Japan Cup (G1) - Preview (2)

Eight horses from overseas have accepted the invite for the 528 million yen Japan Cup on Nov. 28 at Tokyo Racecourse. English Oaks and Irish Oaks champion Snow Fairy, who ran a magical race to win the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup on Nov. 14, has pulled out citing the tough schedule.

The group of runners from Japan spearheaded by Tenno Sho (Autumn) champion Buena Vista is nothing short of outstanding, fitting for the 30th anniversary of the Japan Racing Association’s international showpiece.

Buena Vista is expected to be the first choice at the post time of 3:20 p.m., but who walks off with the first place prize money of 250 million yen will be anyone’s guess. This year’s field is that close and that spectacular, even without last year’s winner Vodka, who has since been retired.

The 2,400-meter race record is 2 minutes, 22.1 seconds made by Alkaased in 2005. The maximum field is set at 18. The following Japanese horses are set to appear this weekend for the host nation:

Buena Vista BUENA VISTA: Trainer Hiroyoshi Matsuda once said Buena Vista would one day be the “female version of Deep Impact.” With each Grade 1 start the filly makes, Matsuda looks smarter and smarter. The 4-year-old Buena Vista is coming off a cozy victory in the Oct. 31st Tenno Sho (Autumn), her fifth career Grade 1 level title. She is two wins away from matching Vodka’s record for most Grade 1 victories by a female horse, and it could very well happen in the Japan Cup. After all, what is the use of doubting Buena Vista any more? The daughter of former Japan Cup champion Special Week has been the first pick in each and every one of the 15 races she’s run, never having finished under third. Buena Vista, out of Hanshin Sansai Himba Stakes winner Biwa Heidi, has covered distances ranging from 1,600 meters to 2,500 meters under four different jockeys. Fans eagerly await for the rematch in the Japan Cup against Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe runnerup Nakayama Festa – who edged Buena Vista in the Takarazuka Kinen back in June. But Matsuda has said that at the time, his horse was far from being at her best, still feeling the effects of traveling out to the Middle East for the Dubai World Cup meet in late March, when Buena Vista was runnerup in the 2,410-meter Dubai Sheema Classic. Eight foreign horses as well as Japan’s best and brightest thoroughbreds have thrown their hat into the ring for the Japan Cup, but they will need to be at their absolute best to deny Buena Vista, who is in even better form than she was for the Tenno Sho, a sixth Grade 1 level title. “We want to win every race that’s out there. She was just so strong in the race,” Matsuda said, looking back on the Tenno Sho. “I thought we had it in the bag turning for home. She was in the best shape she’s been in a long time, and I wasn’t the least bit worried. I didn’t tell the jockey (Christophe Soumillon) much, apart from the fact that the owners felt she should travel closer to the front given the tough going. That was pretty much it.”

Eishin Flash EISHIN FLASH: Trainer Hideaki Fujiwara wonders what if – what if he had missed the strain in Eishin Flash’s left hind leg after working the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) champion for the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) last month. “It was the slightest of signs. You could barely tell,” Fujiwara said. “He would have been in the Kikuka Sho if we didn’t pick it up. It’s a bit scary to think of what would have happened to him had he run the race. He’s one lucky horse. And we’re also lucky to have an understanding owner (Toyomitsu Hirai). If he had told us to go through with it, you really have to wonder what the consequences would have been like.” Eishin Flash, by King’s Best out of Moonlady by Platini, won the Derby on May 30 as the seventh choice over Rose Kingdom, who trailed by a neck. The Japan Cup is held at the same distance and course as the Tokyo Yushun, which has to be encouraging for the colt. Furthermore, Eishin Flash beat the Kazuo Fujisawa-trained Pelusa in the Derby by several lengths, and Pelusa was second to Buena Vista in the Tenno Sho. A clean bill of health and luck – which Eishin Flash appears to have plenty of – is all he needs to make a run at the Japan Cup.

Nakayama Festa NAKAYAMA FESTA: Nakayama Festa came home from France on Oct. 6, three days after narrowly missing out on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe title which continues to elude the Japan Racing Association – 11 years after his trainer Yoshitaka Ninomiya and jockey Masayoshi Ebina combined to also finish second in the race with El Condor Pasa. It was uncertain whether the 4-year-old Nakayama Festa would run in the Japan Cup for a highly anticipated rematch against Buena Vista – who the colt defeated in the Takarazuka Kinen – but after Ninomiya saw the Stay Gold son work on Oct. 10, it became a certainty. “He worked on the hill in 52 seconds and showed no signs of stress so we’re going to the Japan Cup,” Ninomiya said. “He was a little sore around the back and at the hip right after the Arc, but he managed to get rid of it fairly quickly. Our only concern has been that he doesn’t misbehave like he used to at the stable. We’re wondering if something is wrong with him.” El Condor Pasa won the Japan Cup as a 3-year-old before racing in the Arc the following season and calling it a career. Nakayama Festa will have a sure shot at horse of the year honors if he can lift the Japan Cup this weekend, and Ebina likes what he has seen from his partner since returning on Japanese soil. “I’m glad we made it. I’m sure he’ll be getting a lot of attention, and I can only hope he runs a good race,” said the jockey. “We’re in no position to brag because we were second, but I think he left everything out there (in the Arc). He ran the best race he could. I’m proud of what Nakayama Festa accomplished He isn’t the easiest horse to work with, but everyone at the stable deserves full credit for making him as strong as he is. It also helped a lot that he raced there beforehand. That really got him into shape.” Buena Vista might be the favorite at the morning line, but she’ll have to beat Nakayama Festa to receive full consideration as the best horse in the country.

Oken Bruce Lee OKEN BRUCE LEE: The 2008 Kikuka Sho champion came within inches of lifting the Japan Cup a year ago, but fell short by a nose to Vodka. The second choice by Jungle Pocket literally came from behind on the Fuchu straight to nearly catching the Christophe Lemaire-ridden Vodka, who was declared the winner in a photo finish. But the 5-year-old Oken Bruce Lee, out of Silver Joy by Silver Deputy, has raced just once since that Japan Cup, finishing second in the Oct. 10 Kyoto Daishoten to Meisho Beluga. Oken Bruce Lee had the Tenno Sho in sight afterward, but pulled out after his right front leg swelled up. Trainer Hidetaka Otonashi heaved a huge sigh of relief when he found out there was no structural damage to the leg, just a bruise. They quickly redirected their attention toward the Japan Cup, which Oken Bruce Lee will be entering for his third time. He was fifth in the race two years ago. “We passed up the Tenno Sho because he bruised his leg in the Kyoto Daishoten,” Otonashi said. “It turned out to be nothing more and he’s been fine since in getting ready for this race. I thought he was in the best shape of his career for last year’s Japan Cup, and I’m hoping to have him close to his condition of a year ago.”

Pelusa PELUSA: There’s no question Pelusa, the 3-year-old son by former Japan Cup winner Zenno Rob Roy, has talent. The only thing standing in between the colt and Grade 1 glory is himself. “It’s a shame, because he’s got tons of quality,” said trainer Kazuo Fujisawa, who won the race in 2004 with the Sunday Silence-sired Zenno Rob Roy. “The ability is there without question. I’ll have to try something different next time. I do think he’ll start properly this time, though.” Pelusa, the fourth overall choice, was second to Buena Vista in the Tenno Sho last month despite acting up in the barriers for the third straight time to take himself out of the race early. Pelusa was the only horse in the field of 18 to clock under 34 seconds over the last three furlongs, leaving anyone who saw the race to wonder how Pelusa would have fared – had he actually left his stall on time. Out of Argentine Star by Candy Stripes, Pelusa swept the first four starts of his career in such convincing fashion that he had Fujisawa believing this year would finally be the year the famed trainer won the Japanese Derby. But Pelusa’s troubles in the gate saw him finish sixth in the Tokyo Yushun, followed by a fifth place finish in the Grade 2, 1,800 meter Mainichi Okan, his first start of the autumn. Looking back on the Tenno Sho, jockey Katsumi Ando says Pelusa did behave better inside his stall and should continue to improve with each race. “His start was better than what it has been,” said Ando, who is in search of his first Japan Cup. “But you have to take into account that he’s only three years old. I’m sure he’ll get better at it.” And there’s no doubting Pelusa’s physical condition at the moment. “The jockey worked him on the 17th – on the turf course – and he said the horse continues to be in good shape, and he’s very relaxed. I think his potential was spoken for in the Tenno Sho, and we’ve been working on his start ever since so he should get off to a clean start this time. If he can just run a clean race, the result will be there in the end.”

Rose Kingdom ROSE KINGDOM: After finishing runnerup in the Kikuka Sho as the first choice, Rose Kingdom’s trainer Kojiro Hashiguchi had the colt heading next for the Dec. 26 Arima Kinen – the grand finale on the Japan Racing Association calendar. But the son of King Kamehameha, out of Rosebud by Sunday Silence, couldn’t wait to get back out on the track. Rose Kingdom has been so full of energy since the Kikuka Sho that Hashiguchi decided to enter the Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes winner in the Japan Cup. “It’s too bad about the result, but I think he showed everyone what he’s made out of,” Hashiguchi said of the Japanese St. Leger, which was won by underdog Big Week. “He certainly didn’t embarrass himself out there as the favorite. We took it easy on him after the race, not doing much more than walking him. But it wasn’t enough for him. He wanted more. That’s why we decided to go to the Japan Cup, because he was feeling so good about himself.” Rose Kingdom has been rock solid this fall, getting back at Eishin Flash in the Kobe Shimbun Hai in September for the narrow defeat in the Derby before the Kikuka Sho. Rose Kingdom filled out over the summer and has thrived in a new partnership with Yutaka Take in the autumn. Hashiguchi tasted bitter defeat in the Japan Cup five years ago when Heart’s Cry lost in the photos to Alkaased, and That’s the Plenty was a distant second to Tap Dance City in 2003. Rose Kingdom won’t be the top choice here, but given his recent level of maturity and the big-race experience of Take, it certainly wouldn’t be surprising if he were crowned the 30th champion of the JRA’s international showpiece.

Victoire Pisa VICTOIRE PISA: The Katsuhiko Sumii-trained Victoire Pisa was the most talked about horse of his generation in the spring following his Satsuki Sho-winning performance in April. But after missing out on the second jewel in the Triple Crown, finishing third in the Tokyo Yushun, Victoire Pisa, by Neo Universe out of Whitewater Affair, took his act to France for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe where he went under the wire eighth and later promoted to seventh after another horse was penalized. Sadly, with the likes of Buena Vista and Nakayama Festa in the mix for the Japan Cup, Victoire Pisa has largely been forgotten but it would be unwise to write him off here, especially with Mirco Demuro in the saddle, the Italian who has staged his share of drama in the JRA. From Triple Crown-winning filly Apapane to Eishin Flash to Pelusa, this season’s crop of 3 year olds is widely recognized to be the best in years and Victoire Pisa deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as the aforementioned horses. “His performance in the two races in France were very good,” said assistant trainer Hiroaki Kiyoyama, whose stable won the Japan Cup last year with Vodka, of the Arc and the Prix Niel. “I think it turned out to be a good experience for him because he’s shown a lot of maturity recently. He looked to be at his best when he worked last week and if he stays as strong as he was then, we should be in contention. He’s a very easy ride, capable of racing from any position. The flexibility is probably his biggest strength and if he can play that card right, we should do well here – even against a field as tough as this one. Ever since the spring, he’s always produced regardless of the circumstances and we expect nothing less this time, too.”