All eyes on Almond Eye in Japan Cup

Not long after Almond Eye completed a sweep of the Triple Crown for Japanese 3-year-old fillies on Oct. 14, she was sent to a farm for a brief vacation. The post-race respite was a normal part of Almond Eye’s 2018 schedule and was needed.

“She did seem a bit light-headed after the race, and she ran a temperature for a bit but recovered quickly,” trainer Sakae Kunieda recently told Japan Racing Association publicity.

“We’ve done what we always do between races, send her to Northern Farm.”

The rest may have been vital for Almond Eye’s chances in her most important race of the year – Sunday’s Grade 1 Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse. A win would clinch the title of Horse of the Year and give Almond Eye the distinction of becoming the second filly Triple Crown winner to beat males in the country’s signature race.

The widely adored Gentildonna accomplished the milestone in 2012 and became the first repeat winner of the Japan Cup a year later. Almond Eye is already one of the most popular runners in Japan in recent years.

“She looks leaner than she did before her last race, as there has been less time between races,” Kunieda said. “She’s relaxed, and her responses are good.”

Internationally, a victory would place Almond Eye in a group of prestigious fillies and mares that includes the Australian superstar Winx, who has won an astonishing 29 consecutive starts, and Enable, who won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris in October and the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Churchill Downs earlier this month, becoming the first horse to sweep those races in the same year.

Almond Eye, who has won five consecutive starts in a six-race career, was the even-money favorite in future-book betting as of Thursday for Sunday’s $5.37 million Japan Cup at 1 1/2 miles on turf.

The distance will not be an issue. Almond Eye won the Japanese Oaks at 1 1/2 miles at Tokyo on May 20, six weeks after a win in the first leg of the filly Triple Crown, the 1000 Guineas at a mile on April 8. After the Japanese Oaks, Almond Eye did not race again until she completed a sweep of the Triple Crown in the Grade 1 Shuka Sho at Kyoto on Oct. 14.

Owned by Silk Racing Co. Ltd., Almond Eye will be ridden by Christophe Lemaire, who was aboard for the wins in the Triple Crown. Lemaire rode Almond Eye in a workout on Nov. 15, a week after the filly returned to Kunieda’s stable.

Almond Eye has the pedigree to beat males. She is by Lord Kanaloa and is out of Fusaichi Pandora, by 1989 American Horse of the Year Sunday Silence. Lord Kanaloa excelled in sprints and was the Japanese Horse of the Year in 2013. Fusaichi Pandora won the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup for fillies and mares in 2006 and two weeks later was fifth behind Deep Impact in the Japan Cup. She was ninth in the 2007 Japan Cup.

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