Japan: Juvenile filly champ Liberty Island starts season in 1000 Guineas
Liberty Island, the champion 2-year-old filly in Japan in 2022, will have her first start of the year in Sunday’s Grade 1 Japanese 1000 Guineas for 3-year-old fillies at a mile at Hanshin Racecourse.
Liberty Island will be favored to win for the third time in her fourth career start, but holding the role of favorite in the Japanese 1000 Guineas has not translated to success. In the last decade, only one favorite has won the Japanese 1000 Guineas, the first race in the Triple Crown for 3-year-old fillies that continues with the Japanese Oaks in May.
By Duramente, Liberty Island may be able to reverse that trend. She was a unanimous selection for 2-year-old filly champion among voters.
Liberty Island, who will be ridden by Yuga Kawada, breaks from post 3 in a field of 18. Liberty Island, who races from off the pace, is well suited to racing at Hanshin, having won the Grade 1 Juvenile Fillies at a mile on turf at the track last December to clinch her title.
The $2.23 million 1000 Guineas, formally known as the Oka Sho, is the Grade 1 debut for Light Quantum, who has won both her starts. Light Quantum has not raced since a win in the Grade 3 Shinzan Kinen at a mile at Chukyo in January, when she closed from fifth in a field of seven to win by a length.
Light Quantum breaks from post 2 and will be ridden by Yutaka Take, who won his 80th Grade 1 race in Japan in the Osaka Hai last Sunday. At 54, Take became the oldest jockey in Japan to win a Grade 1.
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Light Quantum is by Deep Impact and is out of the Pennsylvania-bred mare Illuminant, the winner of the Grade 1 Gamely Stakes at Santa Anita in 2016. Illuminant was purchased for $1.1 million at the 2017 Fasig-Tipton Fall Sale in Kentucky.
The Japanese 1000 Guineas is the Grade 1 debut for Harper, a Grade 3 winner in the Queen Cup at a mile at Tokyo Racecourse in her most recent start.
The Japanese 1000 Guineas has a post time of 2:40 a.m. Eastern on Sunday or 11:40 p.m. Pacific on Saturday. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.
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