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| Staff Writer |
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Second favorite Efforia captured the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) undefeated since his debut and extending his winning streak to four for his first Gr.1title he becomes the 19th undefeated Satsuki Sho winner following Saturnalia and Contrail in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Winning his debut start over 2,000 meters at Sapporo in August last year, the Epiphaneia colt followed with a win in the Hyakunichiso Tokubetsu (Tokyo, 1 Win Class, 2,000m) in November and a graded victory in the Kyodo News Hai (Tokyo, Gr.3, 1,800m) in February this year. Trainer Yuichi Shikato won his second JRA-Gr.1title after the 2008 Japan Cup with Screen Hero. It was the fifth graded title and first Gr.1victory for jockey Takeshi Yokoyama who is in his fifth season as a jockey. He is the son of currently active jockey Norihiro Yokoyama who has won the same race with Seiun Sky back in 1998, the year when Takeshi was born. Takeshi’s victory makes him the third second-generation Satsuki Sho winner after Yutaka (father/Kunihiko) Take and Yuichi (father/Yoichi) Fukunaga.
Efforia broke smoothly and immediately secured a nice position behind the early leaders and inside Danon the Kid around third or fourth. While overtaken by a couple of rivals along the backstretch, Efforia moved up approaching the final corner and towards the inside rounding for home. Despite being pinched back briefly, Takeshi Yokoyama did not miss a beat in giving the green light as soon as an opening presented itself as the front runners spread out for the stretch run and the bay colt immediately assumed command and effortlessly increased his speed while many struggled to find another gear over the soft turf, pulling away with each stride to a comfortable three-length victory.
Eighth choice Titleholder jumped out from an outside draw, disputed the lead with World Revival, and eventually settled in the second position. Joined by Red Belle Aube in chasing the leader for the last half of the trip, the two horses ran in tandem with World Revival with Titleholder having a slight advantage up to the early stretch. While already taken over by the eventual winner in the early stretch, the Duramente colt showed tremendous effort in staying well to finish second best while unable to reach the winner.
Sixth favorite Stella Veloce was unhurried and saved ground well off the pace in mid-field. The Bago colt closed up with the rest of the field approaching the fourth corner while patiently waiting for an opening near the inside behind the eventual winner, then turned in an impressive turn of speed matching the winner in the last three furlongs, passing the tired early pacesetter in the last furlong and closing in rapidly to reach within a neck of Titleholder for third.
Race favorite Danon the Kid jumped energetically out of the gate but eventually in hand under Yuga Kawada while chasing the leaders outside the eventual winner in third or fourth and then overtaken by Red Belle Aube and Asamano Itazura who made an early move along the outside soon after entering the backstretch. The son of Just a Way angled out for the stretch run but ran out of steam from his effort over the soft going and faded quickly before reaching the final 200m pole.