3-year-old bow a winning one in the G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) in early April, and the Yushun Himba was her first start beyond a mile.

Pedigree Notes

With every season that passes, the loss of dual Classic-winning sire Duramente to the Japanese industry and wider bloodstock world becomes more apparent. Liberty Island is one of five Group 1 winners for the 2015 Japanese Champion 3-Year-Old Colt. His stakes winners number 14, 10 of them at group level. Besides Liberty Island, Stars On Earth and Titleholder (Jpn) have also claimed Classic laurels in the Land of the Rising Sun.

The second foal out of Australian Champion 2-Year-Old Filly and Champion 3-Year-Old Filly Yankee Rose (Aus) (All American {Aus}), Liberty Island's year-older half brother Romneya (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) is a winner, and her dam produced a colt by Lord Kanaloa (Jpn) in 2021 and a filly by Kizuna (Jpn) last year. A winner of the G1 Inglis Sires and G1 Spring Champion S., she was covered by Japanese Triple Crown Winner Contrail (Jpn) last spring.

A half-sister to Group 3 winner Miravalle (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}), Yankee Rose traces her damline to 1981 G1 Yorkshire Oaks winner and G1 Irish Oaks runner-up Condessa (Ire), by the Luthier (Fr) horse Condorcet (Fr).

 

Sunday, Tokyo, Japan
YUSHUN HIMBA (JAPANESE OAKS)-G1, ¥325,180,000, Tokyo, 5-21, 3yo, f, 2400mT, 2:23.10, fm.
1–LIBERTY ISLAND (JPN), 121, f, 3, by Duramente (Jpn)
                1st Dam: Yankee Rose (Aus), by All American (Aus)
                2nd Dam: Condesaar (Aus), by Xaar (GB)
                3rd Dam: Condescendance, by El Gran Senor
O-Sunday Racing; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); T-Mitsumasa
Nakauchida; J-Yuga Kawada; ¥177,426,000. Lifetime Record:
Ch. 2yo Filly-Jpn, 5-4-1-0, ¥429,472,000. Click for the
   free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Werk Nick
   Rating: B. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Harper (Jpn), 121, f, 3, Heart's Cry (Jpn)–Seresta (Arg), by
Jump Start. 1ST GROUP 1 BLACK TYPE. (¥86,000,000 Wlg '20
JRHAJUL). O-M's Racing; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); ¥67,830,000.
3–Dura (Jpn), 121, f, 3, Duramente (Jpn)–Isis (Jpn), by King Halo
(Jpn). 1ST GROUP 1 BLACK TYPE. O-Cypress Holdings;
B-Grande Farm (Jpn); ¥41,918,000.
Margins: 6, NK, 3/4. Odds: 0.40, 7.80, 102.40.
Also Ran: Ravel (Jpn), Shinryokuka (Jpn), Hip Hop Soul (Jpn), Kona Coast (Jpn), So Dazzling (Jpn), Doe Eyes (Jpn), Remige (Jpn), Golden Hind (Jpn), Perifania (Jpn), Emu (Jpn), Mikki Gorgeous (Jpn), Kita Wing (Jpn), England Eyes (GB), Light Quantum (Jpn), Kiminonawa Maria (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart & video.

 

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35 Years Ago, Sundays Were Silent At Tampa Bay Downs

Sunday racing returns to Tampa Bay Downs on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas, which is welcome news for families, tourists and bettors seeking to enjoy an exciting weekend afternoon of Thoroughbred action or just soak up sunshine and atmosphere at the Oldsmar, Fla., track.

While a Sunday spent handicapping by the rail and watching kids toss Frisbees in the Backyard Picnic Area seems commonplace, it wasn't always so. The first Sunday card in Tampa Bay Downs history took place on Dec. 7, 1986, and there was no way to predict how it would be received by the public.

Sunday racing became a reality after the state legislature decided to move Florida into step with more progressive fiefdoms.

“We are expecting a large crowd comparable to our Saturday crowds and maybe even better,” Lorraine King, the late Tampa Bay Downs general manager, said on the eve of the occasion. “If we can introduce new people to the sport of Thoroughbred racing by running on Sundays, then we are confident that they will enjoy themselves and come back on a more regular basis.”

At least one thing seemed to be working in the track's favor: the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were playing in Chicago, and you had to be kind of a masochist to stay home and watch the Buccos get plastered 48-14 by the defending Super Bowl champion Bears.

Still, King knew putting on a brave face wasn't going to lure fans. So she instituted free grandstand admission and half-price clubhouse admission and added a free soft drink to go with every hot dog purchase.

Tampa Bay Downs also offered a handicapping seminar by noted Ocala turf writer and racing expert Bernie Dickman, plus a slate of races that included the first running of the Big John Naughton Ford Inaugural Stakes for 2-year-olds, offering a grandiose $15,000-added purse.

One thing King was sure of: the history-making event would draw lots of media attention. Reporters from the St. Petersburg Times, the Tampa Tribune and the Clearwater Sun all showed up to document the proceedings.

What they witnessed exceeded the expectations of the most optimistic observers. The turnstiles kept clicking throughout the day, with attendance of 5,893 surpassing the Opening Day crowd of 5,396 four days earlier.

While it's unclear if King was sticking the needle to the Bucs when she told a Times reporter “Today was very much like the Super Bowl,” she had reason to feel giddy.

Total wagering handle was $496,680 (this was before the simulcasting era), and youthful faces made up a larger-than-usual portion of the crowd (minors were not legally allowed inside Tampa Bay Downs until two seasons later).

These days, calling it an “experiment” seems silly, but 35 years ago it was a big deal, and an avenue to so many of the positive changes that have taken place at Tampa Bay Downs in ensuing years.

“Sunday racing means that people who work the other days of the week now have the opportunity to come out and enjoy the races,” said track owner Stella F. Thayer, the Oldsmar oval's president and treasurer, on the big afternoon.

“We're really hoping Sundays will bring a whole new dimension for attendance opportunities.”

So, maybe the day was more of a Super Bowl-type event than anyone realized at the time (including Bucs' fans, who would suffer through a 2-14 season).

“Naturally, if people unfamiliar with the sport are going to come out to Tampa Bay Downs, they are not as likely to wager as much as our more sophisticated patrons,” King said beforehand. “But … what I want to see is a lot of people. That means they will at least be exposed to the excitement of Thoroughbred racing.”

It would be fascinating to know how many are still coming. Probably more than anyone expected.

The post 35 Years Ago, Sundays Were Silent At Tampa Bay Downs appeared first on Horse Racing News | Paulick Report.

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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 Back To Mile For Swansong

A carefully managed career comes to a close Sunday afternoon for three-times champion Gran Alegria (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who faces a crack group of Japanese milers in defence of her title in the G1 Mile Championship S. at Hanshin Racecourse.

The daughter of the late multiple Grade I and Breeders' Cup winner Tapitsfly (Tapit) has finished outside the top three just twice in her 14 starts to date, including a fourth in the G1 Osaka Hai in April, contested in unsuitably wet ground and over a 2000-metre trip that likely stretches her. Bouncing back with authority to best fellow females by four lengths in the G1 Victoria Mile the following month, the 5-year-old missed by a head at odds-on when looking for a second straight G1 Yasuda Kinen June 6 and exits a strong third to the world-class Efforia (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}) and Triple Crown winner Contrail (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) when first up in the G1 Tenno Sho (Autumn) over a mile and a quarter Oct. 31.

“With her speed, I thought she'd be able to do well over 2000 metres, but turning into the stretch in the Tenno Sho, she had to be urged on sooner than usual,” said trainer Kazuo Fujisawa, a five-time winner of the race who–like Gran Alegria–is nearing retirement. “It was a familiar course for her, but I think the distance was a bit too long. This year, there's a fantastic young horse in the mix and this one is retiring. She's a horse who has given it her all from the time she was two years old, but I'm asking her this, to please give it your all just one more time.”

 

The up-and-comer Fujisawa refers to is Schnell Meister (Ger) (Kingman {GB}), also campaigned in the Sunday Racing colours, but trained by Takahisa Tezuka. Lightly raced with just six starts under his belt, the son of G1 Preis der Diana heroine Serienholde (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}) was second in the G2 Deep Impact Kinen going 10 panels in March, but was sensational when dropping back in trip to best the filly Songline (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}) and Grenadier Guards (Jpn) (Frankel {GB}) in the G1 NHK Mile Cup May 9, leading home a Sunday Racing 1-2-3 sweep. The bay flashed home to defeat Yasuda Kinen hero Danon Kingly in the G2 Mainichi Okan going nine furlongs Oct. 10.

Grenadier Guards was an intended member of the Japanese raid on the Breeders' Cup meeting two weekends ago, but fearing that he would not gain a run in the GI Mile, connections elected to stay put with this race in mind. Winner of last year's G1 Asahi Hai Futurity, the son of GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint victress Wavell Aenue (Harlington) has yet to salute in three appearances this term, but ran with credit in the NHK Mile and exits a third to Catedral (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) in the G2 Keisei Hai Autumn H. over this trip Sept. 12.

Indy Champ (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) won this event in 2019 before finishing third to Gran Alegria last year. The consistent 6-year-old mas his first run since finishing a close fourth, beaten under a length, in the Yasuda Kinen.

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