Undefeated group 1 winner Sol Oriens will compete in Japan’s featured race this coming weekend when the 3-year-old son of Kitasan Black takes on the Tokyo Yushun (G1) May 28 at Tokyo Racecourse.
The colt’s two starts for 2023—both at Nakayama Racecourse—include a win in the Jan. 15 Keisei Hai (G3) and the April 16 Satsuki Sho (Japanese Two Thousand Guineas, G1), which is the first leg of Japanese Triple Crown. Trained by Takahisa Tezuka at the Japan Racing Association (JRA)’s Miho Training Center, Sol Oriens had only one start in 2022 where he was victorious in a Nov 13 maiden race at Tokyo.
In the Satsuki Sho, the colt was ridden by Takeshi Yokoyama and was still at the rear of the 18-horse field at the top of the stretch when he delivered a strong late charge in the final stages to win by 1 1/4 lengths.
The eighth foal out of the group 3-winning Motivator mare Skia , Sol Oriens was bred by Teruya Yoshida’s Shadai Farm and is campaigned by Shadai Race Horse—a club syndicate founded in 1980 that allows fans to buy shares in horses. The racing outfit, which sold 40 shares in Sol Oriens for a total of ¥60,000,000 (US$434,808) in 2021, is currently overseen by Yoshida’s son Tetsuya Yoshida.
The colt is the second group 1 winner for his sire Kitasan Black, who was the JRA Horse of the Year in 2016 and 2017. Kitasan Black’s first group 1 winner is reigning JRA Horse of the Year Equinox .
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