THE Group 1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) marks the beginning of the 2017 flat racing season in earnest. Nine out of the annual total of 24 Group 1 events are scheduled to be contested across the next 10 weekends.

Over 44,000 racing fans flooded to Hanshin racecourse near Osaka to witness most of Japan’s best three-year-old fillies compete over a mile for a prize pool of 213,140,000 Yen (€1,800,000). Heavy rain in the days preceding the first classic of 2017 meant the race, uncharacteristically for Japan, was to be run on ground officially described as yielding.

The Oka Sho was first run in 1939, then won by a filly named Soul Lady, and 78 years later, almost an air of expectation had been built up pre-race for a filly sharing part of her name with the inaugural winner. The majority of the speculation revolved around unbeaten 2016 Champion Juvenile Soul Stirring, a Frankel filly.

Soul Stirring’s merciless season reappearance in the Group 3 Tulip Sho in March, had only solidified her place at the top of the betting market for the Oka Sho.

But, as it transpired, 40/1 and eighth in the betting, Reine Minoru, was to upset the field of 17 runners to claim victory.

Reine Minoru quickened to take the lead as they approached the final furlong. Galvanised by jockey, Kenichi Ikezoe, she went on to pass the winning post half a length to the good over the fast-finishing Lys Gracieux. Soul Stirring chased home the pair, a neck further back in third.

Reine Minoru is the first Group 1 winner for her trainer, ex-jockey Masura Honda. Relatively new to the Japanese training ranks, he was first licenced in 2007.

It was a timely boost for the trainer as Honda has saddled just five other JRA winners in 2017, languishing in 54th place (based on number of winners) on the trainers’ leader board. In his previous career in the saddle, Masura Honda won the Oka Sho in 2001 aboard T.M Ocean.

By Shadai Stallion Station resident Daiwa Major, Reine Minoru is the ninth foal out the 17-year-old mare Daiwa Angel (Taiki Shuttle).

On face value, Reine Minoru ran out a well-deserved winner of a truly run race. However, questions must be asked about the effect that the soft ground had on the rest of the field. In her three runs of 2017, she has beaten by three individual fillies on each occasion that reopposed her in the Oka Sho.

Two of the fillies seemingly most affected by the ease in the ground were Admire Miyabi and Soul Stirring, the former an impressive winner of the Group 3 Daily Hai Queen Cup in February, beating Reine Minoru.

Admire Miyabi was well-fancied to take prominent order but, right from the start, she never travelled with any fluency and hung badly while staying-on in the home straight to finish never nearer than 12th place.

It is likely that a similar line-up will compete in the Group 1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) on May 21st at Tokyo Racecourse.

The three aforementioned fillies will, no doubt, once again be prominent in the betting and in the final result.

Making her seasonal reappearance for 2017, the other Frankel filly to line up in the Oka Sho, Mi Suerte, finished in 11th place.