Japan stamps himself an Arc contender with Prix de Paris win

Japan won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris on Sunday going 1 1/2 miles at Longchamp – the same course and distance where the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe will be contested in October. That race, Europe’s most important, figures to on Japan’s autumn agenda after he scored a half-length win over Slalom on Sunday.

Under Ryan Moore, Japan settled in third behind pace-making stablemate Western Australia, Moore rousing his mount to action with a quarter-mile to run and hitting the line before the steadily closing Slalom could draw alongside. Jalmoud finished third and Roman Candle was fourth in a steady-paced race contested over good-to-soft ground.

Japan, by Galileo out of Shastye, by Danehill, won three starts in Ireland at age 2, and with the body and pedigree of a strong middle-distance horse was considered an English Derby hopeful this spring. Trainer Aidan O’Brien told overseas racing media after Sunday’s race that an early-season illness had cost Japan a few weeks of serious training, leaving him poorly prepared for his seasonal debut in the Dante Stakes, where he finished fourth.

O’Brien got the improvement he sought in the Derby, where Japan finished third, but it was in his third start off the bench, the Group 2 King Edward at Royal Ascot, that Japan hit a peak, rushing home from behind a strong pace to post a 4 1/2-length victory. O’Brien emphasized that the race shape Sunday didn’t play as favorably to Japan, and the colt probably merely maintained his form at Longchamp after taking two forward steps through late spring and early summer.

O’Brien didn’t shy from acknowledging the Arc as a goal, though after a busy stretch ending Sunday, Japan could have some time to get his feet back under him before getting one Arc prep in late summer or early autumn.

Slalom, as was the case when he finished 12th in the French Derby, flubbed the start, this time angling right and bumping with the inner running rail. But unlike in the French Derby, where he never got involved, Slalom sliced between horses to reach contention in the homestretch and, while never showing anything like electric acceleration, did demonstrate he can stay 12 furlongs suitably in a vastly improved performance for trainer Andre Fabre and the Wertheimer brothers, the colt's owners.