Hokko Tarumae Scores Champions Cup in 3rd Try
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With two previous third-place finishes in the race formerly known as the Japan Cup Dirt, Michiaki Yabe's Hokko Tarumae was too powerful this year and won the $1,638,183 Champions Cup (Jpn-I) Dec. 7 at Chukyo Racecourse.
The second choice, at nearly 16-1 in the field of 16, Hokko Tarumae repelled a strong late bid from Namura Victor to win by a half length. Roman Legend was third, three-quarters of a length farther back, while Copano Rickey, the 3-1 favorite, never factored in a 12th-place finish.
The race also included KM Racing Enterprise's Charles Town Classic (gr. II) victor Imperative, seeking a top-level breakthrough after thirds in both the TVG Pacific Classic (gr. I) and Gold Cup at Santa Anita (gr. I) this summer. But he was checked hard nearing the first turn, taken back, and ultimately had no rally for Kent Desormeaux, finishing 15th at 26-1 odds.
"Good clean break. Good first three-sixteenths of a mile," Desormeaux said. "Then the whole field stopped really hard and I had to (take) him back. Then once I stopped him, he was mad. He didn't want to race anymore."
Hokko Tarumae was clocked in 1:51 flat for the 1,800-meter (about 1 1/8-mile) event on a track labeled as standard. The 5-year-old son of King Kamehameha added a second JRA group I win to his record following a triumph in the 2013 Tokyo Daishoten (Jpn-I). He was third in the Japan Cup Dirt in 2012 and 2013, a race that was renamed this year and moved from Hanshin Racecourse to Chukyo, situated in the Chubu region between Tokyo and Osaka.
After breaking from the post 8, Hokko Tarumae pressed pacesetter Kurino Star O from second early before Roman Legend ranged up to his flank around the far turn. Hokko Tarumae took charge at the quarter pole and Roman Legend loomed a serious threat through the stretch, but Namura Victor roared up on the outside of Roman Legend to throw down a late challenge. The winner stayed on well, however.
"He broke sharply anyway and I was able to place him right up behind the leader," winning rider Hideaki Miyuki said. "I was able to give him a breather as the field settled and he was on the go as we made the final turn.
"He had plenty in him, but it was me who worried and perhaps I was a little overreacting as we rallied to the wire. He has a history of losing his momentum when left alone in the lead like in last year's Japan Cup Dirt so I was, in a way, glad that Roman Legend was hanging on to us and putting pressure for most of the stretch."
Hokko Tarumae has won 13 of 27 career starts for trainer Katsuichi Nishiura. Bred in Japan by Ichikawa Farm, he is out of the winning Cherokee Run mare Madam Cherokee.