Kazuya Nakatake

There could be a surprise Japanese-trained runner at this year's Cheltenham Festival after All The World (Jpn) appeared among 16 entries for the feature contest on the opening day of the meeting, the £450,000 G1 Unibet Champion Hurdle. Trained by Kazuya Nakatake, the eight-year-old All The World is a three-time winner over jumps in the Far East and his most recent start resulted in a creditable third-place finish in the Tokyo High-Jump, one of the most prestigious races run over obstacles in Japan. A three-time winner on the Flat as...

Unconsidered in Sunday's G1 Queen Elizabeth Cup at Hanshin, Akai Ito (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}) gave her sire his first Group 1 winner at 63-1. The 2200-metre contest featured 17 fillies and mares, and Akai Ito was the 10th choice. Breaking a touch slowly, the dark bay raced in 13th for much of the journey, as Shamrock Hill (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}) laid out fractions of :22.90, :46.60 and 1:11.30 while chased by Rose Amour (Jpn) (Rose Kingdom {Jpn}). Shamrock Hill's lead began to look tenuous with less than 600 metres remaining...