The showdown between American shipper May Day Ready and local favorite Brown Ratchet never materialized in Sunday’s Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Kyoto, where Arma Veloce led home a clean sweep of the trifecta for longshots.
May Day Ready, the Jessamine (G2) winner who was most recently runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1), raced in striking range early from post 17. But the Joseph Lee trainee began to lose position rounding the turn for home and ultimately finished 13th in the 18-horse field.
Brown Ratchet, the hitherto unbeaten half-sister to Forever Young, never got involved after breaking a bit slowly. Although not that much behind the midpack-placed Arma Veloce, Brown Ratchet dropped back and reported home 16th.
Teruo Ono’s Arma Veloce, who paid $25.90 stateside, was answering a key question about her effectiveness over the metric mile. The daughter of Harbinger had competed exclusively at about 1 1/8 miles, the distance of her victory in a newcomers’ race and her near-miss in the Sapporo Nisai (G3) at the same venue.
Trained by Hiroyuki Uemura and ridden by Mirai Iwata, Arma Veloce delivered a field-best final sectional in :34.3 (for about three furlongs) to outkick Vip Daisy by 1 1/4 lengths. The top two swept past Teleos La La and Shonan Xanadu, the respective third and fourth, who had been accosting the longtime leaders in the lane before being overwhelmed themselves.
The 20-cent trifecta of Arma Veloce over Vip Daisy and Teleos La La was worth $583.33.
Sourire Mignon got up for fifth, followed by Caught Alliciant, Meant to Be, pacesetter Mistress, stalker Mozu Nana Star, Jardinier, the troubled Run for Vow, stalker Lily Field, Kurino Mei, May Day Ready, June Eos, Brown Ratchet, Dantsu Elan, and Kawakita Mana Lea.
Arma Veloce clocked the metric mile in 1:33.4 on a course listed as good-to-firm but described as a bit rough. Kyoto was the venue because Hanshin is undergoing renovation.
May Day Ready wasn’t as comfortable with the track, according to connections.
“I had a good position,” jockey Frankie Dettori said, “but the filly had a long season. She prefers really fast ground. It was a little bit loose, and the first time right-handed confused her a little bit. So, the combination of the three things was why she ran no race today. And also, it’s the fifth run in four months so she’s tired, it was a long way here.”
“Frankie said she was spinning her wheels trying to get a hold of the turf,” Lee said, “so she may have wanted something a little harder. It wasn’t the result we wanted of course, but we tried. We’ll give her a little break now and then come back and hopefully run as well as she did before.”
Arma Veloce, who put herself in pole position for champion two-year-old filly honors, gave Iwata his first Group 1 win as a rider.
“It feels great to be able to stand here as a Group 1 winner after six years of waiting,” Iwata said. “I had a feeling that the filly had a great potential ever since I started riding her, and today, she justified that with great finishing speed. I was too occupied in driving her to the finish so I didn’t know until I had crossed the wire, but with no horse next to me then, I felt I had done it. The filly is really easy to ride and responsive when asked so this is her strong point.”
Bred by Northern Racing in Japan, Arma Veloce is out of the Daiwa Major mare Rakuami, who is a half-sister to Group 2-winning juvenile Monde Can Know. This is the further family of Grade 1 scorers Backseat Rhythm and Connect.
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