An 18-person deep court, including 4 graded winners, one of whom is undefeated, is set for the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (G1) Competition on December 12 at Hanshin Racecourse.
The undefeated member of the quartet, Water Navillera, a daughter of Silver status, won the KBS Kyoto Sho Fantasy Stakes (G3) over the 1,400 meter (about seven fur) Hanshin track. She also won the junior track 1,600 meters.
Her ascension to the highest level may not have been predicted by her pedigree.
Silver State freshman boy, by Deep impact , has four wins and a second win from five starts. But the wins all come in small career events that include a gap of 19 months for all of 2016. Navillera’s Dam, Shining Sayaka , spent most of his career racing on dirt roads, often at Japan’s regional racetracks.
Life cycle, one Epiphaneia dubious, came to Juvenile Fillies with a 2 to 3 record and won the Artemis Stakes (G3) at Tokyo Racecourse.
Namura Nycoris and Namura Clair are both bred and owned by Mutsohiro Namura and have two wins each.
Namura Clair, by Mikki Island, won Kokura Nisai Stakes (G3) on September 5 while Namura Nycoris, by Jo Cappuccino, has been off the track since winning the Hakodate Nisai Stakes (G3) July 17.
All connections said their position had questions to answer despite their initial achievements.
Water Navillera’s coach, Koshiro Take, said his bad temper thrived as her year progressed.
Take said: ‘She’s been working a lot more at the beginning, but she hasn’t lost weight yet. “That’s her strong point and she’s also a lot more muscular than in the summer. She’s had a bit of a break and things have gone more smoothly since her return.”
However, Take added, “She tends to get agitated when she’s out on the track but before heading out to the gate there are some other things to worry about. But once she’s racing, she’ll do just fine.”
Yutaka Take will ride, starting from gate 13 in field 18.
Circle of Life moderator, Sakae Kunieda, said she “did a good break in the Artemis Stakes and went with the flow, then in this segment showed some very responsive footwork. Her win. Before Nakayama breaking her maidenhood wasn’t very interesting, but it’s good, she won orthodox here.
Kunieda said: “I think the distance she reached will be longer in the future but she won her last start on a mile and the distance was right for her.
Circle of Life starts at gate 10 under Mirco Demuro.
Namura Clair and Namura Lycoris drew doors 1 and 2.
Namura Clair was idle for two months after her Kokura win, then finished second behind Water Navillera in Fantasy Stakes and coach Kodai Hasegawa blamed that on the long time between races.
“I’ve never been worried about that before,” Hasegawa said. “She lost the race but she had a little bit of flair in the first half and I think that was a factor. Her last race allowed her to take a breather and I think the short interval between the races. This race is a good thing.”
Both of Namura Lycoris’ victories came at Hakodate Racecourse after their first match in Sapporo. Assistant coach Masahiro Maruta admitted that after the Sapporo race, “she looked like she could run well but winning a ranked race was better than we imagined she could do.”
Hanshin Juvenile Fillies runs right-handed on the outside pitch. The course dropped about two meters from the 600 meter mark to the 200 mark, then rose again as it neared the finish line. The race has produced some of Japan’s most notable mares including vodka , whose record win time of 1:33.1, set in 2006, remains. All white captions Sodashi won last year’s edition.
