Sunday's G1 Mile Championship at Kyoto Racecourse appears a wide-open affair, with former 2-year-old champion Danon Premium (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) favoured coming off a second-place finish to Almond Eye (Jpn) (Lord Kanaloa {Jpn}) in the G1 Tenno Sho Autumn going 2000 metres on Oct. 27. The 4-year-old drops back to the distance over which he has won three times previously. Assistant trainer Teruhiko Saruhashi said, “The winner last time is a very strong horse, so it was an impressive performance in what was a tough race. Only at the end did he not quite have enough left, and he was coming back from a layoff. There's still room for improvement.”
Masahiro Noda's Danox Co. Ltd. supplies not only Danon Premium but also the second choice in the betting, Danon Kingly (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). The 3-year-old was placed in both the G1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) and G1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) this spring, and he comes into this off a win in the G2 Mainichi Okan on Oct. 6. Danon Kingly has never been off the board and has won four times from six starts.
The top two betting choices are opposed by a pair of Group 1 winners this year: Indy Champ (Jpn) and Al Ain (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}). The G1 Yasuda Kinen victor Indy Champ was third behind Danon Kingly in the Mainichi Okan coming off a layoff, while the G1 Osaka Hai winner Al Ain looks to bounce back from a sub-par effort in the Tenno Sho, where he was also returning from a break. Trainer Yasutoshi Ikee said, “The first two home in the Tenno Sho [Autumn] were very strong, as well as it being a strong field generally. It was the first race back for the horse and he drew the widest gate, so these things went against him.” Al Ain gets the services of Ryan Moore on Sunday.
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