Lovely Day streaking into rich Japan Cup

Lovely Day has been in peak form in the last six months, winning four consecutive graded stakes across Japan. The races were in preparation for the most important start of his career in Sunday’s $4.68 million Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse.

Lovely Day is expected to be favored in the Grade 1 race at 1 1/2 miles, which drew a maximum field of 18 entrants.

There are four foreign-trained runners who are Group 1 winners in Europe this year – Erupt, Ito, Nightflower, and Trip to Paris.

Lovely Day’s winning streak began in a Grade 3 race at Hanshin on June 6 and includes the Grade 1 Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin on June 28 and the autumn running of the Grade 1 Tenno Sho at Tokyo on Nov. 1. The Tenno Sho is a vital prep for the Japan Cup.

A 5-year-old horse, Lovely Day, by King Kamehameha, races for the Kaneko Makoto Holding Co. and is trained by Yasutoshi Ikee. Jockey Yuga Kawada has the mount on Lovely Day. Kawada rode Lovely Day in the Takarazuka Kinen and to a win in the Grade 2 Kyoto Daishoten at 1 1/2 miles on turf Nov. 12.

Ikee, who has yet to win the Japan Cup with seven starters in his career, has two runners, including Mikki Queen, who won the Japanese Oaks in May.

A win by a European-based runner would be considered a mild upset.

Erupt won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris in June and was fifth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris last month. Trained by Francis-Henri Graffard, Erupt won his first four starts and lost for the first time when fourth in the Prix Niel at Longchamp in Paris in September.

Ito won the Group 1 Grosser Preis Von Bayern in Munich on Nov. 1, while Nightflower, the only other 3-year-old filly in the Japan Cup field, won the Group 1 Preis Von Europa at Cologne in Germany on Sept. 27.

Trip to Paris won the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup in England in June and was fourth in the Melbourne Cup on Nov. 3.