Red Reveur Upsets Hanshin Juvenile Fillies
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Red Reveur kept her perfect record intact Dec. 8 when holding back hard-charging race favorite Harp Star by a nose in a rousing finish to the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (Jpn-I).
Keita Tosaki reserved Red Reveur, the 14-1 fifth choice, in mid-division as the field strung out down the backstretch behind pacesetters Nihonpiro Amber and Diamond High.
With the Stay Gold filly racing eighth and ninth in the 18-horse field as Nihonpiro Amber and Diamond High led into the stretch, Tosaki guided her a bit outside to clear running room in the lane. She responded with an admirable surge to overtake Forevermore, who took charge from brief leader Horai Akiko with 100 meters to run.
Niigata Nisai (Jpn-III) winner and 17-10 favorite Harp Star, near the back of the field early, was also closing like a freight train in the final 600 meters. Under steady right hand urging from Yuga Kawada, she narrowly edged past Forevermore late but just missed overhauling the winner as the three reached the finish line in near unison.
Red Reveur covered 1,600 meters (about one mile) in 1:33.90 on firm turf. The time was just off Vodka's stakes record time of 1:33.10 in the 2006 edition of the race. That's season's champion 2-year-old filly, Vodka went on to be Japan's Horse of the Year in 2008 and 2009.
Forevermore, making her stakes debut, finished a neck behind Harp Star.
Red Reveur was making her first appearance since a victory over males in the 1,800-meter (about 1 1/8-mile) Sapporo Nisai Stakes (Jpn-III) Aug. 31 on soft going. Trained by Naosuke Sugai for Tokyo Horse Racing Co., the filly won her career debut going a mile June 1 at Hanshin.
Like Red Reveur, Harp Star and Forevermore each entered with two wins from as many starts.
Sugai earned his second Hanshin Juvenile Fillies victory after sending out Robe Tissage to win last year. She was named the season's champion juvenile filly.
Bred by Shadai Farm, Red Reveur is out of the Dixieland Band mare Desaucered. Sire Stay Gold, a 19-year-old son of Sunday Silence, stands at Breeders Stallion Station in Hokkaido. Red Reveur is his third group I winner of 2013.