Danon Fantasy tops Japanese 1000 Guineas

Success at Hanshin Racecourse in one-mile turf races has made Danon Fantasy the leading 3-year-old filly in Japan.

Last December, Danon Fantasy won the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies. A month later, she was named champion 2-year-old filly of 2018. Danon Fantasy won her 2019 debut in the Grade 2 Tulip Sho at a mile on turf at Hanshin on March 2, a prep for Sunday’s Grade 1 Japanese 1000 Guineas at Hanshin.

Again, she races at a mile on turf, and will be favored for her fifth consecutive start. Danon Fantasy has been a reliable ally for bettors. She was second in her debut last June and has not lost in four subsequent starts, including three graded stakes.

In the $2,103,769 Japanese 1000 Guineas, formally known as the Oka Sho, Danon Fantasy will break from post 15 in a field of 18. Jockey Yuga Kawada, who has been aboard for three of the filly’s wins, has the mount for trainer Mitsumasa Nakauchida. By Deep Impact, Danon Fantasy is owned by Danox Co., Ltd.

The stakes winners Chrono Genesis and Gran Alegria are rated as the leading threats to Danon Fantasy.

Chrono Genesis was second to Danon Fantasy in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies and won her 2019 debut in the Grade 3 Queen Cup at a mile on turf at Tokyo Racecourse in February.

Gran Alegria was third against males in the Grade 1 Futurity Stakes at Hanshin in December and has not raced this year. Admire Mars, who won the Futurity Stakes, was named Japan’s champion 2-year-old male of 2018.

Gran Alegria, by Deep Impact, is out of Tapitsfly, who won 7 of 24 starts and earned $1,495,503 racing in the United States. Trained by Dale Romans, Tapitsfly won five stakes, including two Grade 1 races in 2012 – the Just a Game Stakes at Belmont Park and the First Lady Stakes at Keeneland.

Tapitsfly was later sold for $1.85 million at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Fall Mixed Sale to Katsumi Yoshida of Japan.