Showa Modern rallies to win Yasuda Kinen

The Japanese home team held off a three-pronged Hong Kong invasion at Tokyo on Sunday as the 12.90-1 Showa Modern won the Grade 1, $2.1 million Yasuda Kinen, setting a stakes record of 1:31.70 for the mile on firm ground to break the 2003 mark of 1:32.10 set by Agnes Digital.

Rated in midpack by his rider, Hiroki Goto, the winning 6-year-old son of Air Jihad rallied to defeat Super Hornet by a half-length, with Smile Jack a head further back in third. The three Hong Kong raiders - Sight Winner, Fellowship, and Beauty Flash - finished fifth, ninth, and 11th, respectively.

Reach the Crown, the Grade 2 Yomiuri Milers Cup winner who was sent off as the 3-1 favorite, weakened to finish 14th, 6 1/4 lengths behind the Hiroaki Sugiura-trained winner.

A veteran of 38 races coming into the Yasuda Kinen, Showa Modern was winning for the third consecutive time, having won the one-mile, Grade 3 Lord Derby Challenge Trophy at Nakayama on April 4 and the listed 1 1/8-mile May Stakes at Tokyo on May 22. But this was not a top-drawer renewal of the Yasuda Kinen, the last two runnings of which had been won by the outstanding racemare Vodka.