Belshazzar wins the Gr1 Japan Cup
Belshazzar, trained by Kunihide Matsuda and brilliantly ridden by Christophe Lemaire won the $2 655 577 Gr1 Japan Cup Dirt run over 1800m on Sunday.
Belshazzar, whose career has been blighted by illness and injury since he finished third to Orfevre in the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) two years ago, continued his re-emergence on a new surface when he got the better of seven-year-old Wonder Acute in the last Japan Cup Dirt to be run at Hanshin. A neck separated first and second, with hot favourite Hokko Tarumae half a length away third, after appearing to have the race sewn up 300 metres out.
Belshazzar provided a second success in the race, after Kane Hekili in 2008, for Christophe Lemaire, who has surrendered his job as the Aga Khan’s jockey to Christophe Soumillon but showed why he retains the confidence of the Japan Racing Association to continue with a short-term riding licence.
Lemaire and evergreen local favourite Yutake Take, who rode Wonder Acute, provided a lesson in riding style to Hokko Tarumae’s jockey Hideaki Miyuki, who dominates the local lists for number of rides but whose low winning percentage tells its own story.
Belshazzar had his three-year-old career cut short by a respiratory problem and managed only one race last year, due to a bone fracture. But he has returned to form since being switched to dirt this year, and Sunday’s success was his fourth from six outings on the artificial track, and easily his best.
Winning trainer Kunihide Matsuda said Belshazzar would reappear in Japan’s next major dirt race, the February Stakes, after which a decision about entering for the Dubai World Cup would be taken. Hopes of a trip to Dubai that were previously entertained about four-year-old Hokko Tarumae, who was suffering only his second defeat in seven graded-race outings this year, are now on hold.
