Japan: Let’s Go Donki, Mikki Queen try to rebound

After wins in Grade 1 races earlier this year, Let’s Go Donki and Mikki Queen will try to rebound from recent losses when they start in Sunday’s $1,548,614 Shuka Sho for 3-year-old fillies at Kyoto Racecourse in Japan.

They lead a field of 18 in the race at about 1 1/4 miles on turf, which could provide a few runners for the Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Nov. 29.

Let’s Go Donki won the Japanese 1000 Guineas in April, but was 10th behind Mikki Queen in the Japanese Oaks at Tokyo Racecourse on May 24. After each took a summer break, Mikki Queen and Let’s Go Donki were second and fourth behind Touching Speech in the Grade 2 Rose Stakes at Hanshin on Sept. 20.

Touching Speech is part of the field for the Shuka Sho, which is run clockwise. A winner of half of her six starts, Touching Speech's first stakes win came in the Rose Stakes, and she will make her Grade 1 debut in the Shuka Sho

The field also includes Queen’s Milagro, who has won her last two starts and three of her last five races since March. Queen’s Milagro has raced 10 times. She beat maidens in her sixth career start in March, and has improved rapidly through the year to justify a start in the Shuka Sho.