One for the cameras: Laurel Guerreiro wins the Sprinters Stakes

The sixth leg of the Global Sprint Challenge produced one of the closest finishes in Sprinters Stakes history, but it did not involve the eight-race series leader Scenic Blast.

Takamatsunomiya Kinen champion Laurel Guerreiro edged B B Guldan by all of one centimeter to win the 43rd Sprinters Stakes on Sunday at Nakayama Racecourse, becoming just the second horse ever to complete the Japan Racing Association's spring-autumn sprint Grade 1 double. The winning time by the sixth choice was 1 minute, 7.5 seconds over 1,200 meters on firm turf, half a second off the race record set by Trot Star in 2001.

Favorite and Grade 2 Centaur Stakes winner Ultima Thule faded on the home stretch and took fifth in her Grade 1 debut.

"I'm just glad we won today," jockey Shinji Fujita said during the post-race press conference. "To be honest, I thought we may have been at a disadvantage at the wire. It was just really hard to tell because there was a lot of space between us and the horse on the outside."

Australian Racehorse of the Year Scenic Blast, who went off as the third pick and bidding to cash in the US$1 million Global Sprint Challenge bonus with a third Grade 1 victory in three different countries, came in last under new partner Mark Zahra as the only foreign horse in a full field of 16, less defending Sprinters Stakes champion Sleepless Night who was retired earlier in the week due to injury.

The first overseas entry in the Sprinters Stakes in three years, the 5-year-old Scenic Blast, who still leads the Global Sprint Challenge by a comfortable 19 points after winning the Coolmore Lightning Stakes and the King's Stand Stakes, will have to wait until December to uncork the champagne when he runs in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint.

Before a crowd of just under 46,000 on a sunny afternoon at Nakayama, the 5-year-old Laurel Guerreiro jumped on to the lead from the start and pushed the pace through the first 600 meters at 32.9 seconds before turning for home along the railing, with B B Guldan, under veteran Katsumi Ando, closing in fast to his outside.

After clearing the hill on the 310-meter straight, the two horses appeared to crash the wire at the same time and it went to the photos to determine the new Sprinters Stakes champion. But the finish was so close that the review required almost 15 minutes before Laurel Guerreiro was declared the narrowest of Grade 1 winners. Kanoya Zakura, two-time defending champion of the JRA's Summer Sprint Series, came in third more than a length behind the top two.

Both Fujita and trainer Mitsugu Kon had not been confident ahead of the race following the King Halo son's 14th-place performance in the Centaur Stakes at Hanshin on Sept. 13.

"His last performance left a lot to be desired, and I definitely had my doubts for this race," said Fujita, who won his first Sprinters Stakes. "He lost by too much for a Grade 1 champion, and because he is a Grade 1 champion, I didn't want to blame it on the 59 kilograms he had carried.

"He breaks well as he always has, but he's been really struggling to pick up the pace these last two races. I think if we went up against a pure speedster, he probably wouldn't be able to grab the lead.

"There's such a huge difference in his result today from the last race that I don't know what to make of all this. He was in much better form for the Takamatsunomiya Kinen; there's no comparison. For him, I think it's better that he stuck to 1,200 meters rather than running in the mile. But full credit to him; he really toughed it out today."

Added Kon, who also won his first Sprinters Stakes and after the race announced plans for Laurel Guerreiro to run in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint on Dec. 13: "I would have settled for a tie. The horse was far from being in top condition, and I was just counting on him to dig deep. I think he showed a lot of pride as a Grade 1 champion today.

"There was a period of time when he couldn't win, but now he's got two Grade 1 titles to show for and I couldn't be happier for him. He'll definitely get better as the year progresses, and if he can win a Grade 1 race in the form he was in today, you have to likes his chances (in Hong Kong).

"The heat got to him in the summer, and he came back to us having lost a lot of weight. He seemed to switch on when the jockey worked him this week, and that may have made the difference because he's a horse who feeds off his emotions."

Laurel Guerreiro, out of Big Tenby, is 5-for-26 for his career with earning of more than 482 million yen.