Vodka back with fillies in Japan

Vodka will attempt to get back on the winning track when she returns to Japan for the Grade 1, $1.85 million Victoria Mile at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday. The Japanese Horse of the Year, she disappointed at Nad Al Sheba this winter when she was fifth in the Jebel Hatta and seventh in the Dubai Duty Free. On Sunday she will find herself back in filly-and-mare company.

Hoping for an upset is Kawakami Princess, the winner of both the Japanese 1000 Guineas and the Japanese Oaks in 2006. Although she is winless since October of that year, she has been showing signs of life of late.

Reginetta won last year's Japanese 1000 Guineas but is winless since then. Little Amapola won the 1 3/8-mile Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup two back in November but was only fifth in Reginetta's Guineas. Bouquet Fragrance is a half-sister to multiple Grade 1 winners Daiwa Major and Daiwa Scarlet but has failed in both of her graded race attempts.

* At Kranji Racecourse in Singapore, Presvis will follow his victory in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup at Sha Tin last month with a start in in the Group 1, $2 million Singapore Airlines International Cup over the same 1 1/4 mile distance. Trained by Luca Cumani, he will be tested by defending champ but recent Dubai bust Jay Peg and by Gloria de Campeao, who is coming off a distant second to Well Armed in the Dubai World Cup.

In the $683,000 KrisFlyer International Sprint at six furlongs, Royal Ascot-bound Takeover Target, now 9 years old, faces a stern challenge from Hong Kong hotshots Inspiration and Sacred Kingdom, as well as from Dubai Golden Shaheen third Diabolical and Singapore's star sprinter Rocket Man, who has aired in his last six starts.