Yoshida Gets First Grade 1 Win in Turf Classic
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Photo: Skip Dickstein
Jose Ortiz is congratulated by WinStar Farm's Elliott Walden after winning the Turf Classic with Yoshida at Churchill Downs
China Horse Club, WinStar Farm, and Head of Plains Partners' Yoshida kick-started his 2018 campaign May 5 with a driving win in the $500,000 Old Forester Turf Classic Stakes (G1T).
The 1 1/8-mile race over a soggy Churchill Downs turf course rated yielding was the first grade 1 win for the 4-year-old, Japanese-bred son of Heart's Cry, who was bred by Northern Farm out of the Canadian Frontier mare Hilda's Passion. Multiple grade 1 winner and heavy favorite Beach Patrol finished second.
Yoshida got a patient ride from Jose Ortiz, who let Shining Copper take the nine-horse field through fractions of :24.86, :50.61, and 1:16.44. Stalking the leader was Beach Patrol, who closed the gap to half a length with a quarter-mile to run. But Yoshida unleashed a powerful turn of foot that took him to the lead at the top of the stretch and carried him to the wire in a final time of 1:54.64.
"We thought Shining Copper might be on the lead and had the thought that they would send Beach Patrol after him, and that put us in the garden spot," said Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott.
Mott said a trip to Royal Ascot is likely in the colt's future. Yoshida has been nominated to the one-mile Queen Anne Stakes, which will be run June 19 on opening day of the prestigious meet.
"The ownership group is very interested in going," Mott said. "If he could run well over there, of course, it would increase his value as a stallion, because he could do dual hemisphere."
WinStar Farm acquired Yoshida as a yearling through the 2015 Japan Racing Association Yearlings and Weanling sale for ¥94 million (US$765,160). His dam won multiple graded races, including the Ballerina Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course.
"We just thought he was special," said Elliott Walden, president and CEO of WinStar. "Tom Ryan (with SF Bloodstock) went with me, and we liked him. He is an unbelievable stallion prospect, being out of a grade 1 winner and by Heart's Cry, who is by Sunday Silence. We thought if he could win a grade 1 … we would be a great alternative to breeders. He is a really good horse."