Soul Rush

Group 1 winner Jantar Mantar (Palace Malice) looms large in the 18-strong G1 Mile Championship at Kyoto on Sunday. The dual top-level winner earned a victory over Gaia Force (Kitasan Black) in the G1 Yasuda Kinen in June, and found only that rival too good prepping for this contest with a second in the G2 Fuji Stakes. Trainer Tomokazu Takano said of the G1 NHK Mile Cup hero, "After his run in the Fuji Stakes Oct. 18, his heart and lungs had improved. He was just about in tiptop shape...

Jantar Mantar kicked off his four-year-old campaign in the best possible fashion when running out a comfortable winner of Sunday's G1 Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo, a 'Win and You're In' for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile. Sidelined since a down-the-field finish in December's G1 Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin, the son of Palace Malice showed no signs of rustiness on his belated return with a sharp exit from the stalls in the hands of Yuga Kawada. Never far away from the pace set by Mad Cool (Dark Angel), the...

Saturday, Epsom Downs, post time: 15:30, BETFRED DERBY-G1, £1,604,000, 3yo, c/f, 12f 6yT Field: Al Wasl Storm (Ire) (Affinisea {Ire}), Damysus (GB) (Frankel {GB}), Delacroix (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Green Storm (Ire) (Circus Maximus {Ire}), Lambourn (Ire) (Australia {GB}), Lazy Griff (Ger) (Protectionist {Ger}), Midak (Fr) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}), New Ground (GB) (New Bay {GB}), Nightime Dancer (Ire) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}), Nightwalker (GB) (Frankel {GB}), Pride Of Arras (Ire) (New Bay {GB}), Rogue Impact (GB) (Study Of Man {Ire}), Ruling Court (Justify), Sea Scout (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), Stanhope Gardens (Ire) (Ghaiyyath...

The stomping ground of Hong Kong Horse of the Year Romantic Warrior (Acclamation) in 2024, this year's G1 Yasuda Kinen sees a contentious field line up at Tokyo, with the role of ante-post favourite handed to dual Group 1 winner and last year's third-place finisher Soul Rush. By Rulership, the 2024 Mile Championship hero ran second in the G1 Hong Kong Mile in December and was third to the reopposing Sixpence in the G2 Nakayama Kinen in March. Sent overseas, he defeated Romantic Warrior in the G1 Dubai Turf over...

A little trip down Street Cry memory lane last week prompted a call to Dan Pride in Kentucky and one of the best lines anyone in the bloodstock community has ever offered up during an interview. In discussing the initial market hesitation around Street Cry's European lineage and not-quite-movie-star looks, Pride opined that it was a good early lesson that, in the stallion market in particular, horses can often makes fools of man. "It taught me that nobody knows nothing," he said. They are words to live by. When it...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- Though it was north of 70 degrees Farenheit (that's about 22 degrees on the Celsius scale for those of you who do things that way), there was still a bit of a chill in the air when the first of the horses bound for Saturday's Dubai World Cup meeting here at Meydan Racecourse took to the oval. As per usual, Team Japan are the earliest of the early risers and one of the most enjoyable aspects of trackwork, from this reporter's perspective, is the way...

It isn't that they weren't expected to perform--each was sent away at 1-10 favouritism--but reigning Hong Kong Horse of the Year Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) and new sprint sensation Ka Ying Rising (NZ) (Shamexpress {NZ}) gave the Sha Tin faithful and a broader audience worldwide exactly what they wanted at Sunday's Longines Hong Kong International Races meeting. Romantic Warrior, purchased by Mick Kinane for 300,000gns at the 2019 Tattersalls October Sale as a prospect for the Hong Kong Jockey Club's Hong Kong International Sale, took out the G1 Longines...

A total of 56 horses from eight racing jurisdictions--some 26 of which have struck at the Group 1/Grade I level--including 31 overseas gallopers, have been extended invitations to the Longines Hong Kong International Races, to be staged Sunday, Dec. 8 at Sha Tin Racecourse. With Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire})--a top-level winner in Hong Kong earlier this season and last seen taking out the GI Breeders' Cup Turf--passing the meeting, Resolute Racing's Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}) is the biggest name among those invited from abroad. The on-the-bridle winner of the...

A plan was hatched by owner Peter Lau and trainer Danny Shum as early as last June to set their multiple champion Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) on a course towards the G1 W S Cox Plate in Melbourne some four months later. Having departed Hong Kong in mid-September, the gelding endured a sub-optimal period in quarantine at Werribee until the Australian government approved the shipment of his regular feed from Hong Kong to Victoria and Romantic Warrior was an underdone fourth in the G1 Turnbull S. at Caulfield Oct....

Peter Lau's Hong Kong raider Romantic Warrior (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) can put the wraps on one of the most remarkable seasons in recent memory should he be able to take out Sunday's G1 Yasuda Kinen Sunday afternoon at Tokyo Racecourse. The one-turn, 1600-metre contest serves as a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Mile at California's Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in early November. Nails-tough in dropping his nose down on the wire first when second-up in the G1 W S Cox Plate in late October, the...

Ryan Moore, third in a hit-and-run mission aboard Point Lonsdale (Ire) (Australia {GB}) in Friday's G2 Bahrain International Trophy for his boss Aidan O'Brien, was stood down from the remainder of his Sunday rides at Kyoto after suffering a back injury in a spill in the second race on the program. That left the connections of Carrot Farm's Namur (Jpn) (Harbinger {GB}) in need of a jockey and with all the other Japanese big guns understandably already spoken for, they landed on journeyman Kota Fujioka, 13th in the jockeys' premiership,...

A slashing second to the outstanding commonly owned champion Gran Alegria (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in 2021 and a fraction unlucky when a close fifth last November, Sunday Racing's Schnell Meister (Ger) (Kingman {GB}) will try to make the most of his third attempt at Sunday's G1 Mile Championship, back at Kyoto after being contested for two years at Hanshin due to construction at Kyoto. Winner of the age-restricted G1 NHK Mile Cup in 2021 and third in that year's G1 Yasuda Kinen, the son of 2016 G1 Preis der...