A week after Aerolithe (Jpn) (Kurofune) toppled males in the G1 NHK Mile Cup, a fully subscribed field of older fillies and mares line up over the same trip at Tokyo for the G1 Victoria Mile. The race boasts three previous Group 1 winners, all 5-year-olds: Mikki Queen (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn), Let's Go Donki (Jpn) (King Kamehameha {Jpn}) and Queens Ring (Jpn) (Manhattan Cafe {Jpn}). Mikki Queen finished second in this last year before stretching out in trip to finish third in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup and fifth in the G1 Arima Kinen in December. She has run just once this year, winning the G2 Hanshin Himba S. on Apr. 8. Trainer Yasutoshi Ikee said of the dual Classic winner, “Her responses were a bit slow last out and it took a while for her to pick up speed, but when she did it was terrific. We were close to retiring her at one point, but I think she has fully recovered now and she is very tough mentally.”
Another former Classic winner, the 2015 G1 Oka Sho victress Let's Go Donki, opened her 2017 account with a Group 3 win over 1400 metres before finishing second in the 1200 metre G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen. Queens Ring posted wins in last year's G2 Fuchu Himba S. and Queen Elizabeth II S., but was ninth in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Cup in December and 15th behind Mikki Queen in the Himba S.
Smart Layer (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), a Group 3 winner over this track, finished fourth in this last year and was fifth in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Vase over 2400 metres. Her seasonal debut was a second behind her Hong Kong Vase conqueror Satono Crown (Jpn) (Marju {Ire}) in the G2 Kyoto Kinen on Feb. 12, where she a neck ahead of last year's G1 Tokyo Yushun winner Makahiki (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who was third.
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