Dylan Mouth (Dylan Thomas) punched his ticket to the July 25 King George VI
& Queen Elizabeth S. (Eng-G1) at Ascot with an emphatic five-length win in the Gran Premio Di Milano
(Ity-G1) on Sunday at San Siro.
The Stefano Botti-trained four-year-old entire stretched his record to nine wins and his unbeaten streak
in Italy, becoming the first Italian Derby (Ity-G2) winner since Sedan in 1959 to score in the Milano and the
Gran Premio Del Jockey Club (Ity-G1).
Dylan Mouth was asked not just to win but to win easily,
and he delivered. Jockey Fabio Branca had him in second position, some lengths behind his
rabbit Celticus (Stroll), and charged to lead before the 400-meter pole when Billabong
(Gentlewave) also started
his move. The Moroccan-bred tried to challenge but Dylan Mouth re-broke entering the
last furlong and cruised home clear while Celticus stayed on in third.
“I expected him to score in this way. He is a much more
mature and stronger horse than he was last season and now he has nothing to prove in
Italy,” owner Felice Villa said. “The King George & Queen Elizabeth is the race we are dreaming
about. Dylan Mouth got beaten when he first tried at Royal Ascot, last year in the
King Edward VII S. (Eng-G2), but we have learned a lot from that defeat.”
Fabio Branca will again ride Dylan Mouth at Ascot.
“Last year everything went wrong and Dylan Mouth had a nightmare trip from an
outside gate,” Villa added. “Fabio (Branca) now knows the racecourse and he won’t make the same mistake
twice.”
Japan
Kazumi Yoshida’s Maurice (Screen Hero), unbeaten in three outings for trainer Noriyuki
Hori heading into Sunday’s Yasuda Kinen (Jpn-G1), made his Group 1 debut a winning one when
taking one of the country’s most important mile contests.
Stalking the pace under a tight hold from jockey Yuga Kuwada, Maurice swung into the stretch three wide, grabbed the lead when shaken up in midstretch and had to dig deep to repel the late challenge of Vincennes
(Deep Impact).
In doing so, Maurice became the first Group 1 winner by 2008 Japan Cup
(Jpn-G1) scorer Screen Hero.
“Though he was a little off-balance in the gate, we were able to break
smoothly,” Kuwada said. “He was a bit eager to go but I was able to keep him under control. He ran a really smooth race and we were able to slip out of the pack in good timing after entering the straight. I thought that we would be able to win easily but when Vincennes closed in behind us, I urged him to go, hoping that the colt would manage to
fend him off.
“He has matured a lot since I last rode him over a year ago and so I was able
to ride him with confidence.”
Trained by Naohiro Yoshida
through his first two seasons on the track, Maurice went two-for-three as a juvenile but
failed to find the winner’s circle last year, his biggest impression coming when third in a Kyoto
allowance. The bay colt has appeared a different beast this year, however, taking a
pair of allowance races on January 25 and March 7 before adding the Lord Derby Challenge
(Jpn-G3) by 3 1/2 lengths a month ago.
Ireland
Qatar Racing Ltd.’s Ainippe (Captain Rio) had to wait for room in Sunday’s
Ballyogan S. (Ire-G3) at the Curragh, but pulled off the victory under jockey
Colin Keane.
Held up toward the rear as Stormfly (Dark Angel) towed the field along up the stand’s
rail here, the sophomore lass was in search of room as Newsletter (Sir Percy) took over at the furlong marker.
Once in the clear, though, Ainippe finished powerfully under a drive to reel in her fellow sophomore nearing the line and notch her first win since the
listed Curragh S. here last August.
“She got a bit squeezed when she jumped out and she’s so small that it doesn’t take much to push her out of the way,” Keane
explained. “When we were getting our split she got pushed
out of the way again, but thankfully she finished well and did it nicely. She may be
small, but she’s got a big heart.”
Ainippe, who ran fifth in the listed Woodlands S. at Naas in her April 27 seasonal bow, stepped up on that by
only just giving best to the smart Toscanini (Shamardal) by a head in a Navan conditions race last
out on May 17.
“She’s very brave and is not the
biggest, but she’s never let us down and progressed from race to race this year,”
trainer Ger Lyons said. “There was
a nice race at Naas for her the other day, but we took the view that we’d keep her to
her own sex and I thought that she’d take all the beating today. She got into a bit of
trouble in a small field but it came right in the end.”
Lyons suggested he would take the class
progression slowly with his charge.
“We thought as a minimum that she’d win a Group 3,
but going to Group 1s and 2s is a big step up,” he noted. “Royal Ascot is what Sheikh
Fahad is in the game for, but she might not be there for that this year. I think we’ll
keep her at home and win another one or two. I was surprised at her natural speed so we’ll
stay at six or seven furlongs.”
Germany
Ito (Adlerflug) was sent straight to the front by jockey Filip Minarik in
Sunday’s Grosser Preis der Badischen Unternehmer (Ger-G2) at Baden-Baden and was afforded an
uncontested lead throughout. The Jean-Pierre Carvalho-trained four-year-old turned for home with a comfortable buffer and quickened
clear under mild urging inside the final quarter-mile to easily register a career best.
Untested as a freshman, Ito garnered two out of four
sophomore starts last term and lifted the lid on this campaign with a March 23 Krefeld
conditions win. The Gestut Schlenderhan homebred then stepped up to the plate to gain a first black-type
score in the April 26 listed Preis von Dahlwitz at Hoppegarten in his stakes bow last
out and led his
rivals a merry dance to reach higher here.
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