In the 136th running of the Grade 1 Tenno Sho, the 68th running in the Autumn, 4yo Opera House colt Meisho Samson proved too strong for a field made up of the top Japanese middle distance performers.
Although the track was rated heavy overnight after torrential rain that continued all Saturday, by the time of the race today, the track had recovered and was officially rated dead. Not much speed had been expected for the race, but veteran NAR galloper Cosmo Bulk was pushed along to lead by jockey Fuyuki Igarashi and led at an average pace for a dead track - with the first 1000m of the 2000m race run at approximately 59.6 seconds.
2 time Grade 1 winner Delta Blues with blinkers applied for the first time, was in close pursuit in the early stages, closely followed by outsider Eishin Deputy with Shadow Gate 4th and Daiwa Major sitting 4th. Yutaka Take was riding the favorite Meisho Samson for the first time, but he made sure the horse was close enough, pushing him out early from the inside gate and keeping his position 6th or 7th on the inside of the field. 2nd favorite Admire Moon followed Daiwa Major throughout the race, while Olivier Peslier who had arrived in Japan this week to ride Pop Rock, had his mount back 2nd or 3rd last in the early stages after drawing gate 15 in the 16 horse field.
As the field approached the turn, Cosmo Bulk moved out towards the middle of the track and allowed Yutaka Take to bring Meisho Samson through to get a clear run down the straight in the best part of the track. As this happened, the runners who chose to come around the leading division were involved in some major interference when outside Eishin Deputy veered left and then right in the straight causing problems for many of the fancied runners. An official inquiry found that Eishin Deputy had caused interference to Agnes Ark, Shadow Gate, Admire Moon and Daiwa Major and he was demoted to 14th after originally finishing 8th.
While Meisho Samson proceeded to increase his lead on the inside of the track, underrated Company made his way through the field and found himself in 2nd position with 200m to go. However, Agnes Ark managed to come out of the interference in the early part of the straight and finished on again strongly in the final stages. Daiwa Major and Admire Moon failed to make an impression on the outside, and eventually Meisho Samson pulled away to win by 2 1/2 lengths, with Agnes Ark grabbing 2nd by a neck from Company. Pop Rock flew in the final stages after being still 2nd last at the 400m mark and eventually finished 4th. Cosmo Bulk battled on well for 5th.
The time for the race was 1:58.4 which is only 0.4 seconds outside the track and race record, and was a very good time considering the state of the track.
Meisho Samson is a 4yo colt by Opera House out of the Dancing Brave mare My Vivien and is trained by Shigetada Takahashi. He is owned by Yoshio Matsumoto and was bred by Koki Hayashi. The win today was his 4th Grade 1 win, and he will now be aimed at the Grade 1 Japan Cup in late November before Japan's biggest race - the Grade 1 Arima Kinen in December.
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