Breeders’ Cup 2011- Earnestly qualifies after winning Japanese Group 1 Takarazuka Kinen
The sixth choice in the field, Earnestly, put a considerable distance between himself and the favourite, Buena Vista, to land the $3.2 million Japanese Group 1, Takarazuka Kinen, on 26 June at Hanshin Racecourse.
In doing so Earnestly earned an automatic slot in the Breeders’ Cup Turf challenge. The six year old bay horse won the race in style and set a course record of 2 minutes 10.1 seconds in the 2,200 meter event.
Owned by Koji Maeda and trained by Shozo Sasaki, Earnestly came in third place last year in the same event and improved his finish this time around guided by jockey Tetsuzo Sato.
A starting berth in the Breeders’ Cup isn’t bad for a horse that only had Group 2 wins under his belt before the Takarazuka Kinen win, which proved to be his first ever Group 1 victory.
Out of Tony Bin mare, Lettre d’Amour, Earnestly was the winner of Japanese Group 2 Sapporo Kinen last year and then went on to win another Japanese Group 2 Kinko Sho. Both races combine to form a distance of 4,000 meters 2,000 each.
Nine wins out of twenty starts including a Group 1 victory will leave his owners hopeful of a good run in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Challenge to be held at Churchill Downs in November.
Sixteen horses made the field to grind it out for a place in the Breeders’ Cup, all of them were selected by the general public and they voted unanimously to name Buena Vista as the favourite to win the race.
Buena Vista was the only mare in the field. The race started and almost every pair made a clean break. Jockey, Tetsuzo Sato, placed Earnestly at a nice position in second just behind the leader Namura Crescent.
The race had a quick pace and Buena Vista started fading back to the mid-pack, jockey, Sato guided Earnestly into the lead right before the stretch and kept running at a good pace.
Race favourite, Buena Vista, made her typical late burst but it was too late for that and Earnestly bolted home and won by 1 ½ length.
Takarazuka Kinen was included in the Breeders’ Cup challenge in the beginning of this year. Breeders’ Cup challenge is a series of thoroughbred races run internationally and it consists of a series of sixty-five sanctioned races.
U.S, Canada, Australia, England, Hong Kong, Ireland and France are included in the Breeders’ Cup Challenge. Series of stakes races are run on different courses all over the mentioned countries and the winner of these stakes races earn an automatic slot in the Breeders’ Cup by "Win and You're In” criteria.
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