Carrot Farm’s CESARIO (Jpn) (Special Week) is already considered the best in
her division in her native country of Japan. On Sunday, the dark bay miss proved
her talent exceeded the borders of her island nation when taking the $750,000
American Oaks (G1) at Hollywood Park by an easy four lengths. In the process,
she broke the stakes record for the 1 1/4-mile firm turf test, stopping the
clock in 1:59, and became the first Japanese bred to win a Grade 1 in the United
States.
Isla Cozzene (Cozzene) took the advantage out of the gate, setting quick
splits of :23 1/5, :46 1/5 and 1:11 3/5 while being chased by Thatswhatimean
(Belong to Me) and Cesario. The pace began to take its toll on the leader,
however, and it was all the encouragement Cesario needed. The sophomore pulled
her way to the front despite jockey Yuichi Fukunaga still keeping a tight grip
on the reins, posting a mile in 1:35 1/5. From there it was just a question of
how many she would win by, as the Cesario accelerated away from the rest of the
field.
“I just let her run her own race,” Fukunaga said. “Depending on how the race
went, I was thinking about what would be the best position and just settled in.
I hadn’t asked her to go yet, so I was not worried at all. She ran her best race
here; I think it was better than her race in Japanese Oaks.
“She is the very first Japanese horse to win an American Grade 1 race, and
hopefully she won’t be the last. I hope she sets the trend and others follow
her.”
Sent off at 4-1, Cesario was worth $10.80, $4.60 and $3.80 to her backers
while keying $1 exotics of $16.10 (exacta) and $403.10 (trifecta). Melhor Ainda
(Pulpit) was the only one capable of making up any ground on the winner,
rallying from near the back of the pack to take second by 1 1/2 lengths over
Singhalese (GB) (Singspiel [Ire]) and paying $3.20 and $2.80 as the 6-5
favorite. The latter filly held third by a length to give back $9.20 at 43-1,
while Luas Line (Ire) (Danehill) rounded out the 13-5-12-6 superfecta ($1) which
returned $3,854.90.
Three Degrees (Ire) (Singspiel [Ire]) just missed fourth by a nose and was
followed under the wire by Memorette (Memo [Chi]), Silver Cup (Ire) (Almutawakel
[GB]), Sweet Firebird (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells), Isla Cozzene, Thatswhatimean, Silk
and Scarlet (GB) (Sadler’s Wells) and Hallowed Dream (Ire) (Alhaarth). Louvain
(Ire) (Sinndar) was scratched.
Cesario, trained by Katsuhiko Sumii, now owns five wins from six starts,
including a victory in the Japanese Oaks (Jpn-G1). Her only non-win came as a
second in the Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas) (Jpn-G1), and she has now
accumulated $2,578,568 in lifetime earnings. A granddaughter of Horse of the
Year Sunday Silence on her sire’s side, the talented filly is out of the Grade
3-winning Sadler’s Wells mare Kirov Premiere (GB).