Fresh off a strong runner-up performance in the $1 million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T), plans call for grade 2 winner May Day Ready to carry the American flag across the Pacific to race in Japan.
Citing no more top-level opportunities for the 2-year-old daughter of Tapit in America this season, trainer Joseph Lee confirmed Nov. 7 that his stable star will compete in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (G1) at Kyoto Racecourse Dec. 8. The filly has remained at Del Mar following the Breeders’ Cup and the exact date of her travel is to be determined.
“There’s nothing else really out there; no other Breeders’ Cups or grade 1s,” Lee said. “We’re really happy with her, happy how she came out of the race.”
Kyoto will host the 1,600-meter (about one mile) race this season because Hanshin, the track for which the race is named, is undergoing renovations. The race is worth ¥65 million (about US$423,439).
Lee knows racing in Japan very well. As a former long-time assistant for Godolphin, he has accompanied many horses through Japan’s quarantine process; which he called among the best in the world. He also spent some time there as an assistant to his father-in-law, now-retired trainer Takemi Kaga.
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The quarantine stables are located at the Japan Racing Association’s Horse Racing School for prospective jockeys and stable staff in Shiroi City. The school has a 1,400-meter (about seven-furlong) dirt track in which the quarantined horses are given a specified time period to use for training.
“It’s a great place to quarantine, it’s quiet,” Lee said. “You’re able to train. That’s great, you don’t have to be in a little thing where you walk them. They can get outside.
“It’s a great quarantine, an easy quarantine. You’ve got to run against the best, you got to be ready and hope you traveled well. That’s the key there.”
(L-R) Trainer Joseph Lee and his sons Anthony and Joseph with May Day Ready following her victory in the Jessamine Stakes at Keeneland
Through four starts, May Day Ready already has accumulated more than $1 million in earnings for Larry and Karen Doyle’s KatieRich Stables. They purchased her in April from the Ocala Breeders’ Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training for $325,000 from the De Meric Sales consignment. She was bred in Kentucky by White Birch Farm.
“I don’t get enamored with this. If I didn’t think I had the horse, I wouldn’t come,” Doyle said of running his filly in the Breeders’ Cup, a sentiment that also covers his feelings about racing in Japan. “We never ducked a race, we always thought she was special. She’s never really had a clean, clean trip.”
May Day Ready began her career by upsetting an Aug. 4 Saratoga Race Course maiden special weight at odds of 25-1, winning by a nose.
She backed up that performance with a 1 3/4-length victory in the Sept. 8 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Fillies Stakes and another nose victory in a three-way photo in the Oct. 4 Jessamine Stakes (G2T) at Keeneland. In the Jessamine, she overcame losing a shoe and having to check multiple times in the early stages of the race.
In the Nov. 1 Juvenile Fillies Turf, May Day Ready again found herself in the back early. A rail journey caught the filly in some traffic around the far turn. Following the heavy favorite, and eventual winner Lake Victoria , she chased strongly down the lane to finish 1 1/2 lengths behind and one length ahead of third.
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