Japan: Luxor Cafe dominates Fukuryu Stakes to earn Kentucky Derby berth
Luxor Cafe recorded a commanding five-length win in Saturday’s $226,400 Fukuryu Stakes at Nakayama Racecourse in Japan to secure a qualifying berth for the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on May 3.
It was not immediately clear whether the Kentucky-bred Luxor Cafe would be sent to the Kentucky Derby, but the colt did show on Saturday that he is in the best form of his career by winning his fourth consecutive race.
Luxor Cafe was nominated to the American Triple Crown earlier this year.
Ridden for the first time by Joao Moreira, a former leading rider in Hong Kong, Luxor Cafe (who paid $2.60 in Japan), stalked pacesetter Isana for the first seven furlongs of the race at 1 1/8 miles.
With a wide move on the turn and into the stretch, Luxor Cafe swept to the front before pulling away from 10 rivals. The Japanese-bred Meisho Zuiun (12-1) finished second, a neck in front of 23-1 Golden Cloud, a Kentucky-bred colt by Cloud Computing.
Luxor Cafe, by American Pharoah, has won 4 of 6 starts. He won a maiden race in his third start last November and his 3-year-old debut in an allowance race at 1 1/8 miles at Nakayama in January.
Luxor Cafe won his stakes debut in the Hyacinth Stakes at a mile at Tokyo Racecourse on Feb. 23, a race also part of the Kentucky Derby qualifying series.
Luxor Cafe, is trained by Noriyuki Hori for owner Koichi Nishikawa. Hori had his first starter in the United States last November when Satano Carnaval finished ninth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint at Del Mar.
Luxor Cafe is out of Mary’s Follies, by More Than Ready. Mary’s Follies won two stakes, including the Grade 3 Mrs. Revere Stakes at Churchill Downs in 2009.
Mary’s Follies is the dam of the 12-time stakes winner Regal Glory, who won 13 of 23 starts, including three Grade 1 races in California and Kentucky; and the American Pharoah horse Cafe Pharoah, a multiple Grade 1 winner in Japan who was third in the $20 million Saudi Cup in Saudi Arabia in 2023. Cafe Pharoah is standing at stud in Japan.
Luxor Cafe could become the second consecutive Fukuryu winner to start in the Kentucky Derby. Last year, T O Password won the Fukuryu Stakes at 13-1 against 10 rivals and finished fifth by 6 1/2 lengths behind Mystik Dan in the Kentucky Derby.
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