Three Rolls wins the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger)

Three Rolls followed in the footsteps of his sire Dance in the Dark as the eighth choice became the 70th winner of the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) on Sunday afternoon at Kyoto Racecourse.

Three Rolls, under the young Suguru Hamanaka, sprang loose on the final straight and held on to beat seventh favorite Forgettable - also by Dance in the Dark, the 1996 Kikuka Sho champion - by a nose to capture the final leg of the Japanese Triple Crown.

The winning time over the 3,000 meters was 3 minutes, 3.5 seconds, eight-tenths of a second off the race record set by Song of Wind in 2006. It was the first Kikuka Sho win for both Hamanaka and trainer Kohei Take. Three Rolls took home 112 million yen in first-place prize money.

The winning jockey was, naturally, ecstatic after realizing a lifelong dream.

"It doesn't get better any than this. It's great," Hamanaka said during the post-race interview. "This probably won't really hit me until two, three days from now but I thought I rode the best race I possibly could today and the result speaks for itself. I'm really pleased with how it all turned out.

"I wasn't thinking about the positioning at all, but we had the inside draw so I wanted a horse to mark which we got, and not waste any energy during the trip. He settled into the race really well.

"The stretch seemed like there was no end to it. I don't think the straight at Kyoto has ever felt so long to me. The horse let up a little bit when he went clear, but got right back into it when he sensed Forgettable coming up next to him. I definitely knew we'd won we went under the wire.

"He's such an easy horse to ride for any person. Three Rolls will only get better from here, and I think he will continue to live up to his title as a Grade 1 champion. It's been a dream for me to win a Grade 1 race, and I hope I can keep winning more of them in the future."

Without Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) winner Logi Universe, Yutaka Take's Reach the Crown went off as the No. 1 pick in a full field of 18, and the Japanese Derby runnerup cut a brisk pace to the race as expected. Trained by Kojiro Hashiguchi, the colt turned for home on the lead, but ran out of steam with 200 meters to go, finishing fifth to just reach the board.

Third place went to Seiun Wonder, last year's Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes winner, who crossed the finish line a length and a quarter behind Forgettable, the blueblood out of former Tenno Sho (Autumn) champion Air Groove, arguably the strongest female horse of all time. Second favorite I Ko Piko came in fourth, while third choice Unrivaled - the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) champion - disappeared on the home stretch, taking a hugely disappointing 15th.

In the days leading up to the race, the 20-year-old Hamanaka had been saying that Three Rolls was his best chance yet at top class race glory, and the jockey turned out to be prophetic.

The Kikuka Sho was the horse's top class race debut, but Three Rolls showed no signs of stage fright, demonstrating the poise and purpose needed to survive the long journey. Having drawn the favorable inside post, Hamanaka kept his mount toward the front but never challenging Reach the Crown who swam away with the lead for the entire trip, pulling away as much as 10 lengths at one point.

It didn't take Three Rolls much time to burst out in front on the 400-meter straight. The Hayato Yoshida-ridden Forgettable came on late to his inside, but Three Rolls never conceded an inch as Hamanaka pushed him to the limit. I Ko Piko, the Kobe Shimbun Hai champion, was fastest down the stretch coming from nearly all the way behind, but Shuka Sho-winning jockey Hirofumi Shii may have left it a little too late to make his move.

Three Rolls, out of Three Roman, is now 4-for-11 with career earnings of more than 187 million yen. He is owned by Nagai Shoji Co. Ltd..