Jantar Mantar expected to take Mile Championship at Kyoto

Already a three-time Grade 1 winner in Japan, Jantar Mantar will be favored to record another win at the highest level in Sunday’s $2.2 million Mile Championship at Kyoto Racecourse.

The champion 2-year-old male of 2024, Jantar Mantar starts against a field that includes three other recent Japanese champions and Docklands, the winner of the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot in Britain in June.

Jantar Mantar has had only two starts this year, both at a mile at Tokyo Racecourse. He won the Grade 1 Yasuda Kinen in June and finished second by a half-length at 4-5 to Gaia Force in the Grade 2 Fuji Stakes on Oct. 18. Gaia Force is part of the Mile Championship field and regarded as capable of an upset.

Jantar Mantar is a Japanese-bred colt by Palace Malice. Her dam is India Mantuana, the winner of the Grade 3 Red Carpet Handicap at Del Mar in 2018. Jantar Mantar, who will be ridden by Yuga Kawada for trainer Tomokazu Takana, starts from post 15 in the 18-runner Mile Championship.

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The field includes Soul Rush, who won the 2024 Mile Championship and was named Japan’s champion miler for that season; Cervinia, the champion 3-year-old filly of 2024; and 4-year-old Ascoli Piceno, the champion 2-year-old filly of 2023.

Docklands and Soul Rush were not helped by the draw and will start from posts 16 and 17. Soul Rush won the Group 1 Dubai Turf at 1 1/8 miles at Meydan Racecourse in April and was later third in the Yasuda Kinen and Fuji Stakes.

Ascoli Piceno had an outstanding start to 2025, winning the Group 2 1351 Turf Sprint at 6 1/2 furlongs in Saudi Arabia in February and the Grade 1 Victoria Mile for fillies and mares at Tokyo in May. In her last start, Ascoli Piceno was sixth of 10 as the 5-2 favorite in the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois for turf milers at Deauville, France, in August, another of Europe’s leading one-mile turf races.

Docklands, trained in Britain by Harry Eustace, was fourth in the Prix Jacques le Marois and fourth in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on Oct. 18 in his last two starts.

Post time for the Mile Championship is 1:40 a.m. Eastern on Sunday.

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