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Cafe Pharoah wins this year’s February Stakes at Tokyo.
Second favorite Cafe Pharoah captured February Stakes title consecutively, renewing the race record to 1:33.8 on a track rated muddy and has become the second horse in history after Copano Rickey (2014 and 2015) to win it twice. The son of American Pharoah bounced back remarkably after being winless in his following three starts last season which included his latest 11th-place disappointment in the other JRA-G1 dirt event, the Champions Cup (dirt, 1,800m) last December. The five-year-old has now four wins out of four starts in dirt mile races at Tokyo Racecourse. This win marked trainer Noriyuki Hori's 14th JRA-G1 title—his latest was last year's February Stakes victory, and jockey Yuichi Fukunaga's 33rd overall JRA-G1 title following the Japan Cup triumph last autumn with Contrail. Fukunaga has claimed the February Stakes title before in 2005 with Meisho Bowler.
The race broke evenly in the corner of the backstretch with T M South Dan eventually taking over the lead to set the pace. Running in sixth, Cafe Pharoah made headway from the third corner and hit the straight three wide and in third, a half-length behind Sodashi who ran in second. Promptly putting away Sodashi and then inheriting the lead from pacesetter right after the furlong marker, the defending champion romped to the line to post a 2-1/2-length victory.
"Mr. Hori and I went over the tactics before the race and everything went as planned. Cafe Pharoah's start wasn't that sharp but he recovered well and we were able to sit in a good position, in third, where he didn't have to bear too much sand in his face, which was what I was hoping for. After that I just tried to keep him focused especially after taking over the lead in the final stages. I'm grateful to the connections who offered me this ride even before I had fully recovered from the fall in Hong Kong and am happy that I was able to do a good job," commented Yuichi Fukunaga after the race.
Fifth pick T M South Dan made headway after breaking from the second widest stall, set the pace with 1,200 meters to go and sustained his lead but although succumbing to the winner's speed in the last furlong, held on well to secure the runner-up position by half a length.
Fourth choice Sodashi tracked the leaders in third, advanced to second rounding the final corner, ran willingly inside the eventual winner but was caught 300 meters out and while failing to pin T M South Dan,rejected the challenges by the late chargers to finish third by a neck margin.
Race favorite Red le Zele was ridden most of the way in mid-pack, found himself in tight quarters in early stretch and was unable to fire thereafter, finishing sixth.
Other Horses:
4th: (13) Soliste Thunder—settled around 6th behind winner, closed in on frontrunners but neck
short for 3rd place
5th: (7) Time Flyer—raced 4-wide around 10th, showed belated charge
7th: (4) Arctos—sat inside winner around 5th, met traffic at early stretch, failed to respond
8th: (8) Sunrise Nova—trailed in rear, showed 2nd fastest late kick, belatedly
9th: (16) Air Spinel—traveled 3-wide around 13th, passed tired rivals on outer stretch
10th: (12) Mutually—ran around 10th, lacked needed kick after turning final corner
11th: (3) Inti—saved ground around 13th, failed to find clear path at stretch, never threatened
12th: (9) Sunrise Hope—set pace early, entered 3rd to lane, remained in contention until 300m
out
13th: (10) Suave Aramis—settled around 10th, failed to respond at stretch
14th: (1) Teorema—raced near rear, angled out for stretch run, never fired
15th: (2) Daiwa Cagney—took economic trip around 5-6th, showed little at stretch
16th: (14) K T Brave—traveled 4-wide around 8-9th, faded after final corner
