Shinji Maeda’s Kizuna, last year’s Japanese Derby hero and a
highly respectable fourth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, will look to bolster his
reputation and stamp himself as one of Japan’s top older horses in Sunday’s Grade 1 Tenno Sho Spring.
The longest Grade 1 race on the Japan Racing Association (JRA) calendar at 3200 meters, the Tenno
Sho is also one of the most prestigious. Its previous winners include Kizuna’s immortal
sire, Deep Impact, in 2006. Deep Impact has already sired a winner of
the Tenno Sho in Tosen Ra, and Kizuna’s jockey Yutaka
Take, who also rode Deep Impact, looks for his seventh renewal.
The winner of three of five outings last year, Kizuna headed to
France to prep for the Arc in the September 15 Prix Niel, which he won
by a head over Derby winner Ruler of the World. He was not disgraced finishing 7 1/2 lengths adrift
of Treve in the main event three weeks later,
after which he was shelved for the season.
The dark bay indicated
great things could be still to come with a strong first-up win in
the Sankei Osaka Hai at Hanshin on April 6. Kizuna is unbeaten in three outings over the Kyoto
turf, but will have to navigate from a wide draw. He will also have to deal with four-time
Grade 1 winner Gold Ship.
The winner of the Japanese Two Thousand Guineas and
Japanese St. Leger of 2012, Gold Ship opened his 2013 account with his fourth
consecutive victory, but could manage only fifth in this race 12 months ago. He
rebounded with a win next out in the Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin, but lost his
next three straight, culminating in the Arima Kinen on December 22. Gold Ship opened his
five-year-old account with a
victory, however, in the March 23 Hanshin Daishoten.
Fenomeno returns
for a title defense of his victory 12 months ago. The five-year-old recorded a career high when
taking last year’s renewal, and made just one more start for the year — a fourth in the Takarazuka Kinen in June. His comeback run, a fifth-place
finish behind Win Variation in the Nikkei Sho on March 29, wasn’t exactly inspiring, but trainer Hirofumi
Toda said there is reason to believe the dark bay has more to give yet.
“He was coming back after a
layoff and I let the jockey ride three weeks in a row,” the conditioner explained. “That
worked against us as the horse was too up, up, up and he lost weight.”
Win Variation has
battled two chief roadblocks to Grade 1 success throughout his career — tendonitis, from which he is
now fully recovered, and Orfevre, who now spends his days in the stallion barn at Shadai. Three times second to that Triple Crown champion at the highest level, Win Variation
finished third in this race two years ago, but subsequently missed most of 2012 and 2013 as a
result of his tendon issues.
The six-year-old signaled his return to good health with a comeback
third off 17 month’s rest in last November’s Kinko Sho, and wrapped up the year with his
third and final bridesmaid duty to Orfevre in the Arima Kinen. With his Nikkei Sho victory
under his belt, Win Variation could be primed to pull off a career best.
Red Cadeaux, a last-out sixth in the March 29 Dubai World Cup, is the lone
international competitor. He finished third here last year.
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