Centaur Stakes & Sprinters Stakes - 2009 Global Sprint Challenge review

Scenic Blast (c) SLICKPIX

The Global Sprint Challenge enters the stretch run in Japan with the Centaur Stakes this weekend at Hanshin Racecourse followed by the Sprinters Stakes next month, as Scenic Blast of Australia holds a comfortable lead after the first four races of the competition now in its fifth year of operation.

Scenic Blast, who has been named the Australian Racehorse of the Year for the 2008-09 campaign, sits on top of the table with 32 points after wins in the Coolmore Lightning Stakes at Flemington and the King's Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot, the first two legs of the Global Sprint Challenge.

Despite finishing 10th in a field of 13 in the Darley July Cup at Newmarket, the 5-year-old Scenic Blast still has a 17-point advantage on second-place Fleeting Spirit, the Jeremy Noseda-trained filly and the winner of the Darley July Cup, halfway through the eight-race series. Art Connoisseur, champion of the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot, is fifth on 11 points behind J J The Jet Plane in third (14 points) and Cannonball in fourth (12 points).

Enthused (c) Hong Kong Jockey Club

Scenic Blast, who did not enter in the Centaur Stakes, can cash in a US$1 million bonus should the gelding win the Sprinters Stakes which he is set to race in, or the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint in December which wraps up the Global Sprint Challenge after the Patinack Farm Classic in November, also at Flemington.

The bonus goes to the connections of any horse who wins three Grade 1 races in three different countries, US$750,000 of which goes to the owner, the rest to the trainer. Victory in the Sprinters Stakes for Scenic Blast would also take him above 42 points (points are doubled for horses racing away from home), the minimum total necessary to be crowned Global Sprint Challenge champion who must also race in three different jurisdictions to qualify for the title. For those reasons, there was no champion in 2007 or 2008.

The 1,200-meter Centaur Stakes, to be held this Sunday afternoon, is the only Grade 2 fixture of the Global Sprint Challenge after the King's Stand Stakes was bumped up to Grade 1, and has traditionally served as the ideal prep race to the Sprinters Stakes. It is also the finale of the Summer Sprint Series - the Japan Racing Association's five-race series for sprinters now in its fourth year of competition. The top two finishers of the Centaur Stakes are allotted an automatic place in the Sprinters Stakes.

Sacred Kingdom (c) Hong Kong Jockey Club

While a pair of Japanese Grade 1 winners in Laurel Guerreiro and Sleepless Night has entered, the Centaur Stakes, again, will not feature a horse from overseas after the four remaining selectees - 3-year-old filly Serious Attitude and the David Nicholls-trained trio of Inxile, Regal Parade and Tax Free - all pulled out. To this date, Australian star Takeover Target's runnerup finish in the 2006 version of the race has been the best result for a non-Japanese horse.

Three foreign horses, however, are expected to run in the Sprinters Stakes at Nakayama on Oct. 4 - the marquee sprint race of the JRA for the autumn season. Along with Scenic Blast, Hong Kong-based 6-year-olds Enthused and Sacred Kingdom trained by John Size and P F Yiu, respectively, have thrown their hat into the ring.

Like the Centaur Stakes, the Sprinters Stakes is also held at 1,200 meters but is the richest race of the Global Sprint Challenge with total prize money of more than 202 million yen, the winner taking home 95 million yen. Since the Global Sprint Challenge was incepted, two - and the only two - overseas horses have won the Sprinters Stakes: Hong Kong hero Silent Witness in 2005 and in 2006, Takeover Target in 2006 who went on to win the Global Sprint Challenge title.