New York-bred wins in Kyoto

A record-setting performance by the 5-year-old New York-bred A Shin Forward propelled the Masoto Nishizono-trained son of Forest Wildcat to victory in the $2.3 million Mile Championship at Kyoto on Sunday. The 51-1 shot shaved .30 of a second off the track mark, getting the mile on a firm turf course in 1:31.80 while defeating the 2.70-1 favorite Danon Yoyo by a neck.

Bred in New York by Edition Farm, A Shin Forward chased the blistering pace of Jo Cappuccino in eighth place before surging to the lead under Yasunari Iwata at the sixteenth pole. He held off the late rally of Danon Yoyo as Gorski came home third, a nose behind the runner-up. The lone foreign entry in the Grade 1 contest, the Rodolphe Collet trained two-time Sun Chariot Stakes winner Sahpresa, was outpaced early but got up late for fourth, a nose behind Gorski as the 3.60-1 second choice. Last year Sahpresa had finished third in this same race behind Company.

Out of Yaddo Handicap winner Wake Up Kiss, A Shin Forward had won a pair of listed races at Hanshin last December, but his best previous effort had come in October when he landed Hanshin’s seven-furlong, Group 3 Hankyu Hai. He was originally sold by his breeders at Edition Farm at the Saratoga Select Yearling Sale to John Kimmel acting for Rayzin the Bar for $125,000. He was later purchased by Hirotsugu Hirai, owner of Eishindo Co., Ltd. in February 2007 at the Calder Selected 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale for $290,000. Owned by Eishindo Co., Ltd., A Shin Forward has now won six of 23 career starts for earnings of $3,302,052.

*Japan’s leading dirt horse Espoir City will not defend his title in the $3 million Japan Cup Dirt at Hanshin on Dec. 5. Tenth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Nov. 6 after leading into the stretch, he has been deemed not fully recovered from his exertions that day by trainer Akio Adachi. There will be no foreign-trained runners in the 1 1/8-mile Grade 1 contest this year.