Giovanni

Japan's Triple Crown wraps up this Sunday with the 86th running of the G1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger). Run over 3,000 metres at Kyoto Racecourse, the Kikuka Sho is the longest of the three races in the country's Triple Crown, which also includes the G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas) and the G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) in the spring. Although the race is open to three-year-old colts and fillies, this year's field will be made up of only colts, with 20 nominees, but only 18 runners permitted to...

A full field of 18 juveniles heads to the post for the final Group 1 event on the JRA calendar, Saturday's Hopeful Stakes over the metric mile and a quarter at Nakayama Racecourse. And the entrants will be looking to join an honour roll that includes the likes of future luminaries such as Epiphaneia (Jpn), Rey de Oro (Jpn), Saturnalia (Jpn) and Contrail (Jpn), who would go on to secure the Triple Crown the following season. As recently as last weekend, the Hopeful form received the best kind of advertisement...