Japan: Blow the Horn grabs BC Turf berth with Takarazuka Kinen triumph

Blow the Horn, a 5-year-old who won his first graded stakes in January and started in his first Grade 1 race earlier this year, continued his ascension in Japan’s older horse division with a win in Sunday’s Grade 1 Takarazuka Kinen at 1 3/8 miles on turf at Kyoto Racecourse.

The win gave Blow the Horn a fees-paid berth for the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Del Mar on Nov. 2.

Blow the Horn ($12.30 in American pools) closed from the back of a field of 13 with a wide rally to win the $2.65 million race by two lengths over Sol Oriens, who finished a neck in front of Bellagio Opera. The race was run on yielding turf.

Sol Oriens was 15-1 in Japan, while Bellagio Opera was 10-1. Do Deuce, the 6-5 favorite in Japan, finished sixth, beaten six lengths.

Blow the Horn was ridden by Akira Sugawara for trainer Tatsuya Yoshioka and owner Makio Okada. Sugawara and Yoshioka had their first Grade 1 wins on Sunday.

“The horse ran really hard despite the heavy going,” Sugawara told Japan Racing Association publicists. “Although we were positioned farther back than planned and took the widest route, the horse seemed to have plenty of strength when we turned” into the stretch.

“I urged him to go and he responded.”

Blow the Horn, by Epiphaneia, has won 7 of 21 starts, and three stakes. He won the Grade 2 Nikkei Shinshun Hai in January in his final start for trainer Eiji Nakano before his retirement. Switched to Yoshioka’s stable, Blow the Horn was second by two lengths in the Grade 1 spring running of the Tenno Sho at two miles at Kyoto on April 28.

The results are quite a change from last fall when Blow the Horn was pulled up in the Grade 2 Kyoto Daishoten at 1 1/2 miles in his final start of 2023. He was later diagnosed with atrial fibrillation.

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