Victoria Mile (G1) - Preview

Embroidery

Kamunyak

Queen's Walk

Cervinia

Lavanda

Coconuts Brown

Jocelyn

Paradis Reine

Nishino Ti Amo

This coming Sunday, May 17, Tokyo Racecourse hosts the second big event - the Victoria Mile -- in a nonstop 5-week run of Grade 1 competition. The race follows the NHK Mile Cup for 3-year-olds last Sunday, with the spotlight this week on older fillies and mares in the turf competition over 1,600 meters.

This year marks the 21st running of the Victoria Mile and 20 have been nominated for the maximum 18 spots in the race, a competition that carries a first-place prize of JPY150 million and an overall purse of JPY326.5 million. The race is open to female 4-year-olds and up and sees the majority of nominees comprised of 4 and 5-year-olds. All, regardless of age, will carry 56kg.

Three horses are currying a great deal favor with the fans -- Embroidery, Kamunyak and Queen’s Walk. Embroidery, winner of two of last year’s filly classics - the Grade 1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) and the Grade 1 Shuka Sho -- is likely to be sent off with the field’s lowest odds. Kamunyak, who won the 2025 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) and the 5-year-old Queen’s Walk, runner-up by a neck in last year’s Victoria Mile, will also surely be a popular choice.

Two races leading up to the Victoria Mile are considered to hold important insight into which horses are likely to do well. The two races are, like the Victoria Mile, also restricted to fillies and mares only -- the Grade 2 Hanshin Himba Stakes over 1,600 meters run in April and the Grade 3 Nakayama Himba Stakes over 1,800 meters run in March. Victoria Mile nominees that ran in one of those two races include, Embroidery, Kamunyak, Paradis Reine, Erika Express, Nishino Ti Amo, Ka Pilina, Kana Tape, Kelly Fled Ask, and Bond Girl.

The Victoria Mile begins at the top of the backstretch at the Tokyo venue, where races are run in a counterclockwise direction. The race starts on a slight downward slope, and soon rises sharply until dropping again around the first bend. The ground rises again gradually as it turns into the straight, then hits an even sharper upward hill just before the 400-meter mark. At the top of that hill, it’s still 300 meters to the finish line.
Though a hard test of skill, the Tokyo 1,600 meters is considered to be impartial when it comes to gate positions. Frontrunners and those who race on or very close to the pace tend to do well. The pace is often slow and the fancied runners are often successful. The race favorite has figured in the Top 3 seven times over the past 10 runnings, and won three times in that same time period.
Nonetheless, surprise double-digit picks have finished four times in the Top 3 over the same period. The most recent surprise winner was the 6-year-old Ten Happy Rose, who had come off a lackluster sixth-place finish 0.4 seconds behind the winner in the Grade 2 Hanshin Himba Stakes immediately before the Victoria Mile.
The Victoria Mile is the 11th on the Tokyo card of 12 with a post time locally of 15:40.
Here’s a look at some of the expected popular picks:

Embroidery: This 4-year-old daughter of champion miler Admire Mars (three-time G1 winner, including the 2019 Hong Kong Mile) was recognized by the JRA as the Best Three-Year-Old Filly of 2025. She has won six of her 10 starts, with her wins including two G1s, a G2 and a G3. Only two of her losses missed the board, including an overseas bid in the Grade 1 Hong Kong Mile in mid December. Embroidery has the advantage of having the most experience (along with Bond Girl and Ma Puce) over the distance, with six of her runs at 1,600, two of those at Tokyo. Furthermore, based at the nearby Miho training center, she also has the home advantage and four of her career starts have been at Tokyo. After retuning from Hong Kong at the end of last year, Embroidery returned to the track four months later to win the Hanshin Himba Stakes on April 11. Trainer Kazutomo Mori admits, “It would be ideal if she had a bit more time between races, but I’ll have her largely back to the same condition as she was for (the Hanshin Himba Stakes)”. Jockey Christophe Lemaire is expected up on Sunday. Lemaire won this race last year aboard Ascoli Piceno, handing him his fourth win of the race and the record for most Victoria Mile wins.

Kamunyak: Though she has not won over 1,600 meters yet (a second, a fourth and a sixth from three starts), Kamunyak’s most recent race (the Hanshin Himba Stakes), where she finished only a neck behind Embroidery, makes for a promising performance here. Gunning for her second big haul, Kamunyak has cred. She has four career wins (including the 2025 Grade 1 Japanese Oaks and two G2s) from eight starts. In the Hanshin Himba Stakes, Kamunyak scored the top time over the final three furlongs (33.2 seconds), a time tied by another Victoria Mile hopeful, Kana Tape. Trainer Yasuo Tomomichi sees Kamunyak’s excellent turn of foot as a particular strongpoint for the Victoria Mile. “This race is also over 1,600 meters and it’s Tokyo with a nice, long stretch. If she can race like her most recent race, I think she’ll be able to draw on her late speed.” Yuga Kawada is expected up. If he can win this race, he’ll join Christophe Lemaire, Masayoshi Ebina, and Yutaka Take as the only jockeys ever to have won all of the current six Grade 1 races restricted to fillies and mares.

Queen’s Walk: Interference in the straight here last year, may have well contributed to fourth choice Queen’s Walk loss by a neck to race favorite Ascoli Piceno. Although she had raced over the mile and a furlong longer early in her career, her later wins have all come over 2,000 meters. That said, due to the difficulty of the Tokyo 1,600 meters, it is known to favor horses with experience over 1,800-2,000 meters. In her most recent race, the Grade 2 Kinko Sho over the lefthanded Chukyo course on March 15, Queen’s Walk finished in third place a half length and a nose behind the winner, and the two that preceded her over the finish line were both males. Though Queen’s Walk, who herself tips the scales at 542kg, carried 1-2kg less than most of the other runners, her performance brought praise from rider Yuga Kawada. “She gave it everything she had until the very end. It was definitely an all-out effort.” Also, this year she had returned to the track from her fall campaign without a sharpener, unlike last year. Trainer Mitsumasa Nakuchida commented: “After time at the farm, she came back to the training center on April 17 looking refreshed.” He also noted that she was taking well to the warmer temperatures.

Cervinia: A 5-year-old daughter of Harbinger, Cervinia returned at the beginning of March after three months from a 10th-place showing in the Grade 1 Mile Championship. Most recently, her first start of the year brought a fifth place in the Grade 2 Nakayama Kinen over 1,800 meters. It has been a while since she had a victory, but she made a gutsy bid in the Nakayama Kinen, advancing from the back and, despite interference in the stretch, she clocked the field’s second fastest time over the final three furlongs and finished only 0.4 seconds behind the winner. Winner of the 2024 Japanese Oaks and Shuka Sho, Cervinia has class, but the competition has been stiff. All her seven starts since the 3-year-old filly classics, (all graded races, three of them Grade 1, one overseas) have seen her competing against males. With an all-female field this time, and Damian Lane expected up, her luck may change.

Lavanda: Two starts ago on Feb. 10, the 5-year-old Lavanda, a daughter of Silver State, went up against 13 males in the Grade 3 Tokyo Shimbun Hai. It was her first time over the Tokyo 1,600 meters and she beat all but one, her age peer Trovature, winner of two G3 events over the distance. It was a hotly contested race with only a 0.9-second difference between the winner’s finishing time and the 15th-place finisher’s time. Based at Ritto with trainer Naoya Nakamura, Lavanda’s finishing order from all six starts at Tokyo are 2-11-3-1-2. Most recently, she took on the Grade 2 Hanshin Himba Stakes and finished a disappointing eighth place in the field of 10, trailing the winner Embroidery by 0.7 seconds. Last year, Lavanda had finished in third place, a mere double nose behind the winner. This year the winning time was half a second faster than last year and likely a factor in her poor results.

Coconuts Brown: A 6-year-old daughter of Kitasan Black, Coconuts Brown has proved consistent working her way slowly up through the classes, and has posted two seconds, a third and a fifth in her most recent four starts, all graded stake in the 1,800-2,000 meters range. However, it’ll be her first race in over three months, her first 1,600-meter test in five starts and her first long haul to Tokyo. Trainer Hiroyuki Uemura says the shorter distance is better for her, due to the mare’s high-strung nature and her tendency to grab the bit over anything longer than 1,600 meters. The trainer said: “At this distance she can ride the pace more comfortably and access more of her potential. If the race comes down to who has the best turn of foot over the long stretch, it should work in her favor.”