2025 Yasuda Kinen: Group 1 Preview
Venue: Tokyo Racecourse
Distance: 1600m
Value: ¥390,600,000 (US$2,734,078)
One of Japan’s most competitive races each year is the Yasuda Kinen, the final Group 1 of Tokyo’s spring-summer meet and a race that often attracts Hong Kong’s best milers.
That is not the case this year, but the Hong Kong form gets tested through Dubai Turf winner Soul Rush and the returning Jantar Mantar, who has not raced since failing in last year’s Hong Kong Mile.
Only Daiwa Major, Maurice, Indy Champ and Gran Alegria have retired in the last 20 years having won both of Japan’s open-age mile features, the mid-year Yasuda Kinen and the end of season Mile Championship. While they are both run at a mile, they are contested at entirely tracks – Tokyo and Kyoto – in opposite directions.
It is just one of the obstacles in the way of Soul Rush as he attempts to join that group.
The Horse To Beat: Soul Rush
Soul Rush’s victory over last year’s Yasuda Kinen winner Romantic Warrior in the G1 Dubai Turf (1800m) reads very well for his reappearance on home soil. However, the record of horses returning from Dubai for this race is patchy at best.
Among Dubai Turf winners from Japan, Almond Eye finished a luckless third in the Yasuda Kinen in 2019 while Real Steel finished 11th in 2016.
Only Just A Way managed to complete the double and he was a shadow of himself at Tokyo compared to his effort at Meydan, which earned him world’s best horse for 2014. Just A Way struggled on soft ground and only just managed to reel in rank outsider Grand Prix Boss in the last stride.
In recent years, Dubai Turf placegetters Namur and Vin De Garde have also failed to land the Yasuda Kinen upon their return home.
Soul Rush will cement himself among Japan’s greatest ever milers by becoming the first to complete the Dubai Turf-Yasuda Kinen-Mile Championship treble should he win.
The Query: Jantar Mantar
What can one expect with Tomokazu Takano-trained Jantar Mantar?
The 2023 champion two-year-old colt looked set to develop into Japan’s leading miler following his dominant G1 NHK Mile Cup success last May but he has only raced once since – a disappointing 13th to Voyage Bubble in the G1 Hong Kong Mile.
His best is certainly good enough. Ascoli Piceno has confirmed the strength of that NHK Mile Cup form with her fighting wins in the G2 1351 Turf Sprint in Riyadh and last month’s G1 Victoria Mile at Tokyo. Danon McKinley ran a decent race in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint in Dubai and Bond Girl was tremendous in the G1 Shuka Sho last year.
Perhaps Antino can give Jantar Mantar cause for hope. The Australian finished only three lengths ahead of Jantar Mantar at Sha Tin after severe interference but arguably produced career best performances last month with runaway wins in the G1 Doomben Cup and G2 Hollindale Stakes.
If Jantar Mantar goes to another level, nothing – perhaps not even Soul Rush – can beat him.
The Potential Traveller: Sixpence
Intriguingly, early indicative markets actually had Sixpence as the likely favourite ahead of Soul Rush and Jantar Mantar.
Whether Sakae Kunieda’s four-year-old jumps as the public’s leading choice is another question entirely but such is the buzz around him, he is one of the headline horses for this year’s Yasuda Kinen.
Sixpence set a new course record for the Nakayama 1800m in the G2 Nakayama Kinen in March – Soul Rush was back in third – before disappointing as favourite in the G1 Osaka Hai at 2000m in April.
He returns to a mile now for the first time since his two-year-old days.
Should he perform to expectations, he could travel to France to tackle the G1 Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville in August. He has been entered alongside Ascoli Piceno and Go To First.
The Rising Star: Ecoro Walz
For much of his career, Ecoro Walz has been eclipsed by others. As a two-year-old, it was Jantar Mantar. At three, it was any number of his contemporaries – particularly Urban Chic. So far at four, it has been Sixpence.
However, the Yasuda Kinen might be his time to prove he belongs among Japan’s very best horses.
Tried over extended trips at three, his future appears to lie between a mile and 2000m. He was a nose second to Sixpence – and ahead of Soul Rush – in the Nakayama Kinen before finishing fourth to Bellagio Opera, a length ahead of Sixpence, in the Osaka Hai.
Like Sixpence, Ecoro Walz is returning to a mile for the first time since his juvenile campaign. His last run at the trip netted a second, just over a length behind Jantar Mantar, in the G1 Asahi Hai Futurity.
Trainer Mitsunori Makiura is still looking for his first JRA Grade 1 win and was placed with Shirankedo in the Victoria Mile just three weeks ago.
The Sprinter: Mad Cool
Mad Cool has only won once in the last two years – victorious in the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen in March last year – and the time appears right for a return to a mile.
In fact, he has only raced once at the distance and that was at his very first start at Chukyo in January, 2022. He was quite strong through the line but winner Kitasan Sugar was stronger – perhaps a reason they dropped him back in trip.
After two and a half years at 1200m, he stepped up to 1400m in December’s G2 Hanshin Cup and looked the likely winner for much of the straight before a swooping Namura Clair grabbed him late.
Ryusei Sakai will have to time his run right on Manabu Ikezoe’s grey – he won’t want to be exposed too early like he was in the Hanshin Cup – but if he is patient, Mad Cool might just prove to be a surprise contender. ∎
