Most hopefuls who will be featuring in Sunday’s Japanese Derby at Tokyo completed their last pieces of fast work at Japan’s two JRA training centres on Wednesday morning. Satono Crown and Duramente, who are both expected to lead the betting along with Real Steel, were the exceptions as they did their final work on Thursday.
Real Steel has been monopolizing headlines with the Japanese media hailing him as being “most likely to steal the show” come Sunday. The G1 Satsuki Sho (2000m) runner-up worked under jockey Yuichi Fukunaga on Wednesday and displayed an impressive turn-of-foot as he powered up the slope at Ritto. The son of Deep Impact easily overtook his companion horse, who had a good two-length head-start. Fukunaga barely moved his hands for the horse to unleash a powerful burst in the final portion of the gallop. He was three lengths ahead of his running mate at the finish, clocking 54.6s over 800m, with the last 200m split in 12.4s.
After watching his colt wrap it up, trainer Yoshito Yahagi grinned and commented: “It’s as expected.” As he left the track, Fukunaga said enthusiastically, “It was a perfect lap!” Later, his emotions under control, his comments were more circumspect yet still upbeat. “Up to now, he really hadn’t felt like he had enough power from behind, but today it kicked in. There’s still more to come but this was the first time and compared to the Satsuki Sho you can really feel the power now. His response was good. He’s in good shape.”
Gunning for his first Derby win on what will be his 16th attempt, Fukunaga refrained from making any boastful claims. “He was beaten squarely (last time), but it was a different distance, a different course,” he said of Real Steel’s loss to Duramente in the Satsuki Sho. “He hasn’t won it yet but I think everything that could be done on him has been done. I’ll be taking the baton now from the stable staff and aim to carry it on in the very best way that I can.”
Also splashed across the racing news headlines was Satono Rasen, a dark horse dubbed by one newspaper as the “Fast Work Champion” following his performance at Ritto on Wednesday morning. Satono Rasen, who won the G2 Kyoto Shimbun Hai (2200m) on 9 May, worked on the flat woodchip course under jockey Yasunari Iwata, alongside 2012 Arima Kinen runner-up Ocean Blue. Having clocked 53.7s over 800m, and the final 200m in 13.1s, the pair continued sprinting for an extra furlong after the finish line. Satono Rasen kicked on to cover the 200m in 12.5s. Only two weeks on from his first graded stakes win and making the leap to the G1 level, Satono Rasen was given the nod by trainer Yasutoshi Ikee. “It’s easy to bring a horse up to peak three weeks from his last race, much easier than with 4 weeks in between. There’s not as much need to push him too hard within such a short time,” claimed Ikee.
Also looking good was Reve Mistral, winner of the G2 Aoba Sho (2400m) earlier this month. Reve Mistral worked on the woodchip flat course at Ritto under the eyes of his trainer and ex-jump jockey Hiroyoshi Matsuda. He posted an average time of 86.4s over 1200m, but his final furlong of 12 seconds was what Matsuda was focusing on. “He hasn’t had much time between races. This is fine,” Matsuda said.
“He felt better than last week,” was the comment of jockey Yuga Kawada, who was aboard for the horse’s Aoba win on 2 May. Reve Mistral represents a last chance at the Derby for Matsuda, as the trainer, slated for retirement in February next year, has saddled multiple champion horses but is still waiting for his first Derby winner.
