Gold Dream Takes on Chrysoberyl in Champions Cup

A week after the drama of the Japan Cup (G1), top-level racing returns to the dirt Dec. 1 as Chukyo Racecourse hosts the Champions Cup (G1) with a field that includes a confrontation between age and youth.

The race, formerly the Japan Cup Dirt, is run left-handed at 1,800 meters (about 1 1/8 miles) and provides a primary target for the nation's top dirt runners.

An interesting confrontation involves the 2017 Champions Cup winner, Gold Dream, who is back at age 6, and 3-year-old Chrysoberyl, who steps up after winning five starts on dirt. Both are by Gold Allure.

Gold Dream's career has taken multiple twists and turns. He finished 14th behind Arrogate  in the 2017 Dubai World Cup Sponsored by Emirates Airline (G1) but since then has shown his best going shorter. He followed the Champions Cup win with second-place showings in the February Stakes (G1) and Tokyo Daishoten (G1) the following year, and this year's February Stakes. After a summer break, he returned with a third-place finish in the Mile Championship Nambu Hai at Morioka.

"He had a break at Northern Farm Shigaraki and came back to the stable on Nov. 7," trainer Osamu Hirata said. "He's trained well since, and everything's gone according to plan with this race always being the target for him. I think he's suited to a course with quite a long homestretch."

Chrysoberyl, by contrast, has blazed through every challenge put to him. A winner in his only start at 2, he picked up right where he left off. His two most recent starts produced victories in the Japan Dirt Derby at Oi and the Nippon TV Hai at Funabashi. The runner-up at Oi was Derma Louvre, who was fourth in the UAE Derby Sponsored by Saeed & Mohammed Al Naboodah Group (G2) this March in Dubai.

"He's a horse that's still developing," jockey Yuga Kawada said of Chrysoberyl. "But he knows how to race, and I'm not worried about him handling the Chukyo track. I'll have to think about things once the gate number is known, but I hope he can show his potential here among this field of strong horses."

Chrysoberyl drew gate 5 in a field of 16.

The field's older contingent also includes Westerlund, a 7-year-old Neo Universe gelding who finished second in last year's renewal, and Inti, a 5-year-old by Came Home who won this year's February Stakes but was 15th in a grade 3 event at Kyoto. Trainer Kenji Nonaka dismissed that dismal result.

"He got very excited going into the first corner last time and never raced kindly after that, leading to his poor result at the end," Nonaka said. "He's currently very well in himself."

Four-year-olds Chuwa Wizard and Omega Perfume have solid records of top-three finishes and finished first and second, respectively, in the JBC Classic at Urawa.