Almanzor connects at 19-1 in French Derby
Almanzor scored an upset win in Sunday’s $1,699,350 French Derby at Chantilly Racecourse in his first start in a Group 1 race.
Ridden by Jean Bernard-Eyquem, Almanzor (19-1) closed from midpack in a field of 16 colts and fillies to win by 1 1/2 lengths over the regally bred Zarak. The French Derby is run at 1 5/16 miles on turf. Dicton, a 10-1 shot finished third, while Mekhtaal, a Group 2 winner last month at Deauville, could only finish eighth as the 9-2 favorite.
Almanzor and Mekhtaal are trained by Jean Claude-Rouget, 52, who won the race with Le Havre in 2009.
Almanzor, by Wootton Bassett, was a minor stakes winner at Bordeaux last year. Earlier this year in two starts at Chantilly, the colt was third to Dicton in the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau, and won the Group 3 Prix de Guiche at 1 1/8 miles on turf on May 10.
Owned by Ecurie Antonio Cato and Gerard Augustin-Norman, Almanzor has won 5 of 7 starts.
Runner-up Zarak, fifth as the favorite in the French 2000 Guineas at Deauville on May 15, is out of Zarkava, who was unbeaten in seven starts in 2007 and 2008, including the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 2008.
Japan: Logotype scores at 36-1 in Yasuda Kinen
Logotype, a 36-1 outsider, scored a surprise win in Sunday’s $2.082 million Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo Racecourse, beating 2015 Japanese Horse of the Year Maurice by 1 1/4 lengths.
The loss ended Maurice’s streak of five consecutive wins in Grade 1 or Group 1 races in Japan and Hong Kong over the last year, a span that included the 2015 Yasuda Kinen.
Logotype won his third Grade 1 race in the Yasuda Kinen. A 6-year-old horse by Lohengrin, Logotype won the Grade 1 Asahi Hai Futurity in 2012, and the Grade 1 Japanese 2000 Guineas in 2013. Logotype was the champion 2-year-old male in Japan in 2012.
In the Yasuda Kinen, Logotype led throughout under jockey Hironobu Tanabe. Maurice, who won the Group 1 Champions Mile in Hong Kong in April in his only previous start this year, finished a nose in front of third-place finisher Fiero, a 29-1 shot.
Real Steel, who won the $6 million Dubai Turf at Meydan Racecourse in the United Arab Emirates, finished 11th in the field of 12.
Logotype, who has won 6 of 25 starts for owner Teruya Yoshida, was second in his previous start, the Grade 3 Lord Derby Challenge Trophy at Nakayama on April 3.