Cafe Pharoah Set to Contest Japan Dirt Derby

Cafe Pharoah, already a lock for the top spot in the Japan Road to the Kentucky Derby, returns to action July 8 at Ohi Racecourse to contest the final leg of the series, the Japan Dirt Derby.

A son of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah  who is undefeated in three starts, Cafe Pharoah holds 70 points in the series with his closest competitor, Dieu du Vin, having 26. The Dirt Derby offers 40 points to the winner with the minor placings getting 16, eight, and four points, so the lead is insurmountable.

The race is not without interest, though. Should Cafe Pharoah not make it to Louisville, Churchill Downs would look down the list to find another entrant. The offer bumped down to the fourth-place finisher in the 2019 series, to Master Fencer, who finished seventh in Louisville, placed sixth after the disqualification of Maximum Security.

Churchill Downs officials, however, have a level of confidence Cafe Pharoah's owner, Koichi Nishikawa, and trainer, Noriyuki Hori, will accept the bid as they listed the colt as a separate entry in the fifth pool of the Kentucky Derby Futures Wager on the final weekend of June. He closed at odds of 14-1. 

Cafe Pharoah, out of the More Than Ready  mare Mary's Follies, was bred by Paul Pompa. He sold at the 2019 Ocala Breeders' Sales March Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training for $475,000 to Narvick International from the consignment of Eddie Woods.

He won for fun as the even-money favorite in his career debut Dec. 14 at Nakayama Racecourse with Ryan Moore riding, and followed that with a victory in the Feb. 23 Hyacinth Stakes at Tokyo Racecourse. He then romped home first in the June 21 Unicorn Stakes (G3) back at Tokyo.

Cafe Pharoah's first win came at 1 1/8 miles and the stakes victories were both at a mile. He stretches out to 1 1/4 miles for the Dirt Derby. Damian Lane has the mount.

Also in the 13-horse Dirt Derby is Full Flat, another Kentucky-bred who turned in a flat effort behind Cafe Pharoah's romping win in the Unicorn Stakes. The Speightstown  colt was fifth in the TVG Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) last fall then jumped up to win the Feb. 29 Samba Saudi Derby Cup at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh. Yutaka Take will ride.

Japan's leading rider, Christophe Lemaire, takes the mount on Barnard Loop, a Lord Kanaloa colt who finished second to Cafe Pharoah in his career debut—albeit 10 lengths behind the winner. He has won three straight races since but is not nominated to the U.S. Triple Crown.

Another by the 2015 Triple Crown winner, Danon Pharaoh, has disappointed twice in earlier races in the series but gets another shot.

The only other runner in the Dirt Derby field with points on the Derby leaderboard is Daimei Corrida, an Eskendereya colt who ranks fifth with two points. He finished ninth in the Hyacinth.

The race is run around two relatively sharp turns at Ohi. The racecourse is known for its nighttime "twinkle races" inaugurated in 1986 and is among the most popular of Japan's regional tracks.