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World Premiere Storms to Victory in Tenno Sho (Spring)

Third favorite World Premiere displayed a strong stayer performance beating the race favorite near the wire to claim this year’s Tenno Sho (Spring) behind closed doors once again, void of the fans at Hanshin Racecourse. It is the second G1 victory for the 2019 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) winner who has overcome a setback after finishing third in the 2019 Arima Kinen (G1, 2,500m). Sidelined for nearly a year, the Deep Impact colt made his comeback in the Japan Cup (G1, 2,400m) last autumn with a promising sixth, followed by a fifth in the Arima Kinen a month later and has just come off a third in the Nikkei Sho (G2, 2,500m) on March 27. This is trainer Yasuo Tomomichi’s 13th overall JRA-G1 victory and first since winning the Kikuka Sho with the horse in 2019. He also celebrates his second Tenno Sho (Spring) title after winning it with Admire Jupiter in 2008. Jockey Yuichi Fukunaga, the successful rider of last year’s Triple Crown victor Contrail, pocketed his 29th JRA-G1 win today and first Tenno Sho (Spring) trophy emulating his father and former jockey Yoichi Fukunaga who won the race in 1976.

Breaking from the innermost stall, World Premiere was unhurried on the rails in seventh, a couple of lengths behind second favorite Aristoteles who sat another couple of lengths behind the front group led by Diastima. As the field made their moves after the third corner, the son of Deep Impact chased Aristoteles into the lane, picked him off from the outside before the furlong marker and closed in strongly on the front runners with a tenacious stretch run. While Diastima weakened on the rails, World Premiere finally pinned and stole the lead from Deep Bond and Curren Bouquetd’or 100 meters out, clearing the wire 3/4 length in front of Deep Bond for the win.

“We had a weak start but recovered well since with the advantage from breaking from stall #1, and kept our eyes on the favorites from behind throughout. I shifted him outside a little earlier than planned to secure a good striking position. He responded incredibly with a good turn of foot. It’s a great honor to have won such a prestigious race like this,” commented Yuichi Fukunaga.

Race favorite Deep Bond broke sharply from a wide stall and was settled in fourth to fifth and three-wide in the back of the leading group. Maintaining his good striking position, the Kizuna colt entered the lane in third and chased the two in front persistently but was caught by World Premiere in the last half-furlong before overhauling the tiring Diastima and then Curren Bouquetd’or in the final strides for second.

Other Horses:
4th: (2) Aristoteles—traveled in 6th eyeing Deep Bond, showed effort but neck short for 3rd place
5th: (14) Win Marilyn—sat 3-wide around 7th near winner, sustained bid but lacked needed speed
6th: (5) Diastima—set pace, showed tenacity along rails, weakened in last 100m
7th: (7) You Can Smile—settled in 15th, gradually made headway, failed to respond at stretch
8th: (6) Makahiki—raced around 11th, driven and advanced, even paced at stretch
9th: (13) Namura Donovan—ran 3-wide in 14th, improved position but never threatened
10th: (17) Authority—sat 3-wide around 11th, switched to outside at early stretch, lacked needed kick
11th: (16) Melody Lane—saved ground in 13th, circled wide, passed tired rivals
12th: (10) Ghost—settled around 10th behind winner, unable to keep up with contention
13th: (15) Ocea Great—was off slow, trailed in rear, made headway at backstretch, showed little at stretch
14th: (11) Meisho Tengen—took economic trip around 9th, dropped back rounding last corners
15th: (8) Divine Force—positioned near rear, no factor
16th: (4) Shironii—raced around 4th inside Deep Bond, outrun after turning last corners
17th: (9) Jako Maru—pressed pace in 2nd, faded after 3rd corner

THE 163RD TENNO SHO (SPRING) (G1)
4-year-olds & up, 3,200 meters (about 16 furlongs), turf, right-handed
Sunday, May 2, 2021           Hanshin Racecourse     11th Race         Post time: 15:40
Total prize money: ¥ 325,000,000 (about US$ 3,096,000 <US$1=¥105>)
4-y-o & up: 58kg (about 128 lbs), 2kg allowance for Fillies & Mares,
1kg allowance for Southern Hemisphere-bred born in 2017
Course Record: 3:14.7         Race Record: 3:12.5 [Kitasan Black (JPN, by Black Tide), Kyoto, 2017]
Safety factor: 18 runners     Going: Good to Firm           Weather: Fine

Turnover for the Race alone: ¥ 18,899,020,300       Turnover for the Day: ¥ 28,350,102,200

Winner= 11 starts, 4 wins, 1 second, 4 thirds / Added money: ¥ 153,570,000 / Career earnings: ¥ 455,943,000

* Tenno Sho (Spring) (G1)

The forerunner of the Tenno Sho was established in 1905 under the name “Emperor’s Cup”, in which the winner received the silver comport bestowed by the Emperor. The race was renamed to “Teishitsu Goshoten Kyoso” the following year. The race became biannual events—held at Hanshin in spring and at Tokyo in autumn—a year after the establishment of the Japan Racing Society (the forerunner of the Japan Racing Association) in 1936 and was officially named the “Tenno Sho” since the autumn of 1947. The Tenno Sho (Spring) became the ultimate competition to determine the champion stayer, having altered its distance to 3,200 meters in 1938 while its counterpart in autumn run over 2,000 meters is one of the biggest middle-distance events contested between the proven older horses with the addition of the three-year-old hopefuls. The venue of the spring version was also moved to Kyoto Racecourse in 1948 and has been shifted to Hanshin due to the renovation of Kyoto’s grandstand this year.
The Tenno Sho (Spring) was designated as an international race in 2005 and welcomed Makybe Diva (GB, by Desert King) of Australia as the first foreign contender the same year. She finished seventh and subsequently went on to make history back home by winning her third consecutive Melbourne Cup (G1, 3,200m). Red Cadeaux (GB, Cadeaux Genereux) was the latest foreign contender of this race in 2014, running for the second time after finishing third in the 2013 edition, but was unable to perform over the firm turf and finished 14th.
With 2019-20 champion Fierement (JPN, by Deep Impact) retired from racing after finishing third in the year-end Arima Kinen (G1, 2,500m), this year’s line-up saw Deep Bond who registered his second graded title in the Hanshin Daishoten (G2, 3,000m, Mar.21), along with You Can Smile in second and Namura Donovan in third while the American Jockey Club Cup (G2, 2,200m, Jan.24) winner Aristoteles was a disappointing seventh. Win Marilyn also came off her second grade-race win in the Nikkei Sho (G2, 2,500m, Mar.27) after rallying with Curren Bouquetd’or (2nd) and 2019 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger, G1, 3,000m) victor World Premiere (3rd). Other key runners were Authority, two-time G2 winner and the Diamond Stakes (G3, 3,400m, Feb.20) runner-up, Diastima, victor of the Shorai Stakes (3 Wins Class, 3,200m, Feb.27), and 2016 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby, G1, 2,400m) winner Makahiki.