Ascoli Piceno (Jpn)

Jantar Mantar (Jpn) (Palace Malice), who was crowned Japan's champion two-year-old colt in 2023, resumed winning ways with a decisive defeat of the unlucky-in-running Ascoli Piceno (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) in Saturday's G1 NHK Mile Cup at Tokyo Racecourse, his fourth win from six career starts. Unbeaten in three starts at two, culminating with a first top-level win in the Asahi Hai Futurity S. at Hanshin, Jantar Mantar had been forced to settle for minor honours on his first two starts as a three-year-old, including when finishing a close-up third...

A valiant second in the G1 Oka Sho last month, 2023 Japanese Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Ascoli Piceno (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) is looking for redemption in Tokyo's G1 NHK Mile Cup on Sunday having lost her unbeaten record. However, the 18-strong field boasts two champions and plenty of up-and-comers and her task is not straightforward. The mount of crack French reinsman Christophe Lemaire, the granddaughter of the high class G1 Meon Valley Stud Fillies' Mile heroine Listen (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) won both the G3 Niigata Nisai S. and the G1...

Stellenbosch (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}) reversed the form with her G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies conqueror, Ascoli Piceno (Jpn) Daiwa Major (Jpn), as she ran out an authoritative winner of Sunday's G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1,000 Guineas) at Hanshin Racecourse, the first leg of the Japanese Triple Tiara. The hitherto unbeaten Ascoli Piceno was crowned champion Japanese two-year-old filly in 2023, though Stellenbosch didn't have much to find with the favourite on their Hanshin Juvenile Fillies running when she'd finished best of all from the rear of the field to be beaten...

Three starts, three wins, and now, Japanese Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Ascoli Piceno (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) will attempt to add a Classic to her haul when she breaks from gate nine in the 18-horse G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) at Hanshin on Sunday. Reuniting with Hiroshi Kitamura who she carried to G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies glory over this trip back in December, the near-black filly makes her 2024 bow in the first Classic of the Japanese season. Striking on a newcomers' affair in June and the G3 Niigata Nisai...

Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}), the Longines World's Best Racehorse for 2023, has been named the Japanese Horse of the Year for the second consecutive year, the Japanese Racing Association (JRA) Award Winner Selection Committee announced on Tuesday. The Silk Racing Company-owned 4-year-old received 293 votes out of a total 295 votes cast by reporters. A flawless four-for-four last term, Equinox equaled his sire's achievement of two Horse of the Year titles in 2016/2017. Beginning his campaign at Meydan in March, the Tetsuya Kimura trainee won the G1 Dubai Sheema...

Group winner Ascoli Piceno (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) maintained her unbeaten record with a narrow score in the ¥125,160,000 G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies on Sunday. She also set a new stakes record of 1:32.60 for the 1600 metres in the 18-horse affair. The Yoichi Kuroiwa trainee follows in the wake of such horses as dual Japanese Horse of the Year Vodka (Jpn) (Tanino Gimlet {Jpn}) who won this in 2006, fellow Horse of the Year Buena Vista (Jpn) (Special Week {Jpn}) (2008 edition), and 2022 scorer Liberty Island (Jpn) (Duramente...

A fully subscribed field of 18 lines up for Sunday's G1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies over 1600 metres, and the unbeaten Ascoli Piceno (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) carries the burden of favouritism for trainer Yoichi Kuroiwa in the ¥125,160,000 contest. Normally based at the Miho Training Centre, her trainer is taking every precaution to give his Sunday Racing-owned filly an edge and shipped the G3 Niigata Nisai S. victress to Ritto in the middle of November to reduce her stress from travel. "Thanks to moving her early, her appetite has stabilized...