Smart Shuka Sho Field Set as Typhoon Threatens Japan

Danon Fantasy, the 2018 Japanese 2-year-old filly champion, looks to continue a comeback in the Oct. 13 Shuka Sho (G1) at Kyoto—the final leg of Japan's filly Triple Crown.

The race likely will be run over testing ground, just a day after Typhoon Hagabis was forecast to lash Japan with high winds and torrential rains. The Japan Racing Association canceled racing at Tokyo Racecourse Oct. 12-13 in anticipation of the dangerous storm.

At the start of the season, expectations were high Danon Fantasy would follow in the hoofprints of Almond Eye, who swept the 2018 Triple Crown. She won her 2019 opener, the Tulip Sho (G2), but then came upon hard times.

In the first race of the Triple Crown series, the April 7 Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas, G1) at Hanshin, she reported home fourth. Returning for the May 19 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks, G1) at Tokyo, she was fifth. After a long summer break, the Deep Impact filly managed a win in the Kansai Telecasting Corp. Sho Rose Stakes (G2), improving her record to five wins from eight starts.

Trainer Mitsumasa Nakauchida said at the barrier draw he felt Danon Fantasy had run reasonably well despite the early season losses. But he admitted to a few reservations about her chances at Kyoto.

"She was a bit unsteady in the straight in the Rose Stakes, so that will be something of a concern this time," the trainer said. "This will be her first time over this distance (2,000 meters, about 1 1/4 miles), and the course itself will be quite a change, but I think she'll handle it, though I do think 1,600 meters (about one mile) is her best trip. She hasn't run on a heavier track before, and I don't think she'll like it."

The winners of the Oka Sho and Yushun Himba are both absent from the Shuka Sho, so if the Deep Impact filly in fact doesn't like the expected deep going, punters will be looking to others who finished up the track in those events.

Beach Samba, a Kurofune filly, was second in the Rose Stakes and returns. She has never finished ahead of Danon Fantasy, but jockey Yuichi Fukunaga said he has hope for a reversal, in part due to the conditions.

"She's filled out more from the spring and still races nicely with her body low to the ground. I don't know about heavy going. I think it would be OK. She has power," Fukunaga said.

Chrono Genesis, a daughter of Bago, was second to Danon Fantasy in last year's Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (G1) and third in both the Oka Sho and Yushun Himba and has not missed the board in any of her six starts.

The Shuka Sho is run right-handed around the inner turf course at Kyoto. It starts in front of the grandstand and includes four corners—the first two are sharp by Japanese standards—then culminates in a short stretch effort. The layout is regarded as a tricky one, especially for inexperienced runners.