Loves Only You Wins BC Filly & Mare Turf for Japan

In April, Loves Only You  helped make some history for Japan racing in Hong Kong. On a fall Saturday at Del Mar, she stood alone in a historic racing moment for her home country in North America.

Loves Only You became the first Japan-based horse to win a Breeders' Cup race when the 5-year-old daughter of the late sire Deep Impact  split favored War Like Goddess  and longshot My Sister Nat  to win the $2 million Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T).

"We've had so many horses challenge in the Breeders' Cup, but we'd never had a victory at Breeders' Cup," said DMM Dream Racing director Takumi Nomoto through an interpreter. "That's why I felt like it was a challenge to come in here, and we got the big win."

In April, Loves Only You won the FWD Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1) at Sha Tin, leading home four Japan-based runners. It marked the first time Japan-based runners had taken the top four spots in that top Hong Kong event.

Two weeks after that Hong Kong victory, trainer Yoshito Yahagi approached Nomoto about running in the Breeders' Cup, and while they didn't completely commit to it at that time, they set on that path, which would be realized.

"The race looked like a really tough race, a competitive race, but before the race we thought our horse was Number One," Yahagi said through an interpreter. "It was a really great race, but we believed in her, and now she won this great race."

In the 1 3/8-mile Filly & Mare Turf, it would be a U.S.-based horse that acted first when jockey Julien Leparoux made a sweeping, six-wide move in the third and final turn aboard George Krikorian's War Like Goddess to loom large entering the stretch after Going to Vegas  had led the way through a half-mile in :47.83 and a mile in 1:38.2. Surging War Like Goddess, a daughter of champion grass horse English Channel , seized the lead in the stretch and carried that advantage past the eighth pole.

But Peter Brant's My Sister Nat, fresh off a repeat win in the Fasig-Tipton Waya Stakes (G3T), made a sweeping move of her own in the final turn and engaged War Like Goddess in deep stretch. But it would be Loves Only You moving best of all in deep stretch. Prominently placed in fourth or fifth throughout by jockey Yuga Kawada, Loves Only You was patient as she encountered traffic in the lane before finding a seam inside the sixteenth pole to deliver her winning surge.

Loves Only You prevailed by a half-length over My Sister Nat; completing the 1 3/8-mile race in 2:13.87 on firm turf. War Like Goddess held third, 1 1/2 lengths ahead of dual English classic winner Love  in fourth.

After the race, Nomoto said he would love to try to bring Loves Only You back to next year's Breeders' Cup at Keeneland.

Trainer Chad Brown was proud of My Sister Nat's effort and the ride by jockey Jose Ortiz. Before the race, owner Peter Brant said the 6-year-old half sister to champion Sistercharlie  and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) winner Sottsass  would be retired and likely sent to France-based sire Siyouni .

"Jose rode a great race. We had a plan to follow War Like Goddess, which he executed perfectly. I just said, 'if you have any chance to win, just follow her and draw alongside of her in the stretch and if our horse is good enough, battle it out.' That's what Jose did.

"I'm so proud of this mare. It's bittersweet because she ran the race of her life, but it was her last race, and unfortunately, she never got that grade 1 win that she deserves. She had a couple of tough beats. Nevertheless, she is off to the breeding shed and she has been a wonderful mare to train. I look forward to training her babies."

The third-place finish for War Like Goddess ended a four-race win streak and marked just her second career loss in eight starts.

"She moved a little quick around that final turn," said trainer Bill Mott. "(Leparoux) said that when he tipped her out, she got pretty aggressive. She took off with him, but no big excuse. She maybe got to the lead a little soon."

Japan would not have to wait long for its next Breeders' Cup victory as three races after the Filly & Mare Turf, Marche Lorraine  scored an upset win in the Longines Breeders' Cup Distaff (G1). The victories highlighted a weekend that saw seven Japan-based runners start in Breeders' Cup races.

"It is really exciting to witness such a massive scale of representation by our horses in one of the most prestigious racing events in the world," said Japan Racing Association representative Takahiro Uno, who noted before the event that Breeders' Cup was very accommodating. "Horses travel all across the globe to participate in prestigious races nowadays, and our horses are no exception by hopping on cargo flights to take on the best horses around the world.

"That being said, I have never seen so many (Japan-based) horses traveling to the U.S. together at once before. Therefore, it is so exciting for not only the JRA but also our racing fans and those involved with the horse racing industry in Japan."

While Loves Only You is the first Japan-based horse to win a Breeders' Cup race, she's the second Japan-bred to secure victory in the World Championships as France-trained Karakontie   won the 2014 Breeders' Cup Mile (G1T) at Santa Anita Park.

Bred by the Yoshida family's powerhouse Northern Farm, Loves Only You is out of the unraced Storm Cat mare Loves Only Me, who also has produced 2016 Dubai Turf Sponsored by DP World (G1) winner Real Steel and stakes winner Prodigal Son. Loves Only Me [in foal to Danehill Dancer ] was purchased for $900,000 by Katsumi Yoshida at the 2009 Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale, where she was consigned by Lane's End.

Video: Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1T)