The crowd witnessed the champion filly Buena Vista, crossing the line in first place, but was disqualified on the grounds of interfering with her competitor Rose Kingdom. Her disqualification was declared after the stewards conducted
a lengthy inquiry into the matter.
When the superstar filly was seen to take over the field in the Tokyo racecourse by a distance of a length and three quarters under jockey Christophe Soumillon, other stars of the event like Joshua Tree and Dandino were seen in
mid-division. After passing the post, the enthusiastic jockey threw his whip into the crowd of spectators after giving a splendid performance aboard the most fancied racehorse in the country. On the first turn, Buena Vista was almost turned down while she
was running past Voila Ici, her Italian compatriot in the race.
Quite some distance from home, Buena Vista looked like she was going to cross the post in the first spot as she was running smoothly, only to be announced disqualified as per the stewards’ inquiry’s conclusion of causing trouble
to Rose Kingdom during the last furlong of the race.
It is true that Buena Vista was seen to sort of bore in on Rose Kingdom, but it did not call for the chaos that was caused by Rose Kingdom’s jockey Tatuka Take. He made an issue of Vista’s interference after he made a successful
effort to hold off the winner of the Japanese Guineas, Victoire Pisa and finished second on the line.
Unfortunately, after 20 minutes of the stewards’ inquiry, the passionate fans of the superstar filly were taken aback by the reversal of positions on the tote board facing the Tokyo grandstand. Over more than 106,000 people witnessed
the first winner of the race ever being demoted.
Rose Kingdom is the runner up of the Japanese Derby and has been training under the care of Kojiro Hashiguchi. The three year colt is the son of King Kamehameha, also the winner of the 2004 Japanese Derby.
He was sent out as 7.8-1 fourth favourite in the 30th running of the prestigious Japan Cup and will now be known as the 30th winner of the richest turf event despite being only the second best in the field
of some of the most powerful contenders. Rose Kingdom has not won any of the three colts’ Classic events so far.
It is reckoned that Japanese racing industry has somewhat stricter rules that those in other countries including France and Britain. While some of the racing fans felt wrongly about the stewards’ decision, other believed that what
happened was fair enough.
When Soumillon was approached by the media mob to ask for his views about the disqualification, he said, “It is better to say nothing.”
On the other hand, in a post race interview, the rider of the fourth place finisher Jaguar Mail declared his position when he said, “It is the wrong decision. They want a champion and now they have not got one. It is such a shame
for the race.”
Amongst the other contenders, Nakayama Festa, the Arc runner-up and Dandino, the Gordon Stakes runner were the 14th and 11th place finishers in the race respectively.
After the first disqualification of a Japan Cup’s winner in the history of the race, it has made sports analysts and critics to now question the credibility and prestige of the richest turf start.
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