Ultima Thule wins the Centaur Stakes (G2), the 5th leg of the Global Sprint Challenge

Ultima Thule has always had the potential. Now she's starting to show it.

Ultima Thule on Sunday fast emerged as a candidate to win the upcoming Sprinters Stakes, the Shadai Race Horse-owned mare and the fifth pick producing a sweeping victory of two and a half lengths in the Centaur Stakes at Hanshin Racecourse.

The 5-year-old Ultima Thule blew away some of the best names in the Japanese sprinting circle in the fifth leg of the Global Sprint Challenge, such as 2008 Sprinters Stakes champion Sleepless Night - who took second on this afternoon - this year's Takamatsunomiya Kinen winner Laurel Guerreiro, and the Centaur Stakes' defending champion Kanoya Zakura.

"She was very tough today," Masami Matsuoka said in the post-race interview. "She had a nice, easy trip and it allowed her to finish strong. She's a horse with tremendous class, and I'm glad that she had the result to show for it today.

"She's been showing a lot of progress over her last three races, and she's just racing really well right now. I hope we can repeat the performance in the next race."

While Trainer Kojiro Hashiguchi's 5-year-old duo of Sleepless Night, the race favorite, and Kanoya Zakura, who came in fourth, managed to save face, Laurel Guerreiro was not so fortunate with a humbling 14th-place finish among 15 after setting the pace at 59 kilograms in his first race since the Yasuda Kinen back in June.

Ultima Thule, ridden by Matsuoka, won the 1,200-meter race in a time of 1 minute, 7.8 seconds for her first graded victory. The daughter of Fuji Kiseki had taken third to Kanoya Zakura in her last race, the 1,000-meter Ibis Summer Dash in yielding conditions at Niigata in July.

Both Matsuoka and trainer Masashi Okuhira had been raving all long about the upside of Ultima Thule, who will surely head to the Grade 1 Sprinters Stakes on Oct. 4 at Nakayama as one of the favorites after an electric performance on Sunday on firm going at Hanshin.

Ultima Thule, who has had her career derailed for well more than a year because of injury, broke well from the No. 16 post in a field reduced to 15 after the last-minute withdrawal of 8-year-old Kyowa Roaring, the winner of the Grade 3 TV Nishinippon Corp. Sho Kitakyushu Kinen at Kokura in 2007.

Matsuoka let Laurel Guerreiro, under Shinji Fujita, guide the pack, positioning his mount at an easy third until unleashing Ultima Thule along the final straight. As Laurel Guerreiro faded, and Sleepless Night and Kanoya Zakura unsuccessfully tried to cut down the lead, Ultima Thule pulled away from the competition with each stride - she went through the first 600 meters in 33.9 seconds, the latter in 33.9 seconds - in what turned out to be a stunning and sensational run for the wire. Cosmo Bell, the 5-year-old long-shot at 11th choice, finished third.

Ultima Thule, out of Air Thule, is 6-for-10 for her career, and has taken her earnings to more than 135 million yen.