By Alan Carasso
In this continuing series, we take a look ahead at US-bred and/or conceived runners entered for the upcoming weekend at the tracks on the Japan Racing Association circuit, with a focus on pedigree and/or performance in the sales ring. Here are the horses of interest for this weekend running at Chukyo and Nakayama Racecourses:
Saturday, March 15, 2025
3rd-NKY, ¥10,600,000 ($72k), Maiden, 3yo, 1200m
KNOCK SHRINE (JPN) (c, 3, Omaha Beach–Knock, by Tapit) is out of a daughter of Grade III winner Fencelineneighbor (Wild Rush) who was hammered down to Emmanuel de Seroux's Narvick International for $115,000 with this colt in utero at the 2021 Keeneland November Sale. Fencelineneighbor is the dam of five winners, including Knock's stakes-winning full-sister Barbie Wire as well as the Grade III-placed duo of Nextdoorneighbor (Lido Palace {Chi}) and Bureau de Change (Exchange Rate). The colt's older half-brother Jeweled Shillelagh (City of Light) was runner-up in Santa Anita allowance company in February. O-Katsushiga Muraki; B-Kinya Murakami; T-Fumimasa Takahashi.
Sunday, March 16, 2025
10th-CKO, ¥34,200,000 ($231k), Allowance, 3yo, 1400m
POULSEN (c, 3, Into Mischief–Separationofpowers, by Candy Ride {Arg}), a $925,000 graduate of last year's OBS April Sale, chipped away at that purchase price in a trio of appearances last term, winning two of those outings while finishing runner-up to future Listed Hyacinth Stakes runner-up Promised Gene (Jpn) (Nadal) between those efforts. The Triple Crown nominee, whose two-time Grade I-winning dam fetched $2.1 million at Fasig-Tipton November in 2019, was a $535,000 buyback at Keeneland November in 2022 and realized $350,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling before selling to his current connections at OBS last spring. O-Naohiro Sakaguchil; B-Hunter Valley & Mountmellick Farm (KY); T-Makoto Saito
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