Gentildonna mounts title defense in Japan Cup

Star filly Gentildonna, who clinched Japanese Horse of the Year honors by

outdueling Orfevre in the 2012 Japan Cup, will try to repeat in Sunday's 33rd

renewal. Winless, but placed, in all three starts this season, the daughter of

2006 Japan Cup legend Deep Impact aims to recapture her old glory with new rider

Ryan Moore.

The about 1 1/2-mile, Grade 1 test on the Tokyo turf has drawn a cast of 17,

including last year's champion three-year-old colt Gold Ship; 2010 Japanese

Derby hero Eishin Flash; current three-year-old filly Denim and Ruby; and

international contenders Dunaden, Simenon and Joshua Tree.

One year ago, Gentildonna brought a four-race winning streak into the Japan

Cup, highlighted by a sweep of the Fillies' Triple Crown over perennial

bridesmaid Verxina. But the Sei Ishizaka trainee has yet to find the winner's

circle in 2013. Second to St Nicholas Abbey in the March 30 Dubai Sheema

Classic, Gentildonna was third to Gold Ship in the June 23 Takarazuka Kinen on a

Hanshin course that had absorbed plenty of rain. She was next seen in the

October 27 Tenno Sho Autumn back at Tokyo, suffering her first local loss when a

four-length runner-up to upsetter Just a Way.

Gentildonna gets a rider switch from Yasunari Iwata to Moore in hopes of a

galvanizing effect. Well drawn in post 7, she will attempt to become the first

official two-time winner of the Japan Cup. Buena Vista would have had that

distinction, if she hadn't been controversially disqualified for interference in

2010.

Gold Ship looms as the biggest threat, if the ultra-talented gray is at the

top of his game. Victorious in two-thirds of the Japanese Triple Crown last

campaign -- the Satsuki Sho (Japanese Two Thousand Guineas) and Kikuka Sho

(Japanese St Leger) -- Gold Ship was fifth in the middle jewel, the Tokyo Yushun

(Japanese Derby), at this course and distance. After skipping the Japan Cup, he

closed his championship season with a convincing win over older horses in the

Arima Kinen.

As a four-year-old, Gold Ship has been hit or miss. Although the Stay Gold

colt picked up right where he left off with a score in the March 17 Hanshin

Daishoten, he could manage only a fifth in the April 28 Tenno Sho Spring. Gold

Ship rebounded with a vengeance in the aforementioned Takarazuka Kinen, leaving

Gentildonna a toiling third. But he flubbed his lines in his Japan Cup warm-up,

winding up fifth in the October 6 Kyoto Daishoten, and finds himself on a

retrieval mission here. Trainer Naosuke Sugai believes that Gold Ship is ready

to fire, and regular rider Hiroyuki Uchida will guide the enigmatic performer

from post 13.

Veteran Eishin Flash will be making his fourth Japan Cup appearance, having

finished eighth in 2010 and 2011 and ninth last year. The six-year-old son of

King's Best has won just twice since his 2010 Japanese Derby heroics, but he has

been a much more consistent performer in 2013.

Third to Orfevre in the March 31 Sankei Osaka Hai, Eishin Flash was also

third to the dynamic Hong Kong duo of Military Attack and California Memory in

the April 28 Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Sha Tin before going on his summer

vacation. He made a winning comeback in the October 6 Mainichi Okan, defeating

Just a Way, and rattled home from well back to grab third to Just a Way as the

defending champion in the Tenno Sho Autumn. Eishin Flash projects a

ground-saving trip from post 4 beneath a returning Mirco Demuro.

Hit the Target registered his biggest career win two starts back in the Kyoto

Daishoten, beating Uncoiled and subsequent Mile Championship victor Tosen Ra as

well as the lackluster Gold Ship. In his follow-up in the Tenno Sho Autumn, Hit

the Target rallied for seventh, and he picks up Yutaka Take on Sunday.

Also exiting the Tenno Sho Autumn are Uncoiled (fourth), Nakayama Knight

(sixth) and Tosen Jordan (11th). Uncoiled has been consistently earning checks

of late but looks out of his depth, while Nakayama Knight fittingly excels at

Nakayama, and Tosen Jordan, a close second to Buena Vista here in 2011, is a

shadow of his former self.

Verxina, who played second fiddle to Gentildonna throughout 2012, capped her

sophomore year with another Grade 1 near-miss in the Queen Elizabeth II

Commemorative Cup at Kyoto. Since finally earning her top-level breakthrough in

the May 12 Victoria Mile, however, Verxina has fallen off form. She wheels back

just two weeks after her 10th in Kyoto's QE II, and has her work cut out for

her.

Denim and Ruby comes off a fifth in the QE II, her latest failure to deliver

on the big stage for trainer Katsuhiko Sumii. Yet another by Deep Impact, along

with Gentildonna and Verxina, Denim and Ruby has looked good when capturing the

April 21 Flora Stakes and the September 15 Rose Stakes. Each propelled her into

favoritism for a fillies' classic, but her deep-closing style netted her only a

third in the May 19 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) and a fourth in the October 13

Shuka Sho.

Stepping back up to this trip for the first time since the Japanese Oaks

could help Denim and Ruby, who seeks to emulate Gentildonna as the only

sophomore fillies to defeat older males in the Japan Cup. Sumii's previous

victory in this race came courtesy of Vodka in 2009, the beginning of a recent

distaff domination that was interrupted only by Buena Vista's demotion.

Rounding out the home team are Admire Rakti, Lelouch and Hokko Brave,

respectively second, third and fifth in the November 3 Copa Republica Argentina

here; the off-form eight-year-old Smart Gear; and sometime steeplechaser and

dirt aficionado Fire, who makes an ambitious graded debut in his nation's

marquee international event.

The internationals haven't plundered the Japan Cup since Alkaased in 2005,

and that drought could be prolonged. Joshua Tree will probably have to gun it

from the far outside post 17, while Dunaden and Simenon are both cutting back

dramatically in trip from the two-mile Melbourne Cup.

Dunaden, the 2011 Melbourne Cup winner, was 11th as the 129-pound highweight

in the November 5 renewal. But the Mikel Delzangles globetrotter has respectable

form at this trip. Successful in the 2011 Hong Kong Vase as well as the 2012

Caulfield Cup, Dunaden was fourth to St Nicholas Abbey and Gentildonna in the

Dubai Sheema Classic, second to St Nicholas Abbey in the June 1 Coronation Cup

(with Joshua Tree well back in third), and second again to Novellist in the June

23 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. He ran well below that level when eighth to

Orfevre in the September 15 Prix Foy, his final outing before leaving for

Australia. A solid pace, and expected firm ground, would suit the late runner,

who will once again be ridden by Jamie Spencer.

Former hurdler Simenon has developed into a top performer on the Flat this

year. A near-miss second to Estimate in the June 20 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, the

Willie Mullins charge went down by a head to Ahzeemah in the August 23 Lonsdale

Cup. In his Australian debut, Simenon dropped down to 1 1/2 miles for the

October 12 Herbert Power at Caulfield and turned in a terrific Melbourne Cup

prep when third to Sea Moon. Simenon wasn't able to build on that at Flemington,

but checked in a useful fourth and keeps Richard Hughes aboard in Tokyo.

Joshua Tree was last seen landing the October 27 Canadian International for

an unprecedented third time, for a third different trainer in Ed Dunlop. After

his first Woodbine coup as a three-year-old in 2010, the son of Montjeu tried

the Japan Cup and ended up 10th. Joshua Tree must improve markedly on his form

in the book to factor, but he does have the tactical maestro Johnny Murtagh in

the irons.

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