Tokyo Racecourse hosts the G1 Tenno Sho Autumn (2000m) this Sunday and the 15 runners include three winners of G1 races outside of Japan -- Maurice, A Shin Hikari and Real Steel.
The 4-year-old filly Rouge Buck is expected to be neck and neck with miler Maurice at the betting windows. The daughter of Manhattan Cafe, Rouge Buck is on a two-race roll, both wins having come at Tokyo over 1800m. She scooped the G3 Epsom Cup by 2 1/2 lengths in June and followed that with a win by a neck over Ambitious in the G2 Mainichi Okan on 9 October. Rouge Buck looked especially good on Thursday when she easily clocked 12.2 seconds over the final furlong on the flat.
Maurice is seen to be her biggest rival and, though considered a miler, with six of his nine wins, including the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile and the G1 Champions Mile, having come over 1600m and two others at 1400m, the Screen Hero-sired 5-year-old has won at 1800m as well. He has yet to notch a win over 2000m, but ran second at the distance last out at Sapporo in the G2 Sapporo Kinen on 21 August.
Real Steel, winner in the 1800m G1 Dubai Turf this March and runner-up in last year’s Satsuki Sho (2000m) has yet to win at the distance, but did finish first in the 1800m G3 Kyodo News Service Hai last year at Tokyo. Trainer Yoshito Yahagi, who had decided against running Real Steel in the Mainichi Okan, was reserved in his comment. “I had wanted to run him in the Mainichi Okan, which would have been best, but I decided he just wasn’t in good enough shape at the time. Now, his breathing is much better and this is the next best option.”
The front-running A Shin Hikari, who scooped the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup last year, will be returning to the track for the first time since June and running in Japan for the first time since his ninth-place finish in the Tenno Sho Autumn last year. The Deep Impact 5-year-old won in May in the G1 Prix d’Ispahan over 1800m at Chantilly, then ran sixth at Ascot in the 2000m G1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes the following month.
Lovely Day captured the 2015 Tenno Sho Autumn on a four-race winning streak. But he has remained winless over his next six starts. He made a third-place finish in the 2400m Kyoto Daishoten on 10 October. He’s well-suited to the fast turf of Tokyo and could well be in the running for a back-to-back if luck is on his side.
Christophe Lemaire commented on Wednesday after riding Lovely Day in trackwork, “He felt really good and was extremely fast in the stretch. I think he’s in great shape. I’m confident that 2000m is the perfect distance for him.”
After returning from his bid in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup, Staphanos took on two other races before running fifth in the G2 Mainichi Okan (1800m). Though he has yet to win over 2000m, he has run second three times in G1 and G3 company. He looked sharp over 6 furlongs on Wednesday, with jockey Yuga Kawada urging him on in the finish to cover the final furlong in 11.6 seconds.
