GROUP 1 racing returned to JRA fixture list at Nakayama racecourse following a three month summer hiatus

The 50th running of the six-furlong turf Group 1 Sprinters Stakes, now the eighth Leg of the Global Sprint Challenge, was recently contested for a prize pool in excess of 212,000,000 Yen (€1,850,000). Furthermore, in a new development this year, the winner of this race is guaranteed a berth in the Breeder’s Cup Turf Sprint.

The Sprinters Stakes, in addition to March’s Takamatsunomiya Kinen, are the only two Group 1 events run over a trip of less than a mile among the 22 top-tier turf races on the Japanese racing calendar.

This year’s Takamatsunomiya Kinen winner, Big Arthur, took his place in the Sprinter Stakes as the odds-on favourite to complete the Group 1 sprint double.

However, unable to find a gap behind a wall of horses in the home straight, Big Arthur finished on the bridle in 12th position.

No stranger to Group 1 victories in Japan, Mirco Demuro was on-hand yet again to conjure a telling late run on 8/1 third favourite Red Falx to lay claim to his 17th Japanese Grade 1 title.

BY A NOSE

Drawn in stall 13, the five-year-old colt initially raced on the outer of mid-division. First off the bridle, Demuro nevertheless began to make considerable progress approaching the last corner. Swinging wide off the bend to circle the field, Red Falx responded willingly to all his rider’s urgings to get his nose in front in the shadow of the winning post.

By denying Mikki Isle by a head with Solvieg a further neck back in third place, and banked the near €900,000 winning prize.

It was a bunch finish with many horses not enjoying a clear passage in the final third and indeed the first 15 home in the 16-runner field were separated by less than four lengths.

With an 18-race career thus far, the versatile Red Falx has performed effectively on both dirt and turf surfaces. He captured his first graded race when successful in the Group 3 CBC Sho in his penultimate start in July of this year.

A son of Swept Overboard, Red Falx provided his sire with his first Group 1 success in Japan. A two-time Grade 1 winner in America on dirt, he retired to stud in 2003. Swept Overboard stood at Breeder’s Stallion Station in Hokkaido in 2016 for a fee of 700,000 Yen (€6,000).