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2013 News
March 25, 2013
Gentildonna headlines Japan team of four to Dubai
Meydan Racecourse (c) Dubai Racing Club
Gentildonna
Trailblazer
Taisei Legend
Keiai Leon
Gentildonna, reigning horse of the year in Japan, spotlights the entourage, which, in addition toTrailblazer, also includes Keiai Leone and Taisei Legend. Both Gentildonna and Trailblazer are scheduled to compete in the Dubai Sheema Classic, a 2,410-meter turf G1. Gentildonna is being touted worldwide as the horse to beat and Japan racing fans are rooting for her to bring the country its third win of the race thus far. Taisei Legend will take on the Dubai Golden Shaheen, the top-level sprint for 3-year-olds and older, withKeiai Leone participating in the 1,900-meter UAE Derby, a G2 over the synthetic surface, as is the Golden Shaheen. Faridat, who had traveled to Dubai with Trailblazer in February, did not make the cut, after he ran poorly in his two prep races. This year, there will be no Japanese runners in the day's marquee race, the 18th running of the $10-million Dubai World Cup (won by Victoire Pisa in 2011), nor in the Dubai Duty Free (won by Admire Moon in 2007). Gentildonna is expected to be a hot pick if not the hottest for the Sheema Classic this year. A daughter of Triple Crown champion Deep Impact, Gentildonna blazed through 2012 as she scooped six of her seven starts and now finds herself on a five-race winning roll that includes Japan's Filly Triple Crown and the 2012 Japan Cup. Her win of the Japan Cup was the first ever by a 3-year-old filly. Gentildonna has won at distances from 1,600 to 2,400 meters. Bred by Northern Racing and trained by Sei Ishizaka,Gentildonna is owned by Sunday Racing, a Shadai group racing club. The main concern is whetherGentildonna can come back in winning form after not having raced since the Nov. 25 Japan Cup. Top Japanese jockey for 2012, Yasunari Iwata, fresh off a win of the Takamatsunomiya Kinen on March 24, has the ride at Meydan. Potentials for the race looking to beat this anything but "gentle lady" will be: St Nicholas Abbey: Last year's Sheema Classic runnerup, the Aidan O'Brien-trained St Nicholas Abbeyhasn't had a run since his third place in last year's Nov. 3 Breeders' Cup Turf, a race he won the year previous. Though the Montjeu-sired 6-year-old has only won seven of his 19 starts, four of those wins were at the G1 level, and he has only finished out of the money three times. Dunaden: Dunaden ran fifth in the Hong Kong Vase last year and has been consistent over his career with 10 wins in 36 races and 25 races in the top three. Those wins include the 2011 Hong Kong Vase and the Melbourne Cup the same year. This is not a horse to overlook. Shareta: Shareta has been off the track since her fifth-place run in the Breeders Cup Turf on Nov. 3. She had started out 2011 stupendously, with wins of the Yorkshire Oaks and Prix Vermeille (both G1s, both 2.400 meters) and a second in the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud before flubbing the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with a ninth-place finish. She may have lost her touch but the time off may also have done her well. Await the Dawn: The Michael De Kock-trained Await the Dawn was second to Jakkalberry by half a length in the Dubai City of Gold (G2) on March 9 at Meydan. The 6-year-old son of Giant's Causewayhas won six of his 12 starts, with eight of those in the top three. Await the Dawn has yet to scoop a G1 but will be three races off a layoff and may be sharp enough for the money. Trailblazer: Trailblazer, in Dubai since mid February, took on the Al Maktoum Challenge R3 on March 9 at Meydan. He finished 10th of 12 runners in the 2,000-meter preliminary but did run strongly until the final 300 meters. It was his first time to try out the artificial surface. Trailblazer, a 6-year-old by Zenno Rob Roy from the stables of Yasutoshi Ikee, raced in the U.S. last year and picked up a second in the Arroyo Seco Mile before notching a fourth in the Breeders' Cup Turf on Nov. 3. Back home in Japan, he finished only three off the back in a field of 16 in the yearend Arima Kinen (The Grand Prix). Trailblazerhas yet to score a G1 win, but has won two G2 events. His six wins in 24 outings to present have come over distances of between 1,600 and 2,500 meters. Japanese horses have won the Sheema Classic twice, first in 2001 when Stay Gold won as a 7-year-old partnered with Yutaka Take, and again in 2006 when Christophe Lemaire won aboard Heart's Cry, 5 years old at the time. Buena Vista was runnerup in 2010 and Rulership finished in sixth place in 2011. There were no Japanese horses in the race last year. In the $2-million Golden Shaheen is Taisei Legend, a 6-year-old son of King Kamehameha, out of theMejiro McQueen mare Sharp Kick.He is trained by Yoshito Yahagi, owned by Seiho Tanaka and was bred at Northern Farm in Hokkaido. Moved to dirt in the summer of his 3-year-old year and raced solely on dirt since, he currently has eight win in 28 starts, with three seconds and a third. Taisei Legend has run on the local NAR circuit as well as in JRA races but has only won at the open-class level in the latter. At local tracks, however, he won two graded level races, including the Cluster Cup at Morioka last August and the top class race JBC Sprint at Kawasaki last November. He also has two seconds at the graded-stakes level. This year's two races, both at Tokyo, proved greatly disappointing. In January, Taisei Legend took on the G3 Negishi Stakes and finished 11th of 16, then the following month took on the mile G1 February Stakes and finished 14th of 16. Though he has won at distances up to 1,700 meters, his best distance looks to be between 1,200 and 1,400 meters. Taisei Legend will be against formidable competition in the Golden Shaheen, with this year local horses Reynaldothewizard and United Color both looking to bring the UAE its first win of the race since State City won it in 2003. Reynaldothewizard won his first graded race with the Mahab Al Shimaal, a G3 prep for the Golden Shaheen held March 9. Runnerup in that race Krypton Factor and the third-place Irish-bred Balmont Mast are also probables in the Golden Shaheen, as is last year's Breeder's Cup Sprint champion Trinniberg,though Trinniberg has not raced since the Nov. 3 Breeders' Cup. The Australian-bred Mental also is looking good on form, with eight wins in 13 outings and fresh off a win of the G3 Al Shindagha Sprint on Feb. 14 at Meydan. Krypton Factor ran third in that race. It's likely the Golden Shaheen, his third race off layoff, will see him primed to win. Taisei Legend will be Japan's eighth horse to run in the Golden Shaheen, the first contestant since 2010, when the race was first moved to Meydan and moved from dirt to the artificial surface. Japan's best finish in the race thus far were two fourth-place finishes, one by Bamboo Ere in 2009, with Yutaka Take up, and once in 2010 with Shinji Fujita riding Laurel Guerreiro. Keiai Leone will take on the G2 UAE Derby, the major race for 3-year-olds on World Cup Day. Keiai Leone, a Henny Hughes colt trained by the Ritto-based Katsuichi Nishiura, is only seven races into his career and was last raced on Feb. 17 at Tokyo, when he finished ninth among 16 runners in the open-class mile Hyacinth Stakes. In his race previous, on Nov. 29 at the NAR Sonoda track inthe Hyogo Junior Grand Prix, Keiai Leone blew away the field of 2-year-olds to win by 5 lengths over 1,400 meters of dirt. That victory extended his winning streak to three after the colt finally broke his maiden in Kyoto Oct. 20 on his fourth attempt and his first try over dirt. The move to dirt seemed to suit as he went on to a narrow win of a 2-year-old race at Tokyo, before acing the field of the Sonoda principal race. The pick of the UAE Derby, however, does seem a bit odd, in light of the fact that its distance is 300 meters longer than anything Keiai Leone has taken on to date. His three wins have all come at 1,400 meters. Rider Hideaki Miyuki has the ride. There are several potentials for the Derby that have yet to race on anything but turf or at distances longer than a mile. Some of the names to watch for are: Shuruq: A filly that won the UAE Oaks at Meydan on Feb. 28 by 4 lengths, Shuruq is expected to be in the final lineup for the Derby. The Elusive Quality filly is trained by Saeed Bin Suroor and has never fared worse than third in her six career races. He's Had Enough: Runnerup last year in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile, He's Had Enough may be fielded by Southern California trainer Doug O'Neill. His last time out saw him fifth in the G2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park on Feb. 23. Secret Number: Another bin Suroor charge, Secret Number is now two for two. His debut win was over a mile in the U.K. and his last win was over the UAE Derby distance in the Al Bastakiya Stakes at Meydan on March 9. Law Enforcement: On a four-race winning roll, Law Enforcement hasn't run since Oct. 13 in Italy, nor has he run longer than a mile or on the artificial surface. Snowboarder: Trained by Mahmood Al Zarooni and owned by Godolphin Stables, Snowboarder could be one to slide into the winner's circle. The 3-year-old son of Raven's Pass has three wins and has yet to miss the money in eight races. Keiai Leone is Japan's seventh horse to take on the race. The best result for Japan came in its first year to participate, in 2006. Flamme de Passion, a Katsuhiko Sumii-trained 3-year-old colt ridden by Yutaka Take, placed third. Last year, three horses from Japan participated in the World Cup, with a best sixth by Eishin Flash. Makani Bisty finished 10 out of 13 runners in the tragedy-stricken Dubai Gold Cup (G3), which had to be run twice. A Shin Virgo was 12th out of 14 in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint and Dark Shadow finished ninth out of 15 in the Dubai Duty-Free. Genten finished 14th in the UAE Derby (G2) under Craig Williams. Japan racing fans can catch the Dubai action live in Japan on the JRA racing channel Green Channel. Broadcasts will begin at 11 p.m. Saturday, March 30 and continue until 3:30 a.m. First of the Japanese runners to the post will be Keiai Leone in the UAE Derby, set to go off at 11:25 p.m. Japan time. The Dubai Golden Shaheen, withTaisei Legend in the lineup, will start 15 minutes before 1 a.m. The DutyFree is next up at 1:40 a.m. but no Japanese runners this year. The Sheema Classic, with Gentildonna and Trailblazer in the gate, is to be run at 2:20 a.m. The Dubai World Cup has a 3:05 a.m. post time. Public viewings will also be held on Saturday night from 10:45 p.m. at Wald9 Cinema in Tokyo’s Shinjuku and Burg7 Theater in Osaka’s Umeda. * Please visit the following websites for more information. Dubai World Cup: http://www.dubairacingclub.com/race/dubai-world-cup Dubai Racing Club: http://www.dubairacingclub.com/ Emirates Racing Authority: http://www.emiratesracing.com/ |
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