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  • Gran Alegria Targets Second Yasuda Kinen

    Friday, 4th June 2021

    Sunday's Gr1 Yasuda Kinen has attracted fifteen top milers, including last year's winner Gran Alegria (Deep Impact-Tapitsfly, by Tapit), reports japanracing.jp. Gran Alegria has won four Group 1 races, and eight of her twelve career starts, and comes into this race off winning the Gr1 Victoria Mile in mid-May 2021. With prizemoney of ¥282million, the event is for 3YOs and up over 1600m, and the race record was set in 2019 at 1:30.9 by Indy Champ (Stay Gold-Will Power, by King Kamehameha) who returns for another crack at the race. "Gran Alegria is strong, but this horse is proven at the mile," said trainer Hidetaka Otonashi. "He's in good shape and with one final workout this week, he'll be ready to go." The only 3YO in the race is Schnell Meister (Kingman-Serienholder, by Solder Hollow) who will step up against the older horses for the first time in his career. Trainer Takahisa Tezuka observed, "He's mentally mature and shows no signs of fatigue or wear and tear. This is his second time at Tokyo. I expect to see improvement." The last 3YO to win this race (in 2011) was former Arrowfield Stud shuttler Real Impact (Deep Impact-Tokio Reality, by Meadowlake).