Sweep Tosho a major force

The $2.1 million, 1 1/4-mile Autumn Tenno Sho at Tokyo on Sunday will be without the star quality of either Deep Impact or Heart's Cry, but Dance in the Mood and Daiwa Major are more-than-capable understudies in this first leg of Japan's fall triple crown for older horses.

A Sunday Silence mare, Dance in the Mood came from far out of it to take the inaugural running of the CashCall Mile at Hollywood on Julyo1. Back in Japan, she returned from a three-month layoff to finish a game second to Daiwa Major in the Grade 2 Mainichi Okan at 1 1/8 miles at Tokyo on Oct. 8. Trained by Kazuo Fujisawa, Dance in the Mood will once again have Hiroshi Kitamura in the saddle for a race in which she finished just a neck third last year.

Daiwa Major also holds a three-quarter-length victory over Dance in the Mood in the one-mile Grade 1 Yomiuri Milers Cup at Hanshin on April 15. A Sunday Silence 5-year-old, Daiwa Major has since been fourth in a pair of Grade 1's, to Bullish Luck in the one-mile Yasuda Kinen and to Deep Impact in the 1o3/8-mile Takarazuka Kinen.

But both he and Dance in the Mood will have to be at their very best to beat Sweep Tosho, the End Sweep mare who returned from an 11-month absence on Oct. 8 to win the 1 1/2-mile Grade 1 Kyoto Daishoten. Cosmo Bulk, winner of the 1 1/4-mile Group 1 Singapore Airlines International Cup on Mayo14, was just a nose behind six-time Grade 2 winner Balance of Game in the 1 3/8-mile Sankei Sho All-Comers on Sept.o24. A Japanese provincial runner, Cosmo Bulk will be the sentimental favorite in the field of 17.