By Alan Carasso
Jockey Fuma Matsuwaka conjured up one final late surge from third favorite Derma Sotogake (Jpn) (Mind Your Biscuits) and was up on the wire to take out Wednesday's Zen-Nippon Nisai Yushun at Kawasaki Racecourse, earning 20 points to go to the head of the class on the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby.
Settled in mid-division and well off the inside for the run up the backstretch, the chestnut still had several lengths to find as 6-5 favorite Perriere (Jpn) (Henny Hughes) went for home. The latter began to look for the line and was overtaken to his inside by Omatsuri Otoko (Jpn) (Vittorio d'Oro) in the dying yards, but Derma Sotogake finished over the top of that one for the victory.
Derma Sotogake, unplaced in a pair of turf tries, but two-for-three on dirt prior to Wednesday's race, is the second stakes winner for Mind Your Biscuits, who has been represented by no fewer than 27 individual winners from his first crop to the races and is a near lock to be crowned champion freshman sire.
The winner's dam, who took this track's Listed Kanto Oaks in 2013, is a half-sister to Group 3 winner Million Disk (Jpn) (Afleet) and MGSP Request Song (Jpn) (Symboli Kris S). Amour Poesie's weanling filly by New Year's Day fetched $240,138 at this year's JRHA Select Sale and she is due to foal a full-sibling to Derma Sotogake in 2023.
The next race on the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby is the Listed Hyacinth S. going a mile at Tokyo Feb. 19.
Wednesday, Kawasaki, Japan
ZEN-NIPPON NISAI YUSHUN (Jpn-G1)-Listed (Second Leg Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby), ¥71,400,000, Kawasaki, 12-14, 2yo, 1600m, 1:43.30, yl.
1–DERMA SOTOGAKE (JPN), 121, c, 2, by Mind Your Biscuits
1st Dam: Amour Poesie (Jpn) (SW-Jpn, $543,569), by Neo Universe (Jpn)
2nd Dam: Happy Request (Jpn), by Tony Bin (Ire)
3rd Dam: April Sonnett, by Dike
1ST STAKES WIN. (¥18,000,000 Ylg '21 JRHAJUL). O-Hiroyuki Asanuma; B-Shadai Farm; T-Hidetaka Otonashi; J-Fuma Matsuwaka; ¥42,000,000. Lifetime Record 6-3-0-1, ¥59,734,000. *Second stakes winner for freshman sire (by Posse).
2–Omatsuri Otoko (Jpn), 121, c, 2, Vittorio d'Oro–Matsuri Bayashi (Jpn), by Smart Boy (Jpn). (¥14,300,000 Ylg '21 HOKSUM). O-Kohei Koreeda; B-Grand Farm; ¥14,700,000.
3–Perriere (Jpn), 121, c, 2, Henny Hughes–Soft Rime (Jpn), by Fuji Kiseki (Jpn). (¥11,000,000 Ylg '21 HOKSUM). O-Yuji Hasegawa; B-Champions Farm; ¥8,400,000.
Margins: HD, 1, 3. Odds : 4.60, 2.40, 1.20.
WATCH: Derma Sotogake gets up late at Kawasaki
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