If eighteen-stakes races in Australia on Saturday, fail to quench the thirst for top-class action, back up on Sunday, with Southern Speed’s son Cosmo Kuranda contesting the $4,200,000 Group1 Satsuki Sho (2000 Guineas) over 2000m at Nakayama.
Cosmo Kuranda will strive to prove his hugely impressive last-start win in the Group II Deep Impact Kinen over the same track and distance was no fluke.
The son of Caulfield Cup and Makybe Diva Stakes winner Southern Speed (Southern Image) is by the Deep Impact stallion Al Ain (JPN), who won the Satsuki Sho in 2017.
Joao Moreira replaces Mirco Demuro on Cosmo Kuranda, and Demuro takes the mount on the unbeaten Rey de Oro colt Sunrise Earth.
Mirco Demuro has a remarkable record in the race. He won the 2000 Guineas in 2015 on the champion Duramente, on Logotype in 2013, in 2004 on another future successful stallion Daiwa Major, and in 2003 on the Japanese Derby hero Neo Universe.
The first leg of the Triple Crown for three-year-olds, Sunday’s race has been spiced up by the appearance of the lone filly Regaleira.
The daughter of the exciting stallion Suave Richard has not started since her season-ending win in the Group 1 Hopeful Stakes.
She has won two of three starts, with her lone defeat coming when she was third in the Listed Ivy Stakes, won by the Maurice x Mosheen colt Danon Ayers Rock.
Another colt putting his unbeaten record is Justin Milano, coming off a win in the Group III Kyodo News Hai at Tokyo in February. The son of Kizuna is out of Exceed And Excel’s daughter Margot Did (IRE). The Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes winner at York, Margot Did was honoured as the Champion 3YO Filly in Great Britain in 2011.
She has carried her success to the breeding barn, leaving the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks winner Magic Attitude (Galileo) and the Group II Prix de Sandringham winner Mission Impassable (Galileo), who was second in the Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland, and third in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac at Chantilly.
