Conduit out of Japanese quarantine

Conduit, two-time winner of the Breeders' Cup Turf, was freed from the Shiroi Quarantine Center on Wednesday along with Marsh Side and a second Japan Cup challenger from Britain, Scintillo. That trio has joined Interpatation and Just as Well at Tokyo Racecourse where they will run in the $5.9 million Japan Cup on Sunday.

Conduit has taken the long way around to Japan, as he returned to his Newmarket base after having run down Presious Passion in the Breeders' Cup Turf on Nov. 7.

"We took him back to England from America to see how he was within himself, physically and mentally, and the boss" - trainer Michael Stoute - "thought we'd give him a shot at the Japan Cup," said Stoute's assistant Anthony Cromby. "He takes everything in his stride and he's improved with age. He's a quick recoverer . . . . Well, you obviously lose a little bit of weight after you've traveled, but he'd soon put it back on during his week at Shiroi, and he's back to his old self."

The Japan Cup will be the racetrack finale for Conduit, who will stand next year at Shigeyuki Okada's Big Red Farm in Hokkaido.

Scintillo, the winner of the 1 1/2-mile, Group 2 Grand Prix de Chantilly for Richard Hannon in June, will have his final Japan Cup preparation on Friday, when he will be partnered for the first time by his raceday rider, Gerald Mosse.

Marsh Side was the last of the three Americans to arrive in Japan. "He's eating well and is relaxed," reported trainer Neil Drysdale's exercise rider Marcelino Olguin on Wednesday. "I will be riding him when we breeze him tomorrow."