The Japanese Grade 1 season is set to kick off once again with Sunday’s 41st Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse, and all eyes will be on Suzuka Phoenix who will try to become the third horse ever to sweep the spring and autumn sprinters championships in the same calendar year.
Suzuka Phoenix, ridden by champion jockey Yutaka Take, stormed to victory of more than two lengths in the 1,200-meter Takamatsunomiya Kinen back in March as the favorite. The Sunday Silence son took fifth in the ensuing G1 Yasuda Kinen over a mile in June, but the 5-year-old seems poised to rebound despite a summer which forced to change his training plans due to the now quelled equine influenza. Suzuka Phoenix clocked 51.0 seconds over four furlongs in his workout on Wednesday, running the last 200 meters in 12.7 seconds at the Ritto training center in Shiga Prefecture. While Take’s horse has never raced at Nakayama, trainer Mitsuru Hashida likes his chances in a relatively thin field come Sunday: “You look at the (summer) sprint series, and there is no clear favorite. I want him to produce in the fall just as he did in the spring.”
Sans Adieu became the top sprinter of the summer after winning the Grade 2 Centaur Stakes earlier this month at Hanshin Racecourse outside of Osaka, the 5-year-old mare cruising to a five-length victory in the fifth leg of the Global Sprint Challenge. The French Deputy bay has managed to sustain her form for the Sprinters Stakes, producing a 51.6-second clip over 800 meters in her workout on Wednesday. Yuga Kawada’s mount has just three runs on turf, but has won two of them. The 21-year-old jockey remains upbeat after Sans Adieu’s latest training effort: “There’s no dominant horse in the field, and Suzuka Phoenix has had a layoff. You don’t get too many too chances to win a G1 race, so I want to make the most of it.”
Three-year-old Aston Machan put on an impressive display at Ritto during the week, the much hyped filly flying through the four furlongs in 51.2 seconds, the last in 12.7 seconds. She finished sixth in her last race, the Kitakyushu Kinen on Aug. 12, and has never taken the track at Nakayama, but Aston Machan has the advantage on her peers with an impost of just 53 kilograms. Says trainer Sei Ishizaka: “She’s in really good condition at the moment so I’m confident she can run a good race.”
Couverture is another 3-year-old filly in current top form, Hiroki Goto’s mount pounding out a personal best of 48.2 seconds on Wednesday. What the Keeneland Cup winner is lacking in experience, she will try to make up with speed. All five of her victories have been at 1,200 meters, and trainer Sakae Kunieda likes what he sees in his frontrunner: “If she can position herself toward the front, she will run fine at Nakayama. The light weight has to be an advantage.”
Speaking of form, Sunday Silence offspring King’s Trail has to be mentioned. The winner of his last two starts, including the Grade 3 Keisei Hai Autumn Handicap at Nakayama on Sept. 9, King’s Trail worked over five furlongs on Wednesday in 63.7 seconds, coming home nearly two lengths ahead of exercise partner Sunday Stream. King’s Trail has never raced at 1,200 meters, but trainer Kazuo Fujisawa has been telling reporters that he was itching to enter him in a sprint race. Put Katsuharu Tanaka in the saddle--fifth in wins this year--and the 5-year-old horse will surely be considered one of the favorites come post time.
Showing no signs of slowing down is 8-year-old Precise Machine, who ripped through his midweek workout. The veteran has not raced since running in a local Hokkaido competition back in June, but Precise Machine, who will be ridden by the wily Katsumi Ando on Sunday, left his training partner in the dust by more than two lengths on Wednesday. The Takamatsunomiya Kinen bronze medalist is fast emerging as the dark horse of the field.
Four-year-old Koiuta, winner of the 1,600-meter Victoria Mile in late May, dazzled the camp in her workout, finishing ahead of veteran Sherbet Tone by a full length. The Sprinters Stakes will be Koiuta’s first race since bombing at the CashCall Mile at Hollywood Park in the U.S. in July, but the long-shot appears poised to set up another G1 shocker.
Peer Gynt was the only entry among the 16 to work out on Thursday, closing a six-furlong run with 12.0 seconds in the last 200 meters. Like many, trainer Kojiro Hashiguchi’s 5-year-old has had his summer plans derailed by the flu, but the Sunday Silence son didn’t show signs of being affected by it in training with race rider Hiroyuki Uemura on board. The Takamatsunomiya Kinen runner-up has not had a tune-up ahead of Sunday’s race, but Hashiguchi still beamed with confidence. “Ideally, it probably would have been better to use him once before the Sprinters Stakes, but
he usually runs well after a break. He’s really in form at the moment. In the spring, we were experimenting but now he has the record to show for it. I’m not the least bit worried.”
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