Transcend, second in the $10 million Dubai World Cup in March, is expected to be favored in a defense of his title in Sunday’s $3.5 million Japan Cup Dirt at Hanshin Racecourse in Osaka.
Snow Fairy, who was third in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Champion Stakes before winning the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup on Nov. 13 in Japan, was injured during routine morning exercise Monday morning at Sha Tin racecourse and has been withdrawn from the Dec. 11 Hong Kong Vase, her intended next start.
Zenyatta would have been jealous of the cheers that Buena Vista earned after her win in the $6.7 million Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday.
Buena Vista, disqualified from victory in this race race year, won the $6.7 million Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday with a stretch rally that left the wildly popular mare in front through the final sixteenth.
So far in 2011, for Japanese owner Teruya Yoshida has won the Dubai World Cup with Victoire Pisa and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Danedream. Both horses are leading contenders in Sunday’s $6.7 million Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse.
The winner’s trophy for the Japan Cup has not left these shores in six years. This year, there are 12 Japan-based runners in the field of 16 , and several of them are capable of extending the streak of domestic success.
When the brothers Terikchand and Naipaul Chatterpaul claimed Mission Approved at Belmont Park in June 2010, they thought they were getting “a nice New York-bred,” Terikchand Chatterpaul remembers.
Rose Kingdom and Buena Vista return for owner Shunsuke Yoshida in Sunday's Japan Cup after finishing one-two last year, when Buena Vista was disqualified and placed second.
There will never be another autumn like 2011 for German jockey Andrasch Starke. On Sunday, Starke will ride Danedream in the $6.7 million Japan Cup. Danedream can become the first Arc winner to win the Japan Cup.
Danedream, the upset winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on Oct. 2, had a seven-furlong workout on the dirt track at Tokyo Racecourse on Wednesday, her last major exercise for Sunday’s $6.7 million Japan Cup on turf.
