2018 G1 Yasuda Kinen hero Mozu Ascot (Frankel {GB}) thrilled in the G3 Negishi S. 21 days ago, and he is now two-for-two over the dirt after a 2 1/2-length win in the G1 February S. at Tokyo on Sunday, a “Win and You're In” for the $6-million GI Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky on Nov. 7. The first of his Juddmonte-based sire's 10 Group 1 winners to take a top-level race on dirt, he is the fifth Japanese-based horse to win Group 1s on both dirt and turf in Japan after Kurofune (French Deputy), Agnes Digital (Crafty Prospector)-also a winner of the Yasuda Kinen, Eagle Café (Gulch), and Admire Don (Jpn) (Timber Country).
Content to bide his time in a midpack eighth through the early stages as Wide Pharoah (Jpn) (Henny Hughes) was pressed by Arctos (Jpn) (Admire Aura {Jpn}) in the vanguard, the chestnut improved to fourth with just under 400 metres remaining as that pair folded and Time Flyer (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) briefly took over. Shifted to the four path and flashing his sire's signature turn of foot, the 9-5 favourite seized command just outside the final furlong as K T Brave (Jpn) (Admire Max {Jpn}), the longest shot on the board at 141-1, and Sunrise Nova (Jpn) (Gold Allure {Jpn}), just off that rival's hip, rallied up the center of the track. Mozu Ascot won geared down by daylight however, with K T Brave 1 1/4 lengths ahead of Sunrise Nova. The latter just nipped Wonder Lider (Jpn) (Statue of Liberty) for third by a nose.
“He broke well and we were able to settle right behind [second favourite and last year's winner] Inti (Jpn) (Came Home) as planned,” said pilot Christophe Lemaire, who was winning his first February S. of the $275,000 Keeneland September RNA. “His acceleration was extraordinary. Although he is a newcomer in dirt racing, he adapted immediately to the surface and gave his best today. After a couple of second-place finishes in the past, I myself, am happy to have won the February S. at last.”
A winner of the Yasuda Kinen from seven starts as a 4-year-old in 2018, the Capital System runner hit the board in his fourth start last year, running second in the G2 Mainichi Brodcast Swan S. at Kyoto going 1400 metres. He was 14th in his final appearance on turf in the G1 Mile Championship there on Nov. 17, prior to his Negishi S. win. The 6-year-old entire will now point to the Apr. 4 G1 Doncaster Mile during the first weekend of The Championships at Royal Randwick in Australia according to his connections.
Pedigree Notes
The February S. hero is one of 48 black-type winners by the undefeated Frankel, whose G3 Fantasy S. heroine Mi Suerte (Jpn) is a granddaughter of the very fast Madcap Escapade (Hennessy). A half-brother to Listed Jersey Girl S. victress Kareena (Medaglia d'Oro), Mozu Ascot's 3-year-old Hard Spun half-sister I Thee Wed, ran off the board debuting in a Gulfstream Park maiden special weight for owner/breeder Summer Wind Equine on Sunday. His juvenile Frosted half-sister Silver Strand, a $575,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling, has yet to start. A winner of the GII Cotillion Breeders' Cup H. and GIII Azeri Breeders' Cup S., India foaled a colt by Lane's End's Quality Road on Feb. 18.
India, out of SW and GII Fantasy S. bridesmaid Misty Hour (Miswaki), is a full-sister to SW & GSP Sing Softly (Hennessy), while their half-sister, Listed Go For Wand S. heroine Pilfer (Deputy Minister), foaled MGISW To Honor and Serve and GI Chandelier S. scorer Angela Renee to the cover of Bernardini and Native Dancer S. winner Elnaawi to fellow Darley America stallion Street Sense. This is the extended family of Canadian Champion Grass Horse Rahy's Attorney (Crown Attorney), who won the GI Woodbine Mile S. in 2008.
Sunday, Tokyo, Japan
FEBRUARY S.-G1, ¥194,860,000 (US$1,749,407/£1,349,880/€1,614,718), Tokyo, 2-23, 4yo/up, 1600m, 1:35.20, ft.
1–MOZU ASCOT, 126, h, 6, Frankel%20(GB)&log=#tot">Frankel (GB)
1st Dam: India (MGSW-US, $630,859), by Hennessy
2nd Dam: Misty Hour, by Miswak
3rd Dam: Our Tina Marie, by Nijinsky II
($275,000 RNA Ylg '15 KEESEP). O-Capital System; B-Summer
Wind Farm (KY); T- Yoshito Yahagi; J- Christophe Lemaire.
¥103,420,000. Lifetime Record: 21-7-5-0. *1/2 to Kareena
(Medaglia d'Oro), SW-US, $148,000. Werk Nick Rating: C+.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–K T Brave (Jpn), 126, h, 7, Admire Max (Jpn)–K T Laurel (Jpn),
by Sakura Laurel (Jpn). O-Kazuyoshi Takimoto; B-Okano Farm
(Jpn); ¥40,972,000.
3–Sunrise Nova (Jpn), 126, h, 6, Gold Allure (Jpn)–Bright
Sapphire (Jpn), by Thunder Gulch. O-Takao Matsuoka;
B-Yanagawa Farm (Jpn); ¥25,486,000.
Margins: 2HF, 1 1/4, NO. Odds: 1.80, 141.60, 5.80.
Also Ran: Wonder Lider (Jpn), Time Flyer (Jpn), King's Guard (Jpn), Dead Heat, Mogiana Flavor (Jpn), Nonkono Yume (Jpn), Arctos (Jpn), Vengeance (Jpn), Mutually (Jpn), Wide Pharaoh (Jpn), Bulldog Boss (Jpn), Inti (Jpn), Derma Louvre (Jpn), Mikki Wild (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart and video or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
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