Yoshida lived up to the “TDN Rising Star” moniker with a powerhouse performance on the Preakness undercard. The bay was off awkwardly and lagged at the back of the pack as they set a solid pace of :22.97 and :46.91 up front. Stuck along the inside turning for home while absolutely full of run, he bowled his way out at the top of the lane and cantered clear with his ears pricked to win for fun.
“That was very impressive,” Hall of Famer Bill Mott remarked. “He broke, but he was relaxed, and Joel [Rosario] said he was very responsive, whenever he needed him, he could put him wherever he wanted. I thought it was a very professional race. He had plenty of courage. Any time you've got to go through the field, you have opportunities to back out of it, and he actually got checked a little bit around the second turn nearing the quarter pole. He had to take up a little bit and wait and finally got through and found his room. He rolled home an easy winner, it looks like. He had his ears pricked and doing it the right way.”
Runner-up after encountering some trouble in the stretch of his one-mile unveiling on the Aqueduct lawn Nov. 19, Yoshida took them wire-to-wire for a good-looking four-length graduation in a nine-panel test at Keeneland Apr. 9. That was one of two grass maidens for colts in Lexington that day and the other was won by next out GII American Turf S. upsetter Arklow (Arch). Yoshida's dam Hilda's Passion won the 2011 GI Ballerina S. in addition to four other graded scores for Starlight Racing and Todd Pletcher. Japan's Katsumi Yoshida, for whom the winner was named, purchased the mare for $1.225 million at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton November sale. Yoshida is her second and most recent foal. Click for the Equibase.com chart or VIDEO, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton.
JAMES W. MURPHY S., $100,000, PIM, 5-20, 3yo, 1mT, 1:36.83, gd.
1–#YOSHIDA (JPN), 116, c, 3, by Heart's Cry (Jpn)
1st Dam: Hilda's Passion (GISW, $739,493), by Canadian Frontier
2nd Dam: Executricker, by El Prado (Ire)
3rd Dam: Trick Trick, by Clever Trick
“TDN Rising Star” (¥94,000,000 Ylg '15 JRASAL). O-WinStar
Farm LLC, China Horse Club International Ltd. and SF Racing
Group Inc.; B-Northern Farm (JPN); T-William I. Mott; J-Joel
Rosario. $60,000. Lifetime Record: 3-2-1-0, $104,100.[bullet ad=”bsw-bloodstock-private-purchase-for-head-of-plains”]2–Chubby Star, 111, f, 3, Malibu Moon–Salsa Star, by Giant's
Causeway. O/B-Sagamore Farm (MD); T-Horacio DePaz.
$20,000.[bullet ad=”feld-matingrecommended”][bullet ad=”maryland-shell”]3–Mo Maverick, 116, c, 3, Uncle Mo–Lemon Splendor, by
Lemon Drop Kid. ($200,000 Ylg '15 KEESEP). O-R. A. Hill Stable
and Gatsas Stables; B-Gentry Stable (NY); T-George Weaver.
$10,000.
Margins: 4, HD, NO. Odds: 2.80, 18.80, 3.40.
Also Ran: Caribou Club, Cheyenne's Colonel, Berks County, Bird's Eye View, Total Tap, Dover Cliffs, Undulated, Adonis Creed, Cool Arrow. Scratched: Conquest Bandit.
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