Crown Pride

For the first time in the relatively brief history of the races, the G3 OBS Korea Cup and G3 OBS Korea Sprint were welcomed into the Breeders' Cup Challenge Series, offering the winners a free ride into the GI Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint, respectively. And for the first time, the races' defending champions each returned to Seoul to win for the second year in succession, stamping themselves as legitimate contenders at Del Mar, if connections indeed make the trip over. Teruya Yoshida's Crown Pride (Jpn)...

When Japanese horses take their show on the road to places like Australia, the Middle East, Hong Kong, the U.S. and even Europe to an extent, they are to be taken very seriously. It is also no wonder that when horses from the Land of the Rising Sun make the comparatively short trip over to Korea, they have more or less dominated the nation's two biggest and most important races--the G3 OBS Korea Cup (1800m) and OBS Korea Sprint (1200m). That trend looks set to continue this weekend at Seoul...

Godolphin's Lemon Pop (Lemon Drop Kid) has been the best dirt horse in Japan this year at distances up to a mile, but the 5-year-old faces a stamina-stretching test from a horrible draw when he faces 14 others in Sunday's G1 Champions Cup (1800m) at Chukyo Racecourse. A $70,000 Keeneland November weanling purchase, the chestnut won the G3 Negishi S. over 1400 metres at Toyko in January and silenced those who questioned his ability to stay an extra furlong when running out a comfortable winner of the G1 February S....

Japanese horses flexed their muscles at the Saudi Cup meeting in February and again in Dubai the following month and a quartet of gallopers that made the short trip over for Sunday's Korea Cup (1800m) and Korea Sprint (1200m)--each carrying international Group 3 status--made their presence felt yet again in front of a packed house at Seoul Racecourse. Japan took the first three runnings of the Cup in which they were represented from 2016-2018 and finished third with favored Sekifu (Jpn) (Henny Hughes) last year as Winner's Man (Kor) (Musket...

Produced wide off the final corner, Meisho Hario (Jpn) (Pyro) knuckled down late and was shoved across the line by Suguru Hamanaka to just touch off perfect-trip Crown Pride (Jpn) (Reach the Crown {Jpn}) to become the first horse to successfully defend his title in the 2000-metre Teio Sho at Ohi Racecourse. T O Keynes (Jpn) (Sinister Minister), fourth at 1-2 last year and the 2-1 favourite this time around, kicked on strongly between the top two in the final 30 metres, but was forced to settle for third. Meisho...

Going into Saturday's Saudi Cup meeting at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh, there was approximately one way that this year's results could better the massive success achieved by Japan in 2022. And who better to orchestrate it but trainer Yoshito Yahagi, who has won major races everywhere with the possible exception of Mars, as Hiroo Race Co. Ltd's Panthalassa (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}), one of six top-shelf gallopers signed on from the Land of the Rising Sun and making just the second start of an already successful career on the...

by Brian Sheerin in Riyadh, Heather Anderson & Alan Carasso Wherever and whenever horses from Japan show up on the world stage, recent history dictates that they are to be taken very seriously. As recently as 12 months ago at the Saudi Cup meeting, horses representing the island nation accounted for four of the evening's six big races, and a month later in yet another desert destination, they somehow managed to one-up themselves with a spectacular five-timer on Dubai World Cup night. The nation has yet--repeat, yet--to break through in...

Horse for the course T O Keynes (Jpn) (Sinister Minister) appears a very tough nut to crack in Sunday's G1 Champions Cup (ex Japan Cup Dirt) at Chukyo Racecourse, a race in which he bolted up by a half-dozen lengths over the classy Chuwa Wizard (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) twelve months ago. The 5-year-old earned a berth in the 2022 G1 Saudi Cup with his victory here last year, but he was disappointing in eighth behind Emblem Road (Quality Road) in Riyadh back in February. He regrouped and validated odds-on...

Trainer Steve Asmussen sent his GI Kentucky Derby and GI Kentucky Oaks hopefuls out to work at Churchill Downs Sunday morning. Winchell Thoroughbreds' Derby contender Epicenter (Not This Time) worked six furlongs in 1:12.20 (3/4), while Oaks hopeful Echo Zulu (Gun Runner) went the same distance in a bullet 1:11.80 (1/4). With exercise rider Wilson Fabian in the saddle, Echo Zulu broke to the inside of regular workmate King Ottoman (Curlin), who was ridden by former jockey Eddie Martin, Jr. Echo Zulu worked through eighth-mile fractions of :12.20, :23.80, :35.60...

Triple Crown season might be heating up but the well-bred handicap divisions are keen on having a say in how the big stage shapes up. Here's who's been shouting the loudest this week. Stonestreet Gold Again a Rising Star... The famous silks have done it once more, this time with Marsalis (Curlin) adding another 'TDN Rising Star' accolade to GISW Hot Dixie Chick's already impressive tally as a broodmare. Full-brother and New York's Leading Second Crop sire Union Jackson also claimed Rising Stardom in his racing days; while half-sister Pauline's...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- There is seemingly very little Japanese horses cannot accomplish these days. Four weeks after scooping four races at a variety of distances and on both surfaces in Saudi Arabia, Crown Pride (Jpn) (Reach the Crown {Jpn}) made it three wins on the Dubai World Cup undercard--with the possibility of even better to come--with a determined defeat of pacesetting Summer Is Tomorrow (Summer Front) in the $1-million G2 UAE Derby as night began to take hold at Meydan Racecourse. Bathrat Leon (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}) struck for...

Tokyo Racecourse plays host to the Listed Hyacinth S. Sunday afternoon, a one-mile race around a single left-handed bend that offers a total of 51 (30-12-6-3) as the third of four events that comprise the 'Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby.' Of the 13 males and one filly signed on for the Hyacinth, fully eight are last-out winners, but favoritism could fall to Godolphin's Combustion (Jpn) (Discreet Cat). A debut winner going seven furlongs at Toyko in late June, the homebred followed up with an allowance score at Chukyo and...