Rickey’ Aims to Rock Champions Cup

Group 1 February S. winner Copano Rickey (Jpn) (Gold Allure {Jpn}) heads today’s G1 Champions Cup at Chukyo as the 3-1 morning-line favorite and has yet to be worse than second in a four-race 2014 campaign. After his February S. score Feb. 23, he added a win in the G1 Kashiwa Kinen at Funabashi in May before settling for second behind the reopposing Wonder Acute (Jpn) (Charismatic) in the G1 Teio Sho at Ohi June 25. Given a breather, the 
4-year-old enters off a win in the G1 JBC Classic at Morioka in the slop Nov. 3. “The lineup is strong, but I’m not going to concern myself with it,” said trainer Akira Murayama. “I’ll leave that up to the jockey to decide what to do. If the horse gives it what he has, he’ll be OK. He’s likely to be targeted. He won the February S. as the least-favored horse in the lineup. And now he has the support of the fans. I hope he can answer their expectations.” Incantation (Jpn) (Sinister Minister) looks to extend his winning thread to four off a score in the G3 Miyako S. at Kyoto in his latest Nov. 9. “He landed here nicely coming off three wins and last race not only was the competition a lot stronger than usual and I was worried about it being a right-handed track, but he did a good job,” said Incantation’s conditioner Tomohiko Hatsuki. America is represented by this April’s GII Charles Town Classic S. victor Imperative (Bernardini), who exits the GI Breeders’ Cup Classic with a ninth behind Bayern (Offlee Wild) at Santa Anita Nov. 1. Trained by George Papaprodromou, the bay will partner with Kent Desormeaux. American-bred Best Warrior (Majestic Warrior) looks get back on track after running fifth behind Copano Rickey in the JBC Classic. The 4-year-old won the GIII Procyon S. at Chukyo July 13 before taking the G1 Mile Championship Nambu Hai at Morioka two back Oct. 13. “It was a tight rotation, but we went for another race at Morioka,” commented Sei Ishizaka, who trains the chestnut for Yukio Baba. “Because of that he was a bit keen. I didn’t think that was very good and then, sure enough, he had nothing at the end. Everything since has gone well and he’s full of energy in a good way. He’ll be good to go with a bit of fast work this week.”