Gran Alegria Bows Out With Mile Championship Victory

Gran Alegria  wrapped up her stellar career in a blaze of glory through the stretch run of the Mile Championship (G1) Nov. 21 at Hanshin Racecourse, sprinting to the lead and edging away to score her sixth grade 1 win.

The Deep Impact mare was clearly best of the 16-horse field, coming from well back under a confident ride by Japan's leading jockey, Christophe Lemaire, to score by three-quarters of a length. But as she heads to retirement, the 3-year-old colts who followed her across the line showed promise there will be no lack of talent among Japanese milers in coming seasons.

Lemaire kept Gran Alegria out of traffic during the run down the backstretch but then was forced widest of all as the field exited the sweeping turn into the stretch. Kicking into gear near the 200-meter marker, Gran Alegria quickly picked up the pacesetters and was going away at the finish.

Had it not been for the accomplished mare, Schnell Meister  would have been celebrating a coming-out party against older rivals. As Gran Alegria was flying up the outside, that Kingman  colt was knifing through traffic to finish second, a half-length in front of Danon the Kid, a 3-year-old son of Just a Way .

Schnell Meister now picks up the baton from Gran Alegria as both are owned by Sunday Racing and both were bred at Northern Farm. Gran Alegria was produced by the Tapit   mare Tapitsfly  while Schnell Meister is out of the Soldier Hollow  mare Serienholde .

Lemaire, who scored the 1,500th win and 40th grade 1 victory of his Japan Racing Association career, pronounced himself "relieved and happy" with the outcome of the Mile Championship.

"The most important mission for me in her last run of her career was to bring out the best performance, her true form. And she did just that," Lemaire said.

"We were positioned a little further back but it didn't worry me much and she has this really good finishing speed at the stretch like she showed today. She's been a special horse since she was a 2-year-old, winning all those big races, and today she showed us

again that she's of a different class. I will miss her."

Gran Alegria finished in 1:32.6 as she captured the Mile Championship for the second straight year. Her grade 1 wins also include the Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas) in 2019, the Yasuda Kinen and Sprinters stakes in 2020, and the Victoria Mile earlier this year.

The performances of both Schnell Meister and Danon the Kid were noteworthy.

Schnell Meister stepped up to the top level for the first time winning the NHK Mile Cup (G1) at Tokyo Racecourse May 9 but was third in the Yasuda Kinen (G1) a month later while facing older rivals. He returned from a break to win the Mainichi Okan (G2) Oct. 10, going 1,800 meters (about 1 1/8 miles).

Danon the Kid was last year's Japanese 2-year-old male champion thanks to a victory in the Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Nakayama. He subsequently failed to live up to that promise, finishing 15th in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese Two Thousand Guineas, G1), and showed some improvement after some time off, reporting fourth in the Fuji Stakes (G2) Oct. 23.

Trainer Takayuki Yasuda said Danon the Kid had excuses for the flat performance in the stretch run in the Fuji Stakes.

"I suppose that's partly due to him returning from a layoff," Yasuda said. "He has sharpened up since then, which means he had a lot of room for improvement in his last race."

With Gran Alegria off to her second career, Schnell Meister, Danon the Kid, and the other 3-year-olds now have a little more room to show improvement.