The lack of a standout in this year’s Takamatsunomiya Kinen has made the track condition and draw more a concern than usual. Final fast workouts this week went off without a hitch and no big surprises with likely race favourite Straight Girl winning for appeal power with a fine run up the hill course at Ritto on Wednesday.
Normally worked over the woodchip flat course, the switch to the hill was a bit unexpected. Nonetheless, Straight Girl put in a powerful 800m in 51.3 seconds with the last furlong in 12.1 seconds and finished 3 lengths ahead of her running mate.
Friday’s draw has added question marks across the field and is expected to shake up what had been the predicted wagering across the field. The luck of the draw for the G1 over 1200m at Chukyo has gone to none of the expected top picks from the home team. All have drawn relatively wide, including Straight Girl, last year’s winner Copano Richard, Mikki Isle and frontrunner Hakusan Moon in gates No. 18, 17, 16 and 15, respectively.
Hong Kong’s Aerovelocity, however, is sitting pretty in the No. 4 slot, which, if he can handle the left-handed track well, may mean the foreign raider could well become the first to take the Takamatsunomiya booty out of Japan.
Aerovelocty’s trainer Paul O’Sullivan commented that the New Zealand-bred gelding was not expected to have a problem running to the left. “He’s experienced left-handed tracks in New Zealand so it’s not a problem. This horse’s strong points are that he is big, strong, has speed and can race from the back or the front.”
Little Gerda may get a boost from her early speed with her draw of the far inside and Am Ball Bleiben, another frontrunner, has drawn the No. 8 gate. Am Ball Bleiben got her last bit of work on Friday morning with an easy gallop over 800m. She started at an easy pace, then picked up to cover the last furlong in 12.8s. Trainer Nobuharu Fukushima said, “From last autumn, she’s become mentally tougher and she can easily take the lead.”
The 6-year-old Daiwa Maggiore trained on Thursday up the Ritto hill and clocked 51.7 seconds over 800m. “It’s his first time over 1200m,” said Yoshito Yahagi, who won leading trainer in 2014. “I have gradually upped the pace of his workouts and this week was the fastest. I’m happy to see he’ll be going into the race looking good.”
Daiwa Maggiore will be paired with Mirco Demuro, who rode work. “It was my first time to ride work and he has very nice action. He’s in good shape.” Demuro had said he wanted to get an inside draw for the horse’s first sprint. Daiwa Maggiore, however, drew the No. 13 slot.
The weather forecast for Nagoya this Sunday was, until Thursday, for fair skies. Now, however a 50-70 percent chance of rain is forecast. Though it is unlikely precipitation will be enough to turn the track sloppy by the post time, the fast track preferred by most may not be in the making.
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