Epiphaneia
Epiphaneia eagerly tracked the pace into the stretch in the Gr1 Japan Cup on Sunday and kicked away to a huge lead as the 18-horse field charged toward the line, and won by four lengths over Just a Way.
Spielberg finished third and 7-2 favorite Gentildonna was fourth in her effort to win Japan’s top race, with a purse of about $4.4 million at Toyko Racecourse, for a third straight year.
Last year’s Irish Derby (Ire-I) winner Trading Leather, one of only three foreign horses in the race, was pulled up by jockey Kevin Manning during the race. The Japan Racing Association later reported he was found to have suffered a fracture and was euthanized.
Godolphin Racing bought a majority interest in the colt after his 2014 season.
German-based Ivanhowe rallied smartly down the stretch but could do no better than finish sixth. Canadian entry Up With the Birds got home 16th.
Epiphaneia was sent off as the fourth choice at odds of nearly 9-1.
Epiphaneia is a 4-year-old colt by Symboli Kris S out of Cesario, a Japanese mare who won the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks, Jpn-I) in 2005 before also landing the American Oaks Invitational Stakes (gr. IT) at Hollywood Park. The winner came into Japan’s biggest race off a sixth-place finish in the Tenno Sho Autumn (Jpn-I) and had not won in three starts earlier this year.
Jockey Christophe Soumillon, who replaced Yuichi Fukunaga aboard Epiphaneia, said when the race began he wasn’t sure his eager mount would be around for the finish.
“The horse was very keen and I can’t say I was very confident when I saw how he started because I saw I wouldn’t be able to ride him the way the trainer asked: in sixth or seventh position,” Soumillon said.
He called it “an amazing performance” that Epiphaneia was able to keep rolling in the final few hundred meters of the 2,400-meter race.
Trainer Katsuhiko Sumii agreed Epiphaneia is a difficult horse to control, and said that’s why he and the owners at U. Carrot Farm asked for Soumillon when Fukunaga opted to ride Just a Way. When asked about the prospect for international travel for Epiphaneia, Sumii said: “I will have to discuss that with my owners.”
Top Rider. Christophe Soumillion won the Japan Cup
Soumillon offered the opinion that Epiphaneia could win the group I Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France, but only with a ride by a jockey experienced with the Longchamp course in Paris.
Just a Way, winner of the Dubai Duty Free (UAE-I) this spring, bounced back from a trouncing in the Arc, in which he finished eighth off a long layoff. Gentildonna, winner of the Dubai Sheema Classic (UAE-I), finished second in her last start, the Tenno Sho Autumn.
In her quest for an unprecedented third straight Japan Cup victory, the 5-year-old mare was reserved in sixth toward the inside for jockey Ryan Moore. She found a clear path in the final straight, but was unable to quicken well enough to challenge the winner, losing by 5 1/4 lengths.
Second choice Harp Star finished a neck behind Gentildonna in fifth after making a mild late bid.
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