Tokyo Racecourse: Kizuna gives jockey Take fifth Japanese Derby win

Veteran jockey Yutaka Take won the $4,088,050 Japanese Derby at Tokyo Racecourse for a record fifth time Sunday aboard Kizuna, the 9-5 favorite in the race over about 1 1/2 miles on turf.

Take, 44, rode a colt well-suited to the distance. Kizuna had started in the Grade 2 Shimbun Hai over about 1 3/8 miles on turf at Kyoto Racecourse on May 4, bypassing a start in the Japanese 2000 Guineas over about 1 1/4 miles on turf at Nakayama in April.

In the Grade 1 Japanese Derby, Kizuna, who is by top Japanese stallion Deep Impact, closed from off the pace to win by a half-length over Epiphaneia, who was second in the Japanese 2000 Guineas. Epiphaneia is by Symboli Kris S and is out of Cesario, who won the Japanese Oaks and the American Oaks at Hollywood Park in 2005.

Apollo Sonic, a New-York bred colt by Big Brown who was purchased for $70,000 at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky yearling sale, finished third in the Japanese Derby as a 60-1 outsider.

Logotype, the winner of the Japanese 2000 Guineas last month and a Grade 1 winner as a 2-year-old in 2012, could only finish fifth as the 2-1 second choice. Logotype was beaten 1 3/4 lengths by Kizuna. The Japanese Derby was the second leg of that country’s Triple Crown. The race drew a crowd of 139,806.

Kizuna races for Shinji Maeda and was bred by North Hills Co. Ltd.

Ordak Dan wins Gran Premio 25 de Mayo

Ordak Dan, a 5-year-old by the Argentine sire Hidden Truth, is bound for the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Santa Anita in November after winning Saturday’s Group 1 Gran Premio 25 de Mayo at San Isidro Racecourse in Argentina.

The Gran Premio 25 de Mayo is part of the Breeders’ Cup Win and You’re In program, offering a fees-paid berth to the winner for the BC Turf on Nov. 2.

Ordak Dan won Saturday’s race over 1 1/2 miles on turf by three-quarters of a length over Soy Carambolo, the favorite in the field of 18. The Gran Premio 25 de Mayo was the stakes debut for Ordak Dan, who has won 5 of 11 starts. Ordak Dan was ridden by Pablo Carrizo for trainer Carlos Carabajal.

Going Somewhere, the winner of the Group 1 Carlos Pellegrini last December, finished third.

After the race, owner Saturino Erro, 95, said the BC Turf was firmly in the plans for Ordak Dan.