By Alan Carasso
The first of four legs of the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby, the $220,717 Cattleya S. (allowance), was staged Saturday afternoon over Tokyo's one-turn mile and for the second year in a row, a son of successful young stallion and former U.S. Eclipse Award winner Drefong drew first blood in the series.
Drawn one from the outside in afield of 10, Continuar (Jpn) broke alertly, but was ultimately beaten for speed and settled in the second flight of horses while racing three off the inside and with cover down the back straight. Waited with on the turn, the 29-10 second choice was produced wide into the stretch by the visiting Damian Lane, was asked to quicken inside the final furlong and kicked on nicely to best third favorite Mirror of Mind (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits) by a half-length (see below). Last year's Cattleya S. was won by Consigliere (Jpn), who went on to be third to Pinehurst (Twirling Candy) in the G3 Saudi Derby.
Purchased for ¥70 million ($635,432) at last year's JRHA Select Sales, Continuar overcame a double-digit draw to land his Oct. 8 debut over nine furlongs at Hanshin Oct. 8 and nearly made it two straight, missing narrowly in his first start against winners back at Hanshin 20 days ago. He is trained by Yoshito Yahagi, who conditioned Loves Only You (Jpn) and Marche Lorraine (Jpn) to famous wins at the Breeders' Cup in 2021.
“I think I want to take him to Saudi, then Dubai and then maybe Kentucky,” Yahagi said.
Continuar is out of a daughter of MSW & G1SP Fusaichi Pandora (Jpn) (Sunday Silence), best known as the dam of two-time Japanese Horse of the Year and dual G1 Japan Cup heroine Almond Eye (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}). This is also the female family of champion El Gran Senor.
Continuar was awarded 10 points for his victory, while Mirror of Mind earned 4 points. The next race in the series is the Zen-Nippon Nisai Yushun at Kawasaki Dec. 14.
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