Antipodean mares are enjoying a jolly old time of it of late in Japan, and the latest high-level success came at Kyoto on Sunday when Durezza, a son of More Than Ready’s Group 1 NZ Oaks heroine More Than Sacred, powered to a three and a half-length triumph in Sunday’s Group 1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger).
It rounded out an enormous weekend for Yulong Stud, which houses More Than Sacred, as well as the dam of Caulfield Cup hero Without A Fight.
Ridden by Christophe Lemaire for Tomohito Ozeki, the son of Duramente, was in a race of his own over the final 100m.
The Satono Crown colt Tastiera, winner of the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), was second, with the favoured Kitasan Black colt Sol Oriens, hero of the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas), was a length and a half back in third.
Durezza claims the Japanese St Leger (image JRA)
“He made a flying start and was keen to go, so I decided to let him take the lead,” Christophe Lemaire said.
“He responded well between the third and last corner, which made me confident that he was going to close strongly.
“When he accelerated in the stretch, I knew we were going to win. To see him beat such a strong field today over the 3,000-meter distance means we can look forward to him doing well among Group 1 company over 2,000 and 2,400 meters also.”
Third in a Newcomers race at Nakayama at two, Durezza has reeled off five consecutive wins, but this was his first stakes.
More Than Sacred was trained by Tony Pike In NZ for Raffles Racing and spent a short time in Australia when trained by Robert Smerdon for Katsumi Yoshida.
More Than Sacred has an unraced 2-year-old filly by Real Steel named Divinest and a yearling filly by Rey De Oro.
The 14-year-old daughter of More Than Ready (USA) is now owned by Yulong Stud, who revealed she had been covered by Frankel to southern hemisphere time.
