The final weeks of the year provide multiple opportunities for 2-year-olds to make their case for glory in the coming season and the Asahi Hai Futurity (G1) attracted several undefeated colts ready to do just that Dec. 17 on the Hanshin Racecourse turf.
The 17-horse field is an indication of the depth of juvenile competition in Japan as the 1,600-meter (about a mile) Futurity precedes the 2,000-meter (about 1 1/4 miles) Hopeful Stakes (G1) by just 11 days. Both have produced stars, with the likes of Do Deuce and Admire Mars on the list of Futurity winners.
While the race is a sorting-out affair, there is a bit of form to consider.
Danon McKinley, Ecoro Waltz and Jantar Mantar all enter the Futurity undefeated. Strauss enjoys significant support with two wins and a respectable third on his record.
Strauss, a Maurice colt, exits a victory in the Tokyo Sports Hai Nisai Stakes (G2) and finished third in the Saudi Arabia Royal Cup (G2) before that. Both races are considered significant pointers to the Futurity.
Tom Marquand will be Strauss’s fourth pilot, following Damian Lane, Christophe Lemaire and Joao Moreira. He sounded happy to get the shot.
“He might be a 2-year-old, but he feels quite mature,” Marquand said. “He stood out among the other horses in his last race, so I hope he can run in a similar way to how he did last time.”
Trainer Ryo Takei said Strauss “can hang a little to the left, so racing to the right should help … I want the horse to find his own rhythm in the race, so an outside gate would be best. He certainly has potential.”
If Strauss does not perform to expectations, Takei will not have the draw to blame. He got the outside stall.
Danon McKinley, another by Maurice, is 2-for-2 but steps up to a graded stakes for the first time for trainer Hideaki Fujiwara. Both wins were at 1,400 meters (about seven furlongs), at Hanshin and Kyoto, so he will have to manage an additional 200 meters. Lemaire hops on Danon McKinley.
“He’s running well,” Fujiwara said. “He’s a horse with plenty of ability, and I’d like to see him run a big race here with next year in mind.”
Ecoro Waltz makes the opposite adjustment, as his two victories both came at 1,800 meters (about 1 1/8 miles). The son of Black Tide was last seen winning the Cosmos Sho at Sapporo Racecourse Aug. 13. He drew the inside stall.
Jantar Mantar, a son of Palace Malice , won at first asking in August and returned to win the Daily Hai Nisai Stakes (G2) at Kyoto Nov. 11. Trainer Tomokazu Takano signed up Yuga Kawada, who is chasing Lemaire for the Japanese jockey championship, and seemed optimistic.
“We’re concentrating on the horse’s rhythm in track work, but he’s doing well with this,” Takano said. “He’ll be up against different horses in this next Grade 1, and it’ll be interesting to see how he can do.”
The pace in the Futurity likely will come from Set Up. The Declaration of War colt has taken the lead right out of the gate in each of his three starts and was able to hold the advantage last time, winning the Sapporo Nisai Stakes (G3) at 1,800 meters in September.
“He seems to be getting stronger,” jockey Takeshi Yokoyama said of Set Up. ” I’ve been working him the way I’d like to see him run, with a good rhythm in a race over a mile.”
