A Shin Hikari romps in Prix d'Ispahan

A Shin Hikari, a Group 1 winner in Hong Kong last December, assumed the role of favorite for the $1.09 million Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 15 with an emphatic win in Tuesday’s $280,000 Prix d’Ispahan at Chantilly Racecourse in France.

Ridden by Yutaka Take, who rode Lani to a fifth-place finish in the Preakness at Pimlico last Saturday, A Shin Hikari won the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan by 10 lengths over Dariyan, winner of the Group 1 Prix Ganay at Saint-Cloud on May 1.

The remaining seven runners were all group or graded stakes winners. Silverware, who finished third, was second in the Prix Ganay and won a Group 3 in France last year. New Bay, who finished sixth as the 3-2 favorite, won the 2015 French Derby.

A Shin Hikari (7-1) fought for the early lead with Vadamos before pulling clear through the final quarter-mile of the race at 1 1/8 miles on turf.

By Deep Impact, the 5-year-old A Shin Hikari races for Eishindo Co. Ltd. and is trained by Masanori Sakaguchi. A Shin Hikari won the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin last December in Hong Kong.

Following his win Tuesday, British bookmakers listed A Shin Hikari as low as 3-2 to win the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at 1 1/4 miles on turf, although many books rated the horse as a 2-1 chance.