Mile Championship (G1) - Preview

Namur

Soul Rush

Charyn

Brede Weg

Serifos

Jun Blossom

Matenro Sky

Win Marvel

Obamburumai

Elton Barows

Fierce Pride

Deciding the top miler of the latter half of the year is the Grade 1 Mile Championship this Sunday, Nov. 17 at Kyoto Racecourse. The 41st edition of the race is set to feature 17 runners, including overseas challenger Charyn. He’s one of the strongest, if not the strongest contender from abroad to take on the race since it opened to overseas-based entrants from 1998 and he could become the first to win it.

Despite lameness causing the withdrawal last week of Mainichi Okan winner and expected Mile C popular choice Sixpence, the home team is hardly short on talent. Japan’s runners are headlined by last year’s champion and likely race favorite Namur, as well as Soul Rush, who followed her over the line last year in second by a neck. The pair to beat, Soul Rush followed Namur home again, this time in third by a nose in the Yasuda Kinen, with Namur finishing half a length behind the race winner, Hong Kong’s Goliath Romantic Warrior.

Last month, last year’s Queen Elizabeth II Cup winner Brede Weg returned after a year to scoop the Grade 2 Fuchu Himba Stakes, and Serifos, winner of the Mile Championship 2 years ago is still considered a force to be reckoned with. All are considered solid candidates for the Mile Championship’s first-place prize of ¥180 million or at least a share of purse worth nearly ¥389 million.

The Mile Championship is run to the right over the Kyoto outer course, a course considered to be straightforward, but with a downward slope leading out of the backstretch, those caught at a key point on the outside can easily get pushed out and lose ground as the speed picks up.

The Mile Championship is the 11th race of 12 on the Kyoto Sunday card. Post time is 3:40 p.m.

Likely popular choices are:

Namur -　A 5-year-old daughter of Harbinger, Namur is aiming to become the seventh horse to win back-to-back Mile Championships. She’s had a tough year since last year’s Mile, with two overseas excursions, one that brought a third in the Hong Kong Mile in early December 2023, then a second place in the March 30 Dubai Turf over a furlong longer. Slow away in both the Victoria Mile and the Yasuda Kinen, Namur raced from far to the back in posted an 8-2. Unlike last year’s Mile Championship, which she preceded with a win of the Fuji Stakes a month prior, this year she heads in unprepped, racing for the first time in 5 1/2 months. Last year she ran under Kota Fujioka, but expected up is Cristian Demuro, who rode her Dubai start and is just off a win of the Queen Elizabeth II Cup.

Soul Rush - A 6-year-old by Rulership, Soul Rush will be taking on his third Mile Championship and has only figured out of the money once in his four starts since, all graded stakes, two G1s. His one finish out of the top three was still strong, amid tough competition in the Hong Kong Mile. Soul Rush finished in fourth a length and a quarter behind third-place Namur, with the top two spots going to the legendary Golden Sixty and Voyage Bubble. Based at the Ritto stable of Yasutoshi Ikee, Soul Rush is prepped and poised with a second by a length to Jun Blossom in the Grade 2 Fuji Stakes at Tokyo Oct. 19. Fourth in the 2022 Mile Championship (held at Hanshin), second in ’23 (back at Kyoto), this may be the year Soul Rush strikes gold. He can clinch a race with his excellent turn of foot and can still perform well over a rain-affected track, a plus with rain predicted for Kyoto the day before the big race.

Charyn - A son of Dark Angel, out of the Kodiak mare Futoon, Charyn has come into his own as a 4-year-old, winning five of his seven starts this year. He bagged three of the five G1s attempted and was second in the other two. Bred at Grangemore Stud in Ireland, Charyn’s winning form at his home base in Newmarket, England, has translated equally winningly in France. Three Group 1s have been captured by the Roger Varian-trained gray colt over a span of 6 months - the Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot, the Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville and, most recently, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, also at Ascot. Though the Ascot and Deauville miles were all run over straight tracks, Charyn’s second in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp was over a track with a right-hand bend. His success has a great chance of translating equally well over the Kyoto outer course, with its gentle turns and longer stretch. Six progenies of Dark Angel are registered with the JRA, including this year’s Takamatsunomiya Kinen winner Mad Cool. Expected in the irons is new partner Ryan Moore.

Brede Weg - She’s a highly consistent daughter of Lord Kanaloa, with four wins and two seconds from six starts. But, Brede Weg has also only competed against males twice in her six-start career and this will be her first mile. Normally raced at 1,800 to 2,200 meters, the winner of last year’s Queen Elizabeth II Cup returned after nearly a year to clinch the Fuchu Himba Stakes Oct. 14 (G2, Tokyo, 1,800). If she can ace Sunday’s race, she’ll become only the second horse to take on a turf mile for the first time with the Mile Championship and win it. In her corner is her win of the QEII, her only other start at Kyoto and her second start racing to the right. Another strongpoint is her blistering turn of foot that has brought her home the fastest of the field in all but one of her races. Speed is her game and Brede Weg’s second in the Grade 2 Rose Stakes (1,800 meters) was only 0.2 seconds off the winner’s course-record setting time of 1 minutes 43 seconds. Christophe Lemaire, who has ridden three of her wins, is expected up.

Serifos -　After winning the 2022 Mile Championship, the Daiwa Major-sired Serifos has failed to find the winner’s circle in his ensuing seven starts, though he finished on the board in all but two, in the money only twice. In all fairness, two of those starts were overseas, and his eighth in last year’s Mile Championship could be attributed at least partly to his jaunt to Dubai and heading into the race without a prep. This year he’s stayed at home with a steady 2-5-4 at the graded level. With a reputation as a difficult horse to settle, a smooth run will be key. He’s prepped this time with a run in the Fuji Stakes and expected back up is Yuga Kawada, who rode his second in the Yomiuri Milers Cup (G2, Kyoto) in April.

Jun Blossom - The 5-year-old Jun Blossom won his ticket to the Mile Championship with his win of the Fuji Stakes, a G2 over the Tokyo 1,600 last month on Oct. 19. It was his first win of a graded stakes event (his fifth), but his previous consistent results of 4-4-4-3 indicate the win was no fluke. Now, however, the bar has been moved up and with this year’s field it’s more than a notch. On board should be Keita Tosaki, who is also gunning for his first win of the race. And, it should be noted that the jockey-trainer combination of Yasuo Tomomichi-Keita Tosaki is wager worthy. The two have joined up seven times before for a graded race, won four times and placed and shown once each. Jun Blossom has won the mile twice with a time of 1 minute 31-some seconds and loves a race that comes down to the final top speed, which means the Mile Championship race record of 1:31.3 is in danger. If the track is fast, and Jun Blossom can break well like he did last out, he has a good chance.

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Others of interest are:

Having found new calm and maturity, the G2 winner Matenro Sky was able to score a fifth-place finish in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) only 0. 1 seconds behind the runnerup.

Both Win Marvel and Obamburumai come straight to the Mile Championship from the Sept. 29 Grade 1 Sprinters Stakes (with a fifth and 11th-place finish in that race, respectively) and both seem capable of doing well over 2 furlongs more to land a first G1. Two horses over the last decade - Mikki Isle in 2016 and Gran Alegria in 2020 (at Hanshin) - went directly from the Sprinters Stakes to win the Mile Championship.

Ideally, Elton Barows, fourth here last year, would prefer to race over fast going, but had less-than-ideal ground in both his G1 bids this spring -- the Yasuda Kinen and the Hong Kong Champions Mile. He’s finished third in his last two starts, both graded stakes and is not to be dismissed.

Fierce Pride was runnerup in the Victoria Mile in May, and followed that with a seventh in the Yasuda Kinen (only 0.1 seconds behind fourth-place Serifos). Most recently, she’s posted a fourth in the G2 Fuchu Himba Stakes. This will be her first time at Kyoto but she has won racing to the right and is expected to have a strong new partner in the saddle - German rider Andrasch Starke.

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New blood looks to follow in the footsteps of Maurice. Al Naseem, Balsam Note and Matenro Sky are Maurice’s first entrants in the Mile Championship, a race he won in 2015. Up to now, the only father-son winners of the race have been Daiwa Major (winner in 2006 and 2007) and Serifos (2022).