The G1 Arima Kinen lineup is decided in large part by racing fans, so some of the best of Japan��s current favourites are expected to run on Sunday.
016 Japan Cup champion Kitasan Black, this year��s G1 3000m Kikuka Sho winner Satono Diamond and last year��s winner Gold Actor are bound to attract most attention.
Fans voted Kitasan Black their favourite for the second time this year following another big fan vote for June��s Takarazuka Kinen (G1 2200m). He received nearly 140,000 votes for the Arima Kinen and it is hoped that this time around he will be able to better his third-place finish in 2015. His Japan Cup (G1 2400m) win was preceded by a win in the Kyoto Daishoten (G2 2400m). Raced mostly over 2000 metres and with wins at up to 3200 metres, he is considered an excellent candidate for the 2500m Arima Kinen winner��s circle.
come only the fifth horse in Arima Kinen history to win the race two years in succession is the five-year-old Gold Actor. The son of Screen Hero ran fourth to Kitasan Black in the Japan Cup. Previously, he won the G2 2200m All Comers on 25 September at Nakayama.
Satono Diamond is the only three-year-old in the lineup, and he will be looking to make good on his third-place finish in the season��s first classic the Satsuki Sho (G1 2000m) this spring. Second in the Derby (G1 2400m), he finally won his first jewel in Japan��s triple crown with victory in the Kikuka Sho (G1 3000m) on 23 October. It will be his first run since then but Christophe Lemaire will be in the saddle. Lemaire has ridden Satono Diamond for all his seven starts thus far and the ace combination may be able to find the winds of fortune on their side this time at Nakayama.
Satono Diamond��s trainer Yasutoshi Ikee will also send 2015 G1 2400m Oaks champion Mikki Queen to the Arima Kinen. She has only missed the top three spots once in her 11-race career. Her regular rider Suguru Hamanaka is back in the saddle for this first time since his suspension incurred on 20 November and surely will be keen to make up lost time.
Sounds of Earth, was three quarters of a length ahead of Kitasan Black when second in last year��s Arima Kinen, but was two and a half lengths second to that rival in this year��s Japan Cup. The 5-year-old has yet to win a graded race, but has finished in second place three times in a G1 and four times in a G2.
Other names worth a mention include Cheval Grand, third-place finisher in both of this year��s Tenno Sho Spring (G1 3200m) and Japan Cup; Admire Deus (last year��s seventh place, second to Kitasan Black in this year��s Kyoto Daishoten); and Satono Noblesse, winner of four graded stakes races and second in the 2013 Kikuka Sho.
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