Yoshito Yahagi is bidding to become the JRA champion trainer for the first time this season, and he is also hoping his G1-winning miler Grand Prix Boss can bow out with another top-class success in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Mile on Sunday, 14 December.
Grand Prix Boss, for whom the Mile will be his career swansong, will be one of the 10-strong Japanese contingent �V the largest ever - participating in this year��s LONGINES Hong Kong International Races, and is among a quartet from that country engaged in the Mile.
h eight race days remaining in the current JRA season, Yahagi is currently locked in a close battle for the JRA trainer premiership. He and Kazuo Fujisawa are inseparable at 50 wins apiece. But the 53-year-old trainer, whose best JRA season so far was in 2009 when he ranked second to Fujisawa, will turn his attention to Hong Kong on Sunday week when his stable��s flag-bearer features in the HK$23 million mile showcase for a second time.
ahagi reported that the six-year-old, winner of G1 Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes in 2010 and G1 NHK Mile Cup in 2011, will retire to stud after Sunday week��s test.
�The next start is his final career start before going to stud in the New Year. We just keep doing our best for him. The Hong Kong Mile is very much a worthy race for his last run,�� he said.
will be the third overseas race for the prolific miler. In his two previous overseas adventures Grand Prix Boss finished 12th in the 2012 Hong Kong Mile behind Ambitious Dragon �V who will re-oppose this year - and eighth behind the mighty Frankel in the G1 St James�� Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2011.
er finishing a nose second behind the world��s highest-rated horse, Just A Way, in the G1 Yasuda Kinen in June, Grand Prix Boss ran a fair 6th latest in the G1 Mile Championship at Kyoto last month. Yahagi said his charge has come out of the race brightly.
�He was very fresh and full of beans after the Mile Championship. He will go into this race in good condition and hopefully he will avenge his previous defeat in Hong Kong a couple of years ago,�� said Yahagi, who previously saddled Super Hornet to run fifth behind Good Ba Ba in the 2008 Hong Kong Mile.
agi��s peer, Yasutoshi Ikee, is another top Japanese trainer plotting victory in the LONGINES Hong Kong Mile. The 2008 JRA champion trainer, son of former trainer Yasuo Ikee who prepped Stay Gold to a famous win in the 2001 Hong Kong Vase, looks to World Ace in this race.
he five-year-old son of Deep Impact won the G2 Yomiuri Milers Cup at Kyoto in April and subsequently finished a fair 5th in the Yasuda Kinen before finishing 8th last time in the Mile Championship.
��In the Mile Championship, he actually did not show his true form at all,�� said Ikee, who this time has booked Hong Kong Champion jockey Zac Purton for the ride. ��He started sluggishly and the jockey tried to push him hard, but then he was not settled until going into the final turn. I think we can ignore his performance last time. The slightly softer track at Sha Tin will be his only issue.��
aled that World Ace was unsettled upon arriving at the quarantine facility in Japan but has since settled and is in good order for his trip to Hong Kong.
��When he moved to the quarantine stable, he became tense and was not settled. But thankfully there are lots of other horses staying at the same quarantine stable, so he was soon relaxed again,�� he said.
�s only previous Hong Kong runner, Trailblazer, it finished a creditable sixth in the 2011 Hong Kong Vase. Ikee also took Orfevre, the best horse he has ever trained, to France for back-to-back runner-up finishes in the G1 Prix de l��Arc de Triomphe in 2012 and 2013.
