Serifos Bests Elders In Mile Championship

G1 Racing's Serifos (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) steamed home impressively from near the back of the pack to take the G1 Mile Championship at Hanshin on Sunday. Sent off at 8-1, he is the first 3-year-old colt to defeat his elders in the race since Stelvio (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) in 2018.

Caught in midfield Serifos relaxed beautifully under Damian Lane as Piece Of Eight (Jpn) (Screen Hero {Jpn}) raced hard on the steel while shadowed by Falconia (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), with that duo swapping positions in the backstretch. The pace remained hot, with Falconia covering the first 1000 metres in a blistering :58.5, and he continued to hold the advantage on the bend. Fanning across the track for the stretch drive, Falconia still led under pressure, but his position appeared tenuous, as Danon The Kid (Jpn) (Just A Way {Jpn}) and Sodashi (Jpn) (Kurofune) were winding up with their runs. Lane had Serifos over nine paths off the fence, but once he saw daylight a furlong from home, he picked up the field in a matter of strides to win going away by 1 1/4 lengths.

His rivals played bumper cars in late stretch, with 2020 Japanese Champion 2-Year-Old Colt Danon The Kid best of the remainder, a half-length to the good of 2020/21 Japanese filly champion Sodashi, who was seeking her fourth crown at the top table. She, in turn, was a nose ahead of Group 2 scorer Soul Rush (Jpn) (Rulership {Jpn}) in a bunched finish.

“I'm very happy, the horse was super today,” said jockey Damian Lane. “He's very consistent and I knew he would improve after watching his videos. I wanted to show how really competitive he is. The pace was good and he was a bit keen early but I was always confident.”

A winner of his first three starts as a juvenile including the G3 Niigata Nisai S. and the G2 Daily Hai Nisai S., he ran second to subsequent 2022 G1 Japanese Derby hero Do Deuce (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) in the G1 Asahi Hai Futurity S. last December. Benched until the G1 NHK Mile Cup in May, he ran fourth, and filled that spot again in June in the G1 Yasuda Kinen. Given some time on the sidelines, he returned to take the G2 Fuji S. by a neck as the 6-5 crowd's pick on Oct. 22.

Pedigree Notes

Daiwa Major's stakes winners stand at 42, and Serifos is one of 19 group scorers for the 21-year-old. With his Mile Championship victory, the 3-year-old is his seventh Group 1 winner, anchored by three-time Group 1 winner Admire Mars (Jpn), who did his best running over a mile in Hong Kong and Japan. The much lamented Le Havre (Ire) is still in the early stages of his broodmare sire career, but three of his four stakes winners have struck at group level. Pyledriver (GB) (Harbour Watch {Ire}), successful in the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. and G1 Coronation Cup, was Le Havre's first top-level scorer, and Serifos is his second.

Sea Front took time to come to hand, placing at two, wining twice at three, and then taking her first listed victory, the Prix Maurice Zilber at four. Also stakes placed twice more that year, she returned at five to take third in the G3 Prix Bertrand du Breuil. Picked up for just €135,000 out of the 2016 Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale by Haruya Yoshida, Sea Front was sent to Japan and covered by Orfevre (Jpn), who despite his slew of Japanese accolades, is best known for finishing runner-up in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe twice. The resulting foal, the three-time winner Forte Dei Marmi (Jpn), won over 2400m on turf at three, and added a brace of wins on dirt at 1800m and 1900m at the tail end of last year and in January of 2022. Serifos is her second foal. The best foal out of the unraced Freedom Herself (Fr) (Freedom Cry {GB}), she has not produced a foal since.

Serifos's third dam, the multiple stakes-placed Redeem Herself (Ire) (General Assembly), threw Irish listed winner and triple group-placed Mediation (Ire) to the cover of Caerleon. That mare would go on to account for a brace of stakes winners led by GI Pacific Classic S. victor Go Between (Point Given), as well as the winning dam of the GI Chandelier S. and GI Starlet S. third K P Dreamin (Union Rags).

Sunday, Hanshin, Japan
MILE CHAMPIONSHIP-G1, ¥347,100,000, Hanshin, 11-20, 3yo/up, 1600mT, 1:32.50, fm.
1–SERIFOS (JPN), 123, c, 3, by Daiwa Major (Jpn)
                1st Dam: Sea Front (Fr) (SW & GSP-Fr, $217,499),
                                by Le Havre (Ire)
                2nd Dam: Freedom Herself (Fr), by Freedom Cry (GB)
                3rd Dam: Redeem Herself (Ire), by General Assembly
1ST GROUP 1 WIN. O-G1 Racing; B-Oiwake Farm (Jpn);
T-Mitsumasa Nakauchida; J-Damian Lane; ¥183,570,000.
Lifetime Reoprd: 8-5-1-0. Click for the
   free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree. Werk Nick
   Rating: A++. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Danon the Kid (Jpn), 126, c, 4, Just a Way (Jpn)–Epic Love
(Ire), by Dansili (GB). (¥100,000,000 Wlg '18 JRHAJUL).
O-Danox Inc.; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); ¥73,020,000.
3–Sodashi (Jpn), 121, f, 4, Kurofune–Buchiko (Jpn), by King
Kamehameha (Jpn). O-Makoto Kaneko Holdings; B-Northern
Farm (Jpn); ¥45,510,000.
Margins: 1 1/4, HF, NO. Odds: 8.20, 25.00, 3.40.
Also Ran: Soul Rush (Jpn), Schnell Meister (Ger), Justin Café (Jpn), Air Lolonois (Jpn), Lotus Land, Piece of Eight (Jpn), Matenro Orion (Jpn), Danon Scorpion (Jpn), Win Carnelian (Jpn), Falconia (Jpn), Salios (Jpn), Ho O Amazon (Jpn), Happy Hour (Jpn), Besten Dank (Jpn). Click for the JRA chart & video.