There will not be a Japanese filly Triple Crown winner this 12 months as the primary two races within the collection produced totally different winners however the third leg, the Shuka Sho (G1) Oct. 13 at Kyoto Racecourse, simply might flip up the division champion.
Stellenbosch gained the primary race within the collection, the Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas, G1), and Cervinia took the second, the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks, G1). Each are again for the Shuka Sho, a 2,000-meter (about 1 1/4 miles) occasion over the interior course at Kyoto.
If both ought to win the rubber match, she would have the higher hand in voting for year-end honors. However, 3-year-old fillies have achieved nicely towards males and older rivals in recent times within the Japan Cup (G1), the nation’s most prestigious race, so the problem might stay unsure.
Stellenbosch, by Epiphaneia , has three wins and three seconds from six profession begins. The filly gained half her 4 begins in 2023, ending with a second to Ascoli Piceno within the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (G1) in December.
From that, she went straight to the Oka Sho victory, then completed second to Cervinia within the Yushun Himba.
“My expectations had been excessive for her and she or he bought good ends in the spring,” coach Sakae Kunieda stated of Stellenbosch. “And I believe she ran race within the Oaks. The winner was robust. This one loss is not any tragedy.”
Cervinia, a daughter of Harbinger , was 2-for-3 as a juvenile however skipped the top-level year-end occasions. She completed thirteenth within the Oka Sho after a five-month layoff but was the second favourite behind Stellenbosch within the Yushun Himba. She gained that by a half-length with a late transfer outdoors Stellenbosch, who threw a shoe in the course of the race.
“The Oka Sho consequence was unlucky,” stated Cervinia’s jockey, Christophe Lemaire. “However I knew she’d carry out nicely within the Oaks … She was a bit on edge within the Oka Sho and that brought about her to tire in the long run.”
The problem is hardly simply between these two.
Queen’s Stroll enters with a prep race win within the Sho Rose Stakes (G2) Sept. 15. That was a welcome turnaround from her eighth within the Oka Sho and fourth within the Yushun Himba.
Bond Woman has had a troubled passage thus far in her profession and appears for a reset. She was taken out of final 12 months’s Hanshin Juvenile Fillies after getting unfastened in a prerace exercise. Then she was wanting factors for an automated slot within the Oka Sho and misplaced a draw towards different hopefuls.
She completed seventeenth within the NHKÂ Mile Cup (G1) in Could however that was right down to visitors issues at a key level that successfully took her out of the race. Two subsequent efforts had been higher however one other step ahead is must win the Shuka Sho.
“I believe the monitor shall be quick so it would come right down to how the race unfolds,” stated Bond Woman’s coach, Takahisa Tezuka. “She will certainly have good late pace and I do suppose she measures as much as the contenders.”
