By Alan Carasso
With one Japanese raid on America just completed, another looks set for the fall, as Awesome Result (Justify) will be pointed towards the GI Breeders' Cup Distaff at Del Mar in November after making virtually all the running in Wednesday's Listed Empress Hai at Kawasaki Racecourse. The victory, the first black-type success for the 4-year-old filly, takes her record to a perfect six-from-six.
Contested over 2100 metres (about a mile and five-sixteenths), Awesome Result bounced well from gate 10 beneath Yutaka Take and was initially taken in hand to sit second before rolling forward to take command rounding the first of the three turns. Joined for the run around the second turn by second pick Icon Tailor (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}), Awesome Result maintained a comfortable advantage down the back straight for the final time, responded when set down with a bit more than a furlong to travel and proved a cosy winner as the $2.60 (8-5) favourite (see below). Third choice Grand Bridge (Jpn) (Sinister Minister), who won this race last year when it was contested in March, flashed home for second ahead of 55-1 Carrick a Rede (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}) in third.
“There was a lot of cause for concern, because it was her first stakes race, racing at night and the tight turns, but the horse's ability and the way the jockey rode her won the race,” trainer Yasutoshi Ikee told Netkeiba. “After this I hope to have one or two races in Japan and then challenge the Breeders' Cup Distaff.”
Marche Lorraine (Jpn) (Orfevre {Jpn}) won the 2021 Empress Hai before causing a massive upset in that year's Distaff, also at Del Mar.
Awesome Result is the 29th worldwide black-type winner for Justify and his second in Japan–both on dirt–joining recent Oasis S. winner Yuttitham (Jpn). Also the granddam of the multiple stakes-placed Royal Spa (Violence) and three-time Japanese winner Ju Taro (Arrogate), the now 21-year-old Blossomed made the most recent of her seven trips through the Keeneland sales pavilion in 2018, when she was sold to Springhouse Farm for $425,000 in foal to Honor Code at the auction house's November Sale.
Blossomed's most recent foal is a 2-year-old full-brother to Awesome Result, who made $350,000 at Keeneland November in 2022 before being led out unsold on a bid of $520,000 at last year's Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale.
Wednesday, Kawasaki, Japan
EMPRESS HAI (Jpn-G2)-Listed, ¥68,000,000 ($437,172), Kawasaki, 5-8, 4yo/up, f/m, 2100m, 2:14.5, gd.
1–AWESOME RESULT, 121, f, 4, Justify–Blossomed, by Deputy Minister. 1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN. O-Insel Racing Co Ltd; B-Orpendale/Chelston/Wynatt (KY); T-Yasutoshi Ikee; J-Yutaka Take; ¥40,000,000. Lifetime Record: 6-6-0-0, $717,149. *1/2 to Bodacious Babe (Mineshaft), GSP, $154,259; and Sippican Harbor (Orb), GISW, $262,650.
2–Grand Bridge (Jpn), 121, m, 5, Sinister Minister–Dirretrice (Jpn), by Daiwa Major (Jpn). (¥3,410,000 Ylg '20 HOKSEP). O-Cypress Holdings LLC; B-Yukio Kanemasu; T-Koichi Shintani; J-Yuga Kawada; ¥14,000,000.
3—Carrick a Rede (Jpn), 121, m, 5, Kizuna (Jpn)–Irish Sea (Ire), by Galileo (Ire). (¥15,000,000 Fl '19 JRHAJUL). O-Silk Racing Co Ltd; B-Northern Farm; T-Terunobu Fujita; J-Norifumi Mikimoto; ¥8,000,000.
Margins: NK, 2, 1HF. Odds: 1.60, 2.40, 55.20.
Click for the goracing.jp chart. VIDEO.
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