Eri King lost his unbeaten record in Japan’s first colt’s classic, the G1 Satsuki Sho, late last month but trainer Mitsumasa Nakauchida believes the race will have helped the three-year-old’s preparation for the Derby at Tokyo on June 1.
Nakauchida will roll out his stable stars in the coming weeks, with Queen’s Walk and Lord Del Rey also being pointed at Group 1 targets. But classic hopes rest on Eri King who will attempt to give the trainer and big-spending owner Susumu Fujita a first Tokyo Yushun victory.
“Eri King will go to the Derby,” Nakauchida said. “He was a little bit disappointing in the Satsuki Sho but he had a long lay-off coming back from injury, so I could understand the performance. But I’m sure he will have benefitted from the experience, the fast pace, with so many horses around him, and it was the first time racing for him this year. That will all bring him on.”
The son of Kizuna, out of the Australian Group 1 winner Youngstar, won three from three as a juvenile, wrapping up that campaign with a smart victory over Satsuki Sho fourth Giovanni in the G3 Kyoto Nisai stakes. A minor fracture then ruled him out of the end-of-year juvenile Group 1 contests.
His own Satsuki Sho endeavours were enough only for 11th place after he was bumped entering the first turn, then outpaced into the final turn, and encountered traffic in a crowded run for home.
“He didn’t stop, he ran to the finish line so that was good,” said Nakauchida, with the 2400m Derby in mind.
Meanwhile, Nakauchida is pitching Sunday Racing’s talented filly Queen’s Walk into the G1 Victoria Mile on May 18 against the likes of Ascoli Piceno, Stellenbosch and Bond Girl. The four-year-old was eighth in last year’s G1 Oka Sho and fourth in the G1 Yushun Himba but was a Group 2 winner in the Rose Stakes, coming out of those classics, and she got this campaign rolling with victory in the G2 Kinko Sho over 2000m in March.
“She will go to the Victoria Mile,” the trainer confirmed. “She hasn’t run over one mile for a long time but I think she will handle that and she’s in good form.”
The stable’s Lord Del Rey showed that he has matured into a high-class galloper at age five with a career-best second behind Bellagio Opera in the G1 Osaka Hai on April 6. The son of Lord Kanaloa has won six of 10 starts, has only once been out of the first two, and will take aim at another Group 1 target next month.
“He will come back to my stable sometime next week in preparation for the Takarazuka Kinen,” Nakauchida said. “He’s in good form after the Osaka Hai. He has reached his maturity: he had his first race as a three-year-old, so he’s a late maturing type.”
Looking further ahead, Prognosis could be seen next in the G2 Sapporo Kinen in late August, as has become customary. The trainer was pleased with the entire’s effort when a running-on second behind Tastiera in the G1 QEII Cup at Sha Tin two weekends ago.
“He tries really hard and as a seven-year-old, when we consider his age, I thought he ran a huge race in Hong Kong,” Nakauchida said. “The gate manner hasn’t improved but still his performance proved that his ability is still at a high standard. I was very happy about him.
“He will have a short break and maybe he will race in the Sapporo Kinen again and then we’ll see how he performs and go from there. We’ll just see what Shadai wants to do with him.” ∎
