Japan’s champion filly Liberty Island is pleasing her trainer Mitsumasa Nakauchida as she progresses in her recovery towards a return in the G1 Tenno Sho Autumn at Tokyo on October 27.
Last season’s brilliant fillies’ triple crown winner in Japan has raced only once this year, when a deep-closing third in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic in March.
“She’s coming along quite well,” Nakauchida told Idol Horse. “She had the suspensory injury, which wasn’t too serious so she’s back riding and is going uphill already. I’m very happy with her progress.
“I think if she can get ready for the Tenno Sho that will be ideal, but we still need to see how she progresses through this month and next month, then we’ll know if she can stand the harder training she will need for the race.”
Liberty Island is a four-time Group 1 winner and placed second behind the outstanding champion Equinox in the 2023 G1 Japan Cup. Those are big achievements to match, but Nakauchida has hopes that her unraced two-year-old half-sister Madison Girl has the potential to make her own mark.
Both fillies are out of the top-class mare Yankee Rose, a Group 1 winner at 1400m and 2000m in Australia where she was also sharp enough to run second in the G1 Golden Slipper over 1200m as a juvenile.
“We have quite high expectations for Madison Girl, but she has a very high task to achieve those expectations compared to her older sister,” Nakauchida said. “She’s a little bit smaller and a more sensitive filly, but as an individual, she’s a nice type.
“She will be running sometime in September but we don’t have much of a selection of races at Chukyo at that time of year, but she will be ready to run sometime that month.”
Nakauchida is also looking forward to the autumn campaign with his classy miler Serifos, winner of the G1 Mile Championship in 2022. The five-year-old suffered sickness as a result of the hot summer in 2023 and failed to sparkle thereafter when only eighth in the Mile Championship and seventh in the G1 Hong Kong Mile.
This time around, the talented chestnut’s connections found him a more comfortable place to help him cope with Japan’s summer heat.
“This year Serifos has got through the summer quite well,” Nakauchida said. “He has stayed at Champion Hills (training farm), only about 40 or 50 minutes away from my stables at Ritto, so I see him once a week. He’s spending time in a stable that has an air conditioner, so he’s very comfortable this time.”
Serifos is likely to start his late-season campaign in the G2 Fuji Stakes at Tokyo on October 19, a race he won in 2022 but had to miss last year. Connections are not committing to a return to Hong Kong in December yet, with the priority being to ensure the entire has a chance of sealing a stallion gig.
“We’ll see what happens this autumn first,” Nakauchida said. “He will start maybe in the Fuji Stakes again and then go to the Mile Championship because the main aim is for him to win one more Group 1 race in Japan. He probably needs one more, really.”
