The course and distance of Sunday’s Grade 1 Japanese 1000 Guineas at Hanshin Racecourse will be familiar to Sodashi. Last December, Sodashi won the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies over the same one-mile distance to remain unbeaten in four starts and clinch the 2-year-old filly championship of 2020. The $2.17 million Japanese 1000 Guineas, formally known as the Oka Sho, is Sodashi’s first start this year. As of Friday morning, Sodashi was the 3-2 favorite in a field of 18. Trained by Naosuke Sugai for Kaneko Makoto Holdings Comp., Sodashi has won at distances ranging from a mile to 1 1/8 miles in her brief career. Hayato Yoshida has the mount. :: Bet horse racing on DRF Bets. Double Your First Deposit Up to $250. Join Now. Sodashi, by Kurofune, will break from post 4, one position to the inside of Akaitorino Musume, who races for Kaneko Makoto and is trained by Sakae Kuneida. Akaitorino Musume, 6-1 as of Friday, has won 3 of 4 starts, including her lone race this year in the Grade 3 Daily Hai Queen Cup at a mile at Tokyo on Feb. 13. Akaitorino Musume tends to run from off the pace and has won her last three starts. Akaitorino Musume is by top stallion Deep Impact, and is out of Apapane, who won the Japanese 1000 Guineas in 2010. Satono Reinas, another Deep Impact filly, drew the outside post, and was 5-2 on Friday. Trained by Kuneida, Satono Reinas will be ridden by top jockey Christophe Lemaire in her first start since a second to Sodashi in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies. Meikei Yell, fourth in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies, will have her second start of 2021 in the Japanese 1000 Guineas. Meikei Yell and Elizabeth Tower, another runner in the 1000 Guineas, finished in a dead-heat for first in the Grade 2 Tulip Sho at a mile at Hanshin on March 6. The 1000 Guineas is the Grade 1 debut for Minnie Isle, who is by Mikki Isle and is out of Island Fashion, a three-time Grade 1 winner in the United States in 2003 and 2004. Post time for the Japanese 1000 Guineas is 2:40 a.m. Eastern on Sunday, or 11:40 p.m. Pacific on Saturday. Wagering is available through DRFBets.com.