Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas)

LOVCEN, who was voted Japan’s second best two-year-old colt of 2025, got his classic season off to a flying start with a course-record victory in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) at Nakayama Racecourse last Sunday.

Lovcen had won the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes to wind up his two-year-old campaign, but lost the 2025 two-year-old title to Cavallerizzo, winner of the Group 1 Asahi Hai Futurity. Both returned for the Satsuki Sho but Lovcen was sent off as the favourite.

The World Premier colt got away well and led the 18-horse field for jockey Kohei Matsuyama, stalked on his outside by Realize Sirius. Realize Sirius got closer around the sweeping second turn and was on terms beginning the uphill rise of the finishing straight.

Lovcen’s stamina-laden pedigree kicked in then as he fought off his challengers, winning by three-quarters of a length. Reichsadler closed to pip Ask Edinburgh for third in a battle of long shots. Cavallerizzo, close early, faded through the final stages and finished 13th. Lovcen lowered the course record for 2,000m by 0.1 second.

Classic double

Kohei Matsuyama became just the seventh jockey to score a same-year double of the opening classics, the Satsuki Sho and the Oka Sho, after partnering Star Anise to victory in the fillies’ classic a week earlier.

“I owe it all to my incredible mounts,” he told media. “We had a good draw and we knew that when it comes to Nakayama’s turf and with the experience from last year, we’d have a better chance if we ran near the front. I wasn’t thinking of setting the pace but the colt broke really well.

“He showed amazing speed and to break the record also proves how much stamina he has. He’s such a strong and versatile colt.”

Lovcen was bred by Northern Farm and races for Forest Racing. Stamina looks his forte as a son of World Premier, who won the 2019 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) and the 2021 Tenno Sho (Spring) over about two miles distance.

World Premier is by Deep Impact and Lovcen’s dam, Songwriting, is a daughter of Giant’s Causeway.