Contrail Bows Out With Japan Cup Win

For the second straight year, the Japan Cup (G1) was a retirement party for a Triple Crown winner.

Contrail, who swept through the 2020 Japanese Triple Crown events undefeated, put an exclamation point to his career with a "statement" win Nov. 28 on the Tokyo Racecourse turf.

And he did it both with authority and over Authority, a 4-year-old Orfevre  colt who ran well to finish second, two lengths behind the winner.

The stretch run hauntingly resembled the scene a year earlier when Almond Eye , Japan's 2018 filly Triple Crown winner, wound up her career with a victory over the same course. Then, it was Contrail who could only manage a runner-up finish behind the retiree.

This time around the course, it was Contrail's star turn. Under a confident ride by Yuichi Fukunaga, he emerged from mid-field as the runners turned into the long Tokyo stretch. At that point, Authority had moved to the lead for jockey Christophe Lemaire and looked poised to run on to glory.

Contrail moved out toward the middle of the course, got by 3-year-old rival Shahryar, and hit the front with 100 meters to go. He was cruising confidently at the finish and completed 2,400 meters (about 1 1/2 miles) on good to firm turf in 2:24.7.

Shahryar, winner of this year's Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby, G1), finished third, giving the late sire Deep Impact  first and third placings.

None of the three international runners had much impact on the race. Grand Glory , last seen finishing second in the Prix de l'Opera Longines (G1), did the best, finishing fifth. Broome  and Japan , second and fourth in the Longines Breeders' Cup Turf (G1T) at Del Mar in their last race, got home 11th and eighth, respectively.

"I am very satisfied with her performance and her result at fifth place," said Grand Glory's trainer, Gianluca Bietolini. "The experience to run in the Japan Cup was fantastic for us. It's a great race and we would love to come back with another horse."

Patrick Keating, who handled Broome and Japan for trainer Aidan O'Brien, said Broome couldn't recover after missing the start slightly. For Japan, he said, "the track may have been a bit too fast."

The finish of the Japan Cup and Contrail's racing career was an emotional event for Fukunaga and trainer Yoshito Yahagi.

"All I have now is mixed feelings of relief and lonesomeness," Yahagi said.

"He has given me every jockey's dream and I am utterly grateful," Fukunaga added. "The colt shone a bright light over a gloomy year due to the pandemic last season. I'm relieved that we can send him off to his next career with this victory."

Contrail, out of the Unbridled's Song  mare Rhodochrosite , went to the post as odds-on favorite even though he had gone winless in his last three starts dating back to the 2020 Japan Cup. Heading into this year's edition, he finished second in his last start, the Tenno Sho (Autumn, G1).

"The colt had issues before his debut," Fukunaga acknowledged. "So there were always concerns about his form. All I did today is believe in him. He broke well and everything went just perfectly."

Yahagi admitted he was "worried a bit since the pace was slow and he wasn't in that good a position. But we had tuned him up to perfection and the colt gave us all he had in the straight."

While his racing career is done, much is expected from Conrail in the years to come as he heads to stud at Shadai Stallion Station. He followed his sire in winning the Triple Crown while undefeated and now has joined him in winning the Japan Cup. The next step would be to extend the influence of the Sunday Silence /Deep Impact dominance over the nation's racing.

Even before the colt had cooled out, Yahagi was assigning him the goal that has eluded the Japanese racing establishment for decades, the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1).

"Wouldn't it be wonderful," Yahagi said, "to win the Arc with an offspring of his someday?"

That would put him one up on his late sire, who could only manage third in the 2006 Arc and then was disqualified even from that when a post-race sample returned positive for a banned substance.

Contrail, owned by Shinji Maeda, was bred by North Hills Co. He won his first seven starts before running into Almond Eye in a race that turned out to be one for the ages. After that Japan Cup, he was idle for more than four months and returned to finish third in the Osaka Hai (G1) at Hanshin Racecourse while facing soft turf for the first time.

It was another seven months vacation before the second behind Efforia in the Tenno Sho Oct. 31 in his penultimate start.