Yushun Himba

We are poised midway between Japan's Oaks (Yushun Himba), which took place last Sunday, and Derby (Tokyo Yushun) this coming Sunday. What is not in doubt in the country that has led the way at so many international meetings in recent years, is that those two races over 2,400m are still very much targeted and revered by owners and breeders. In Japan, there is no shortage of horses bred specifically for that distance, or further.  In any country, it takes a special horse to win the Triple Crown. For the...

Some six weeks have passed since Liberty Island (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}) came storming down the centre of the Hanshin turf course from near last to take the G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) and the daughter of rags-to-riches Australian standout Yankee Rose (Aus) (All American {Aus}) figures a long odds-on selection to add Sunday's G1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) to her increasingly imposing resume. The Oaks has proved a favourites' race over the last decade or so. Were she to prove successful in her first go over the metric mile...

Masatake Iida homebred Circle of Life (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}) was perfect in three starts last term to secure champion juvenile filly honours, but will be looking for her first victory as a 3-year-old in a well-matched renewal of the G1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) Sunday at Tokyo Racecourse. Winner of the 1600-metre G3 Artemis S. at headquarters last October, the bay--whose sire has accounted for 2020 Oaks heroine Daring Tact (Jpn) and reigning Horse of the Year Efforia (Jpn)--came from worse than midfield to post a half-length success in the...

Sunday's final leg of the Japanese Filly Triple Crown, the G1 Shuka Sho, looms a championship event and serves as a rubber match between the winners of the first two races in the series--Sodashi (Jpn) (Kurofune), the G1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) victress and Uberleben (Jpn) (Gold Ship {Jpn}), who took out the G1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks)--over a 2000-metre distance that is a quarter-mile longer than the Guineas and two furlongs shorter than the Oaks. Sodashi, a white filly just like her extremely popular dam Buchiko (Jpn) (King...

While all eyes were on 2-year-old champion and G1 Oka Sho victress Sodashi (Jpn) (Kurofune) heading into Sunday's G1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks), it was the punters' third choice Uberleben (Jpn) (Gold Ship {Jpn}) who handed the white Sodashi her first defeat, while in the process earning her first stakes win and providing her sire, the six-time Group 1 winner Gold Ship, with his first Group 1 winner. Uberleben was out early for a Japanese 2-year-old, breaking her maiden at first asking last June before finishing a neck second to...

The world's most recognizable--and most talented--white Thoroughbred, Sodashi (Jpn) (Kurofune), puts her unblemished record on the line against a full field of fellow 3-year-old fillies in Sunday's G1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) going a full circuit of the Fuchu Racecourse at Tokyo. Not one of the 68 horses Sodashi has faced through her five career starts have managed to finish ahead of her, even if she never wins by a space. The Makoto Kaneko runner debuted with a 2 1/2-length victory over 1800 metres last summer, but has since been...