Yasuda Kinen (G1) - Preview

Isla Bonita

Staphanos

Ambitious

Air Spinel

Logotype

Greater London

Satono Aladdin

Red Falx

The Grade 1 Yasuda Kinen, to be held on Sunday, June 4, wraps up six straight weeks of top-level racing, five of them at Tokyo Racecourse. A mile event open to 3-year-olds and up, the Yasuda Kinen was named after the JRA's first president, Izaemon Yasuda, and caps Grade 1 action at Tokyo, though racing at the venue continues until month end. This year marks the 67th running of the race, which has also become a favorite target for runners from Hong Kong. Sunday will see two of Hong Kong's top milers - the geldings Contentment and Beauty Only - leave the gate at 15:40 local time to seek their share in the 228 million yen-plus prize money, including a first-place bounty of 103 million yen. Contentment is back for a second shot after finishing 12th last year, and Beauty Only takes on the race for his first time.

Contentment and Beauty Only were the top two finishers, respectively, in the Grade 1 Champions Mile, run at Sha Tin Racecourse on May 7. Beauty Only aced the Hong Kong Mile last December. Hong Kong runners have captured the Yasuda Kinen twice before since the race opened to international competitors in 1993; Fairy King Prawn won it in 2000 and Bullish Luck in 2006. Foreign-based horses have made 53 appearances in the Yasuda Kinen gate since 1993, but only one other than the two Hong Kong horses have won. That was the UAE-based Heart Lake in 1995.

Important races leading into the Yasuda Kinen for the Japanese runners include the Grade 2 Keio Hai Spring Cup, Grade 3 Lord Derby Challenge Trophy, Grade 2 Yomiuri Milers Cup, and Grade 3 Tokyo Shimbun Hai. The winners of those races - Red Falx, Logi Chalice, Isla Bonita and Black Spinel, respectively - have all been nominated for the race and are expected to start, as well as Grade 2 Nakayama Kinen third-place finisher and the defending champion of this race Logotype, Keio Hai Spring Cup runnerup Clarente and Yomiuri Milers Cup runnerup Air Spinel.

Five and 6-year-olds have figured most predominately in the Yasuda Kinen winner's circle over the last decade. Four 6-year-olds won the race and three 5-year-olds, with one victory each going to a 3-year-old and 4-year-old. Only one female horse has won in the past 10 runnings. That was Vodka, in 2008 as a 4-year-old and again the following year. The favorite has done well too, having won four times in the past 10 races and finished in second once. The longshots are not to be ignored however. Though no horse that went to the gate a double-digit pick has won in the past decade, six of them have figured in the top three spots.

Strong Return holds the race record of 1 minute, 31.3 seconds set in 2012.

Here's a look at the expected top picks.

Isla Bonita: Despite winning the 2,000-meter Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) in 2014, the Fuji Kiseki-sired Isla Bonita has gone on to establish himself clearly as a miler in recent months. Though he finished in the top three spots seven times in the 12 starts since his last win in the autumn of 2014, it wasn't until his most recent start that he finally made the winner's circle. Isla Bonita had posted second in three races straight before that - Grade 3 Fuji Stakes, Grade 1 Mile Championship and Grade 2 Hanshin Cup. His victory came last out in the Yomiuri Milers Cup, in which he topped Air Spinel by half a length. His last four races were also ridden by Christophe Lemaire, following a switch from his previous regular rider Masayoshi Ebina from last year's Yasuda Kinen, in which Isla Bonita finished fifth. Isla Bonita is expected to see improvement following his recent win, and, if he can pull off a win, would give Lemaire his fourth Grade 1 victory in four weeks and would be the horse's first Grade 1 win in three years and two months.

Staphanos: A 6-year-old by Deep Impact, Staphonos finished 3/4 lengths behind Kitasan Black for second last out in the 2,000-meter Osaka Hai, a race promoted to Grade 1 status this year. Staphanos finished third last year at Tokyo in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) over the same distance before going on to finish in third in the Hong Kong Cup. Raced predominately over 1,800-2,000 meters, this will be Staphanos' first start at the mile since the fall of 2014, when he won the Grade 3 Fuji Stakes under the same conditions as the Yasuda Kinen. Having performed well amid highly competitive fields, the highly consistent Staphanos (only off the board three times in his career 22 starts) is seen as having a good chance in the Yasuda Kinen this year. Slated for the ride is Keita Tosaki, who tops the record for most wins over the Tokyo 1,600 meters for the past five years with a total of 32 wins.

Ambitious: Also taking on the mile for the first time in quite the spell is another son of Deep Impact, the 5-year-old Ambitious. After debuting his first two career races at the mile, Ambitious was given more distance. He captured the Grade 2 Sankei Osaka Hai last spring, then failed to settle in the Grade 1 Takarazuka Kinen and finished just one off the rear. Since then he has made the board four times in as many starts and last finished in fifth place in the Osaka Hai, with a fourth before that in the Grade 1 Tenno Sho (Autumn). Though he has proven he can race well from any position, it is always his late speed that gets Ambitious close to the top in the final stages. If Ambitious, expected to be ridden by Norihiro Yokoyama, can settle, he has proven himself competitive at the highest level.

Air Spinel: Still trying to clinch his first big race, the 4-year-old Air Spinel, by King Kamehameha, has finished in the top three spots in all of his six starts over the mile. After three finishes out of the top three last year, Air Spinel has figured back in wagers yielding a return for his past four starts, three of them run over the mile. They included a third in the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger), a third and first in two Grade 3 races and a second last out in the Grade 2 Yomiuri Milers Cup. That race was his first in nearly three months and it is expected to have him sharp for the Yasuda. In the saddle will be Yutaka Take, who has been paired with Air Spinel for all his races thus far. “He is calmer now and more mature,” trainer Kazuhide Sasada  said. “This has been our goal for the spring and I'm expecting to see good things from him.”

Logotype: A 7-year-old by Lohengrin, Logotype went wire to wire to capture the 2016 Yasuda Kinen and returned to the top for the first time since his 2013 win of the Satsuki Sho. The Satsuki Sho was won under Mirco Demuro, but it was Hironobu Tanabe who brought Logotype home a winner in last year's Yasuda Kinen. Tanabe has ridden all but one of his last seven starts - all but the Hong Kong Mile run last year, which went to Demuro. Last year's Yasuda Kinen was Logotype's first bid and before that he had been given the Grade 3 Lord Derby Trophy Challenge after the Nakayama Kinen. This year, though he had been slated to run in the Lord Derby Trophy Challenge, it was decided to withdraw him and go straight to this race. If he and Tanabe, who suffered injuries but no fractures in a fall on May 21, can prove themselves in winning form on Sunday, it will be the first time since Yukio Okabe's successive wins in 1997 and 1998 aboard Taiki Shuttle for a horse to win the Yasuda Kinen in back-to-back years.

Other contenders worth a mention are Greater London, a 5-year-old by Deep Impact who is rising to the graded-stakes level for the first time in his career. Greater London has won all but one of his seven starts thus far and is making a leap from a win of the open-class Kochi Stakes over the mile at Nakayama to the Grade 1 level. He has four wins over the Tokyo mile, albeit at lower levels. Veteran Yuichi Fukunaga will be in the saddle.

Also of interest are Satono Aladdin, fourth in last year's Yasuda Kinen, and Red Falx. The latter is being given an extra furlong after a win of the Grade 2 Keio Hai Spring Cup over 1,400 meters on May 13, and will be taking on his first mile in over three years. Demuro, who has ridden Red Falx for his last five starts and bagged three wins from them, is set for the ride.

Comment source: Keiba Book