2015 G1 Sprinters Stakes (1200m) sees one of the most wide-open fields in recent years. Not only is there no standout (both the winner of this year’s Takamatsunomiya Kinen and the winner of last year’s Sprinters are absent), there is no one horse among the 22 nominees that should be outright discounted.
That said, there will be favourites at the betting windows and vying for top pick is likely to be a trio of females, including one mare known to Hong Kong racegoers – Straight Girl.
Straight Girl took on the G1 Hong Kong Sprint last year after the Sprinters and ran third to Aerovelocity. She won her first G1 this spring when she aced the Victoria Mile. Last out, she ran fourth in the G2 Centaur Stakes. It was her first run since the Victoria Mile and her return to training after a spell had been delayed by 10 days and she went into her last race short a strong gallop. With the Centaur as a sharpener, however, she should now be in a good position to land the win. She is, in any case, expected to run neck and neck with Uliuli and Bel Canto at the windows come Sunday. It will be Straight Girl’s first time at Nakayama but connections say, “She has good racing sense and it won’t be a problem.”
Bel Canto, a 4-year-old filly from the stable of former jockey Koichi Tsunoda, is coming along well. Bel Canto had some leg problems earlier this year. She returned on 2 August in a big way, however, acing both G3 sprints. With those two victories she won the Summer Sprint Series, having earned the most points from six designated races. “She’s showing an excellent turn of foot and I think she’s notched up her speed overall,” says Tsunoda. Her best in a G1 was last year’s fifth in the Sprinters, run over on a left-handed track at Niigata, but the Nakayama course is expected to suit her.
The 5-year-old Uliuli overcame a wide draw to run second by a nose to Active Minoru in the Centaur Stakes last out. It put her in the top three spots for her last four starts, including a win of the G3 CBC Sho.
Mikki Isle is likely to lead the next four or five top picks in betting. He ran third in the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen but flubbed the G1 Yasuda Kinen and hasn’t had a race since. After him comes the Sheikh Mohammed-owned Teehaff, who had a first and a third in his last two races, both G3s over 1200m.
Eastern Japan’s hopeful is Ukiyono Kaze, who won the G3 Keeneland Cup at the end of August and Copano Richard ran 14th last out, in the G3 Hakodate Sprint after a 3-month layoff. He is expected to be a longer shot than Rich Tapestry, racing for the first time since his fifth in the G1 KrisFlyer International Sprint at Kranji on 17 May. Hong Kong has had two winners of the Sprinters Stakes. In 2005, the Tony Cruz-trained Silent Witness won with Felix Coetzee in the saddle. Five years later, Ultra Fantasy took the sprint partnered with Alex Lai.
The Nakayama track is known for its short stretch and relatively tight turns and is said to bring a jockey’s skills far more into play than Tokyo. Horses tend to hang wide around the bend at Nakayama as speed picks up over a 200m downhill run from the gate. The course favours horses that run on the pace and can hug the inside. All have to overcome the hill over the final 200m, however.
