Move over Almond Eye , Loves Only You , and Daring Tact and make room on the podium for another star Japanese filly, Liberty Island.
UN. BE. LIE. VA.BLE.
What an absolutely dominant win from LIBERTY ISLAND in the G1 Yushun Himba! 🇯🇵#リバティアイランド #競馬 #優駿牝馬 pic.twitter.com/badsoe9tKe
— World Horse Racing (@WHR) May 21, 2023
The Duramente filly put on a show in the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks-G1) May 21 at Tokyo Racecourse, thrashing 17 rivals to win by a historic 6 lengths while stretching out for the first time to 2,400 meters (about 1 1/2 miles).
She now is poised to pursue the filly Triple Crown in the Shuka Sho (G1) in the autumn and, as with her predecessors, international challenges also are likely to appear on her dance card.
Jockey Yuga Kawada’s primary role was to keep Liberty Island calm and focused, then let her run at the right time. That was a turnaround from the filly’s last race, the Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas-G1), when she missed the break and needed a furious stretch run to pass the entire field and get home first.
The Oaks was a comparative dream trip. Liberty Island started smoothly from the No. 5 stall, raced comfortably mid-field and had plenty of daylight heading into the uphill climb in the stretch. She also had plenty left in the tank and quickly found another gear, whizzing past rivals and owning the final 200 meters. The final time was 2:23.10 on a turf course rated good to firm.
The victory margin was the biggest since 1975 and one length more than the five-length advantage posted by Gentildonna in 2012 en route to her Triple Crown sweep.
Harper, second-favorite after Liberty Island, finished runner-up in the Oaks, just a head in front of 103-1 longshot Dura. Kona Coast, second as the favorite in the Oka Sho, reported seventh.
Kawada said his job started well before the race, during the long parade ring preliminaries that lead up to major Japanese races.
“Having run the Oka Sho and being transported here to Tokyo for another big race, the filly was quite tense coming into this race,” Kawada said. “So I had to make an effort to reserve her energy and calm her down before the race.
Liberty Island after her victory in the Japanese Oaks
“She settled well once in the gate, allowing us to make a safe start, and we were able to race in good rhythm while I still had the task of keeping her under control up to the critical stages.”
Kawada admitted he was helping Liberty Island make a statement through the final few hundred meters.
“I knew we were already in a position to finish clear of the other horses once taking the lead,” he said. “But I wanted her to finish off the race strongly to the wire so I kept driving her to the wire which led to a big margin.”
Kawada also rode Gentildonna to her five-length triumph in the Oaks.
Liberty Island, from the All American mare Yankee Rose, was bred by Northern Racing and carries the familiar colors of Sunday Racing Co. She is trained by Mitsumasa Nakauchida, who collected his seventh Japanese group 1 victory.
Nakauchida said before the race he wasn’t too concerned about tacking on added distance to Liberty Island’s task.
“She moves well, and is a horse with a lot of ability, particularly when it comes to the finish of a race,” the trainer said, adding, “She’s probably sharper now than she was for the Oka Sho.”
Liberty Island won her first start at Niigata Racecourse in July of 2022. She suffered her only loss in her next race, finishing second by a neck to Ravel in the Artemis Stakes (G3) at Tokyo in October. Ravel finished fourth in the Oaks.
She rebounded from that defeat with a 2 1/2-length victory in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (G1) in her 2-year-old finale, then won the Oka Sho off a four-month layoff. All of those races prior to the Oka Sho were at 1,600 meters (about 1 mile).
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