Japan: Sadamu Patek enables Take to end Grade 1 drought

The 4-year-old colt Sadamu Patek won his first Grade 1 race, and gave jockey Yutaka Take his first Grade 1 win in nearly two years, in Sunday’s $2.6 million Mile Championship at Kyoto, Japan.

Sadamu Patek, a 9-1 shot, held off a late threat from 3-1 favorite Grand Prix Boss to win the race by a neck in 1:32.90. Donau Blue, a 4-year-old filly, finished third in the field of 18.

Sadamu Patek, trained by Masato Nishizono for Sadamu Onishi, was in mid-pack for the first half of the race and saved ground on the turn.

By Fuji Kiseki, Sadamu Patek was second in the Grade 1 Japanese 2000 Guineas in 2011, and had won three Grade 2 and Grade 3 races in the last two seasons.

Take, a former champion jockey in Japan, had not won a Grade 1 since Rose Kingdom in the 2010 Japan Cup.

The field for the Mile Championship consisted entirely of Japanese-based runners, the first time in seven years that the race did not have foreign involvement.