Champions Cup (Group 1)

AFTER a run of favourites winning Japan’s Group 1s, it was the fourth horse in the betting, Chuwa Wizard, who won this year’s Champions Cup to register his first Group 1 victory.

The five-year-old son of King Kamehameha has only raced on dirt since February of his three-year-old season and his sole JRA graded win was in a Group 3 last year, though he has multiple wins on dirt on the NAR circuit.

Coming off a third in the JBC Classic in November, Chuwa Wizard was winning his 10th contest, his only unplaced start being a fourth in last year’s Champions Cup.

This win marked trainer Ryuji Okubo’s third top level Group 1 win and jockey Keita Tosaki’s eighth.

Chuwa Wizard broke well and raced in mid-division with the favourite Chrysoberyl in front. The five-year-old unleashed a powerful charge in the lane, hitting the front 100 metres out, and pulled away to a two-and-a-half-length victory.

“The horse was in very good condition and felt really good. With Chrysoberyl travelling in front, I was able to feel his response while marking the race favourite. As it takes time for him to accelerate, I urged him to go early and the horse responded with great strength,” commented his rider Keita Tosaki, on his eighth Group 1 win.

Last year’s runner-up and 2017 winner Gold Dream produced an impressive late kick to pull ahead of Inti for second place.

Odds-on favourite Chrysoberyl was well-positioned to make bid in the straight but the defending champion was unable to exert his usual late kick and finished fourth with the well regarded Cafe Pharoah back in sixth.

TOMORROW the JRA turns the spotlight onto the budding talent among this season’s two-year-olds with the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies where the star attraction is the unbeaten white filly Sodashi bidding for a Group 1 win after three successes this season.