Mad Cool took the shortest way home in one of Japan’s shortest Grade 1 races, the Takamatsunomiya Kinen (G1), March 24 at Chukyo Racecourse and held on to win by a head over Namura Clair with Hong Kong raider Victor the Winner a gallant third.
The Takamatsunomiya Kinen, one of just two top-level sprints on the Japanese racing calendar, is key in determining year-end honors. Mad Cool finished second in the other, the Sprinters Stakes (G1), last October.
Victor the Winner, a rare foreigner in the field, got going quickly from an outside post and dueled with Mad Cool for the lead through the backstretch run. As the field exited the sweeping turn into the stretch, jockey Derek Leung guided Victor the Winner out toward the center of the course with every chance.
Mad Cool’s rider, Ryusei Sakai, kept his mount well to the inside and seized the advantage while climbing the sharp incline toward the finish. He then was all out to hold the lead as Namura Clair, second in this race in 2023, rallied to finish second again, missing by just a head. Victor the Winner finished third, another 3 lengths in arrears.
Mad Cool finished the 1,200 meters (about 6 furlongs) on yielding turf in a drizzle in 1:08.9.
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Mama Cocha, the reigning Japanese sprint champion, finished eighth. A full sister to the famous white mare Sodashi , Mama Cocha defeated Mad Cool by a nose in the Sprinters Stakes in October with Namura Clair third.
The Takamatsunomiya Kinen favorite, Lugal, winner of the Silk Road Stakes (G3) in his last start, loomed boldly at mid-stretch but flattened out to finish 10th.
“I am so glad to have won this race after our narrow defeat last fall,” Sakai said. “He broke well and we were in an ideal position, right behind the pace, throughout the trip. The plan to stay in the inside for our attack at the stretch also worked to our advantage and he held on well to deter the chase from behind at the end.”
Leung said Victor the Winner ran his race despite the challenges facing any horse shipping in to contest top-level events in Japan.
“The race went as planned,” Leung said. “The track was soft and he fought a little bit because it was his first time racing in Japan, so it was not 100 percent for him. But he ran very well. When he was asked going uphill in the last 350 meters, he struggled a little bit and he was one-paced from there under pressure. But I am so proud of him to have run such a good race in Japan.”
Victor the Winner entered off a victory in the Centenary Sprint Cup (G1) at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong. The only international challenger to lift the Takamatsunomiya trophy was Aerovelocity in 2015, also representing Hong Kong.
Sakai said the victory portends good things for Mad Cool, a 5-year-old son of Dark Angel out of the Indian Ridge mare Mad About You .
“I’ve been riding this horse from early in his career and the connections had been eyeing this race from the beginning,” Sakai said. “But he still has room for improvement so I look forward to his future as well.”
Mad Cool is trained by Manabu Ikezoe for Sunday Racing Co., Ltd.
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