Victoria Mile (G1) - Preview

Ascoli Piceno

Stellenbosch

Bond Girl

Queen's Walk

Argine

Admire Matsuri

Christmas Parade

Safira

Twenty-three fillies and mares have been nominated for this week’s big event, the 20th running of the Grade 1 Victoria Mile, which will be held at Tokyo Racecourse and handing JPY130 million to the winner. Fillies and mares ranging from four to six years of age have been nominated, and 18 of them will go to the gate.

Two Grade 1 winners are among the nominees - Ascoli Piceno and Stellenbosch - the Top 2 finishers in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies and the Oka Sho, with both claiming one G1 apiece. Both fillies are proven at the distance, with Ascoli Piceno scoring three wins and two seconds over 1,600 meters from five starts. Stellenbosch has two wins and two seconds from four starts over the distance.

The rivalry between Ascoli Piceno and Stellenbosch is heated in the saddles as well. Christophe Lemaire (winner of three Victoria Miles over the past decade) and Keita Tosaki are both tied with a record three wins apiece in the Victoria Mile. One more win would move one of the riders to the top of the class. Lemaire is set to ride Ascoli Piceno for the first time since her win in Riyadh in late February. Tosaki rode Stellenbosch’s second in the Japanese Oaks at Tokyo last year and her third in the Shuka Sho in mid-October.

In the search for the Victoria Mile Top 3 finishers, it should be noted that two races leading into the G1 have long proven springboards to success in the previous 19 runnings. They are the two all-female races, the Grade 2 Hanshin Himba Stakes and the Grade 3 Nakayama Himba Stakes.

The Hanshin Himba Stakes as a prep race to the Victoria Mile has yielded six wins, seven seconds and seven thirds in the past 19 runnings of the G1. Last year’s surprise winner Ten Happy Rose had finished sixth in the Hanshin Himba Stakes and shocked the stands when she scooped the G1 as 14th pick. Third-place finisher Masked Diva had come off a win in the Hanshin Himba Stakes.

On the other hand, runners coming from the Nakayama Himba Stakes have brought two wins, three seconds and two thirds in the past 19 runnings. Last year’s runner-up Fierce Pride had finished ninth in the Nakayama Himba Stakes.

Of the 18 nominees that have already secured a berth in the Victoria Mile, those who took on either of the two races just prior to the Victoria Mile are - Argine, Christmas Parade, Safira, Shirankedo, So Dazzling, Beyond the Valley, Bond Girl and Mi Anhelo.

The Victoria Mile starts at the top of the Tokyo backstretch and starts off with a slight downward slope, which reverses sharply, then drops again turning into the first bend. The ground starts to rise gradually as it turns into the straight, then hits a sharp upward hill just before the 400-meter mark. At the top of that it’s still 300 meters to the finish line and makes for one of the hardest, if not thehardest 1,600-meter events in Japan.

All runners will carry 56kg. The race is the 11th on the Tokyo card of 12 and post time is 15:40 locally.

Here’s a look at some of the expected popular picks:

Ascoli Piceno: Winner of the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in mid December, Ascoli Piceno returns from victory in Riyadh in the Grade 2 1351 Turf Sprint. Before that, the daughter of Daiwa Major competed in Australia where things didn’t go so swimmingly over her first time on heavier going. However, back amid all-female company, she should prove a reliable runner. This will be her first time racing in Japan since last September when she captured the Grade 3 Keisei Hai Autumn Handicap over 1,600 meters at Nakayama. Before that, she scored a win and two seconds in her three straight G1 bids, one in which she also suffered traffic problems in the final stage. It will be nearly three months since her return from overseas, but she was worked hard over the woodchip flat course with two other horses for the second straight week and looked very sharp. She is versatile and can display a blistering burst of late speed, as she did in her last race at Nakayama. In the race, her final three-furlong time was 32.7 seconds, winning in a time of 1 minute, 30.8 seconds. Expected in the saddle on Sunday is Christophe Lemaire, who has been up in four of her eight starts, including her most recent.

Stellenbosch: The Epiphaneia-sired Stellenbosch had yet to miss the Top 3 spots in her eight starts until her most-recent outing, the Grade 1 Osaka Hai in early April. Back from a grueling run in Hong Kong, racing for the first time in four months, Stellenbosch failed to fire and never advanced past mid-field in the 2,000-meter event. Her weight was down and she’d shipped west from Miho, but to finish only two off the rear was unheard of for Stellenbosch, normally a picture of reliability. Many blame her all-out effort in the Hong Kong Vase, where the 3-year-old filly went to the gate as the favorite and competed against an all-male field ranging from four to seven years of age. She finished in third place only 3 1/2 lengths off the top. Her recent work, however, has her looking back on her feet and hopes are high Stellenbosch, who scored a 1-2-3 in the filly’s Classics last year, will show her usual mettle.

Bond Girl: After acing her debut, Bond Girl jumped to the graded level and has stayed there for all eight starts since. Only twice has she missed the Top 3 and only once did her name not appear on the board in last year’s NHK Mile Cup, where she suffered serious interference in the stretch. The winner’s circle has eluded her those eight times, but she did make second place five times (once in all-female G1 company) and third once. This will be her third start of the year following a second-place finish in the G3 Tokyo Shimbun Hai in February and, last out, a fifth in the Grade 2 Hanshin Himba Stakes, both races run over 1,600 meters. She has had some trouble at the break, but with regular rider Yutaka Take expected up, she is in good hands.

Queen’s Walk: From nine starts thus far, the four-year-old Queen’s Walk has pocketed two Grade 2s and a Grade 3. However, her results at her three G1 bids thus far, eighth, fourth and 15th, were not as impressive. In January, she returned from the Shuka Sho with a sixth-place finish in all-female company, the Grade 3 Kokura Himba Stakes, but bettered that in mid-March with a win in the Grade 2 Kinko Sho over 2,000 meters at Chukyo. A big filly weighing over 530kg, Queen’s Walk returns to the distance for the first time in over a year. She won the Grade 3 Queen Cup over the Tokyo mile early last year, clocking 33.4 seconds over the final three furlongs and may take well to the spacious venue once again. Yuga Kawada, expected up on Sunday, took the Kizuna-sired filly through her paces over the Ritto flat on May 7 and she was looking improved. Riding on a win this Sunday for Kawada (as well as Kenichi Ikezoe), is a chance to complete a winning hand of the six all-female JRA G1s and join ranks with Yutaka Take, Christophe Lemaire and former jockey Masayoshi Ebina.

Argine: Taking on her first top-level competition, the Lord Kanaloa-sired Argine went from a win of the Grade 3 Turquoise Stakes over 1,600 meters at Nakayama to miss the win by a mere nose in the Hanshin Himba Stakes over the same distance. She covered the final three furlongs in 33 seconds flat despite posting a 12-kg gain from the prior race four months earlier. Based at Ritto and traveling to Tokyo for the first time, the five-year-old mare has been highly consistent, with six wins, three seconds and a third in her 12 starts thus far. She has yet to finish off the board and has raced only in the 1,600-1,800 meters range. Though her finishing times may not be quite on a par with the more accomplished runners in Sunday’s field, Argine is at her best switching into high gear over the final stage and she should take well to Tokyo.

Others to watch are:

Admire Matsuri clinched her first graded event (the Grade 3 Fukushima Himba Stakes) on her first try last out. She is taking on her first mile, but comes well-prepped with a record of three wins and two seconds at Tokyo over distances from 1,800 to 2,000 meters from maidens to the 3-win class, performances that could translate well on Sunday.

Christmas Parade, fifth in the Grade 1 Shuka Sho and just off a third in the 1,800-meter Grade 3 Nakayama Himba Stakes, has always looked good in morning work but is looking even better and markedly improved from before her last outing.

Safira posted two wins and two thirds over her last four starts and clinched the Grade 3 Nakayama Himba Stakes before winning at the 3-win class. The four-year-old’s stride has improved significantly in work and her fourth in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies would indicate she is well within reach of the top.