2020 News

May 17, 2020

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Almond Eye Claims This Year’s Victoria Mile to Register Record-Tying 7th G1 Title
Victoria Mile (G1)

Overwhelming race favorite Almond Eye claimed this year’s Victoria Mile in 1:30.6, only 0.1 second off the track record. This race was her first start after returning from the UAE for the intended start in the Dubai Turf to defend her title. Capturing the fillies’ Triple Crown—the Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas, 1,600m), the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks, 2,400m) and the Shuka Sho (2,000m)—and the Japan Cup title in her three-year-old season, and the Dubai Turf (1,800m) and the Tenno Sho (Autumn) (2,000m) last year, this win marks her record-tying 7th turf G1 title along with Symboli Rudolf, T.M. Opera O, Deep Impact, Vodka, Gentildonna and Kitasan Black. Trainer Sakae Kunieda claimed his 17th JRA-G1 title following last year’s Tenno Sho (Autumn), which he won with this horse, and jockey Christophe Lemaire won his memorable 30th JRA-G1 title following his Tenno Sho (Spring) victory with Fierement two weeks earlier.

Five-year-old Almond Eye broke smoothly and settled in good position around sixth from the pacesetter, Trois Etoiles, who set a rapid pace. Chasing Sound Chiara through most of the trip, the Lord Kanaloa mare edged forward turning the corners, entered the lane fourth from the front and dislodged an admiringly powerful drive through the homestretch, easily overtaking the front horses by the 200-meter pole and further accelerating for a four-length victory.

“I think she’s matured well, as she was relaxed from the paddock to the start of the race. I was able to position her in good position behind Sound Chiara and race her in her own rhythm without getting any pressure from the outside. She felt good during the race and displayed her powerful strides at the end. She’s a legend horse and will surely win more G1 races going forward,” commented jockey Christophe Lemaire.

Fourth pick Sound Chiara also broke well from the outermost stall and traveled in third rounding the corners. Though overtaken by Almond Eye 300 meters out, the Deep Impact mare ran tenaciously in the lane, nailing Trois Etoiles in the last 100 meters and holding off the fast-closing Normcore before the wire for second place.

Breaking slowly from stall 16, defending champion Normcore traveled in mid-division, around 6-7th from the front, and displayed an impressive turn of speed that timed the second fastest in the last three furlongs to cross the wire in third, just a neck behind the runner-up.

Other Horses:
4th: (13) Trois Etoiles—set pace, showed tenacity after being passed by winner, weakened in last 100m
5th: (7) Danon Fantasy—keen to go early, took economic trip in 6th, lacked needed kick
6th: (4) Shigeru Pink Dia—ran behind winner around 8th, responded well but was too late
7th: (1) Loves Only You—saved ground around 8th, boxed in at top of stretch, even paced
8th: (5) Primo Scene—sat 3-wide around 8th, dropped position before final corner, showed belated charge
9th: (2) Beach Samba—saved ground in 13th, struggled to find clear path, quickened in last 200m
10th: (3) Shadow Diva—settled in 12th, switched to outside at early stretch, passed tired rivals
11th: (15) Arusha—trailed in rear, improved position in last 200m
12th: (6) Tosen Bless—was off a bit slow, hugged rails near rear, never a threat
13th: (11) Satono Garnet—raced in 14th, circled wide, unable to reach contention
14th: (17) Contra Check—tracked pacesetter in 2nd, outrun after 300m out
15th: (14) Scarlet Color—ran 4-wide around 8th, showed little and dropped back at stretch
16th: (10) Megere Su—traveled around 4th near winner, faded after 400m pole
Scratched: (8) Dimension—due to lameness in her right foreleg
Scratched: (9) Therapeia—due to phlegmon in her right foreleg

THE 15TH VICTORIA MILE (G1)
4-year-olds & up, Fillies & Mares, 1,600 meters (about 8 furlongs), turf, left-handed
Sunday, May 17, 2020          Tokyo Racecourse          11th Race           Post time: 15:40
Total prize money: ¥ 226,800,000 (about US$ 2,100,000 <US$1=¥108>)
4-y-o & up: 55kg (about 121 lbs), 1kg allowance for Southern Hemisphere-bred born in 2016
Course Record: 1:30.5         Race Record: 1:30.5 [Normcore (JPN, by Harbinger), 2019]
Safety factor: 18 runners     Going: Firm           Weather: Fine

FP BK PP Horse
Jockey
S&A
Color
Wgt
Odds
(Fav)
Margin
(L3F)
Sire
Dam
(Dam’s Sire)
Owner
Breeder
Trainer
1 6 12 Almond Eye (JPN)
Christophe Lemaire
M5
b.
55.0
1.4
(1)
1:30.6
(32.9)
Lord Kanaloa
Fusaichi Pandora
(Sunday Silence)
Silk Racing Co., Ltd.
Northern Racing
Sakae Kunieda
2 8 18 Sound Chiara (JPN)
Kohei Matsuyama
M5
b.
55.0
12.9
(4)
4
(33.8)
Deep Impact
Sound Barrier
(Agnes Digital)
Yuichi Masuda
Yuichi Masuda
Akio Adachi
3 8 16 Normcore (JPN)
Norihiro Yokoyama
M5
g.
55.0
17.4
(5)
Neck
(33.2)
Harbinger
Chronologist
(Kurofune)
Seiichi Iketani
Northern Racing
Kiyoshi Hagiwara
4 7 13 Trois Etoiles (JPN)
Kosei Miura
M5
b.
55.0
123.8
(12)
1/2
(34.7)
Lord Kanaloa
Secondo Piatto
(Heart's Cry)
Shadai Race Horse Co., Ltd.
Shadai Farm
Takayuki Yasuda
5 4 7 Danon Fantasy (JPN)
Yuga Kawada
F4
b.
55.0
18.4
(6)
1/2
(33.5)
Deep Impact
Life For Sale
(Not For Sale)
Danox Co., Ltd.
Northern Racing
Mitsumasa Nakauchida
6 2 4 Shigeru Pink Dia (JPN)
Ryuji Wada
F4
d.b.
55.0
100.6
(11)
3/4
(33.2)
Daiwa Major
Moonlight Bay
(High Chaparral)
S.Morinaka
Amaba Bokujo
Kunihiko Watanabe
7 1 1 Loves Only You (JPN)
Mirco Demuro
F4
b.
55.0
9.5
(3)
1
(33.5)
Deep Impact
Loves Only Me
(Storm Cat)
DMM Dream Club Co., Ltd.
Northern Farm
Yoshito Yahagi
8 3 5 Primo Scene (JPN)
Damian Lane
M5
br.
55.0
7.5
(2)
1-1/4
(33.4)
Deep Impact
Mosheen
(Fastnet Rock)
Silk Racing Co., Ltd.
Northern Racing
Tetsuya Kimura
9 1 2 Beach Samba (JPN)
Yuichi Fukunaga
F4
d.b.
55.0
38.1
(9)
Neck
(33.4)
Kurofune
Fusaichi Airedale
(Sunday Silence)
Kaneko Makoto Holdings Co., Ltd.
Northern Racing
Yasuo Tomomichi
10 2 3 Shadow Diva (JPN)
Kenichi Ikezoe
F4
d.b.
55.0
86.0
(10)
1-1/2
(33.4)
Heart's Cry
Diamond Diva
(Dansili)
Three H Racing Co., Ltd.
Northern Racing
Makoto Saito
11 7 15 Arusha (JPN)
Hiroshi Kitamura
M5
g.
55.0
288.4
(15)
1/2
(33.2)
Deep Impact
Zazu
(Tapit)
Sunday Racing Co., Ltd.
Northern Racing
Kazuo Fujisawa
12 3 6 Tosen Bless (JPN)
Takuya Ono
M5
d.b.
55.0
223.0
(13)
Nose
(33.3)
Deep Impact
Bloomin' Bar
(Falbrav)
Takaya Shimakawa
Yukihiro Moroe
Yukihiro Kato
13 6 11 Satono Garnet (JPN)
Yutaka Yoshida
M5
d.b.
55.0
293.1
(16)
Neck
(33.5)
Deep Impact
Beatrix Kiddo
(Victory Note)
Satomi Horse Company Co., Ltd.
Oiwake Farm
Yoshito Yahagi
14 8 17 Contra Check (JPN)
Yutaka Take
F4
d.b.
55.0
31.9
(8)
Head
(35.4)
Deep Impact
Rich Dancer
(Halling)
U. Carrot Farm
Northern Racing
Kazuo Fujisawa
15 7 14 Scarlet Color (JPN)
Shu Ishibashi
M5
b.
55.0
21.0
(7)
2-1/2
(34.5)
Victoire Pisa
Ventus
(War Emblem)
Koji Maeda
North Hills Co,. Ltd.
Ryo Takahashi
16 5 10 Megere Su (JPN)
Yoshitsugu Okada
M5
b.
55.0
280.0
(14)
3
(35.6)
Lord Kanaloa
Asian Winds
(Fuji Kiseki)
Suzuko Ota
Ms Suzuko Ota
Hideaki Fujiwara
  4 8 Dimension (JPN)
Daisaku Matsuda
M6
b.
55.0
Scratched Deep Impact
Miss Pemberley
(Montjeu)
Hiroo Race
PANGLOSS Y.K. Toshihiro Hirosaki et al.
Hideaki Fujiwara
  5 9 Therapeia (JPN)
Hironobu Tanabe
F4
g.
55.0
Scratched Orfevre
Laragh
(Tapit)
Teruya Yoshida
Shadai Farm
Kenichi Fujioka
FP: Final Position / BK: Bracket Number / PP: Post Position / S&A: Sex & Age / Wgt: Weight (kg) / DH: Dead Heat / L3F: Time of Last 3 Furlongs (600m)
Color: b.=bay / bl.=black / br.=brown / ch.=chestnut / d.b.=dark bay / d.ch.=dark chestnut / g.=gray / w.=white
Note1: No Foreign Contenders
Note2: Figures quoted under Odds are shown in form of decimal odds (single unit is ¥100), and Fav indicates the order of favorites.

Turnover for the Race alone: ¥ 15,902,841,300  Turnover for the Day: ¥ 24,862,607,600

PAY-OFF (for ¥100)
Win No.12 ¥ 140 Bracket Quinella 6-8 ¥ 390 Quinella 12-18 ¥ 750
Place No.12 ¥ 110 Quinella Place 12-18 ¥ 390 Exacta 12-18 ¥ 950
No.18 ¥ 220 12-16 ¥ 530 Trio 12-16-18 ¥ 2,960
No.16 ¥ 300 16-18 ¥ 1,530 Trifecta 12-18-16 ¥ 7,340

Winner= 12 starts, 9 wins, 1 second, 1 third / Added money: ¥ 108,822,000 / Career earnings: ¥ 1,406,633,900

Fractional time (sec./furlong): 12.0 - 10.9 - 11.3 - 11.4 - 11.1 - 11.2 - 11.1 - 11.6
Last 4 furlongs: 45.0          Last 3 furlongs: 33.9

Positions at each corner: 3rd corner 13-17,18(10,12)7,16(1,4,5,14)3,2,11(6,15)
4th corner 13-17-18(10,12)(7,16)(1,4,14)(2,5)3,11(6,15)

Note1: Underlined bold number indicates the winning horse.
Note2: Horse numbers are indicated in the order of their positions at each corner, with the first position listed first. Two or more horses inside the same parentheses indicate that they were positioned side by side. Hyphens between the horse numbers indicate that there is distance between the former and the latter. The asterisk indicates a slight lead.

 

* Victoria Mile (G1)

In accordance with the restructuring of JRA racing program for fillies/mares executed in the 2006 season, the Victoria Mile was established to give the older fillies/mares a stage to prove their ability among their own sex, in addition to the Queen Elizabeth II Cup, which had been the only G1 reserved for older fillies/mares. While the Queen Elizabeth is run over 2,200 meters and held in mid-November, the Victoria Mile is held in spring and provides female milers a chance to claim a G1 title without having a tough competition in a mixed field.
The race, however, attracts not only fillies/mares suited to the mile distance but also outstanding runners from the middle-long distance group. Past victors include two-time Horse of the Year winner Vodka (JPN, by Tanino Gimlet; ’09), 2010 Horse of the Year Buena Vista (JPN, by Special Week; ’10) and 2010 fillies’ Triple Crown winner Apapane (JPN, by King Kamehameha; ’11). Meanwhile, both Verxina (JPN, by Deep Impact) and Straight Girl (JPN, by Fuji Kiseki) claimed consecutive Victoria Mile titles in 2013-14 and 2015-16, respectively.
The top three finishers will earn automatic starting positions in the French G1 Prix Jacques le Marois (1,600m) where not only will they be exempted from paying registration fee but will be given a total of €20,000 as a transportation subsidy. The race also joined the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series this year, enabling its winner to earn automatic starting position in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1, 1,900m).
Defending champion Normcore came off a 15th in her first sprint start, the Takamatsunomiya Kinen (G1, 1,200m; Mar.29) while 2018 Horse of the Year Almond Eye and last year’s Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks, G1, 2,400m) victor Loves Only You commenced their 2020 season with this race instead of the Dubai World Cup meeting, which was cancelled due to COVID-19. Sound Chiara registered her third consecutive graded title in the main prep for the Victoria Mile, the Hanshin Himba Stakes (G2, 1,600m; Apr.11), where Scarlet Color, Dimension, Beach Samba and 2018 Best Two-Year-Old Filly Danon Fantasy were among the top five, finishing behind the winner in this order. The field also included Contra Check, 2019 Turquoise Stakes (G3, 1,600m) winner, who finished 16th in the Nakayama Himba Stakes (G3, 1,800m; Mar.14), and last year’s runner-up Primo Scene who came off a fifth in the Lord Derby Challenge Trophy (G3, 1,600m; Apr.4).

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