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Irogotoshi wins this year’s Nakayama Grand Jump at Nakayama.

Sixth favorite Irogotoshi captured his first graded victory in this year's Nakayama Grand Jump in his fourth start in jump racing, becoming the first horse to do so with the least career starts. The six-year-old debuted in flat racing as a two-year-old and registered 3 wins among 24 starts with a fifth in the 2020 Kyoto Shimbun Hai (G2, 2,200m) as his best finish at the graded level. After switching to steeplechase racing this year, he claimed his first win in his second start and landed a third in his next and latest race, the Pegasus Jump Stakes (3,350m) on March 18. He also marks a milestone in becoming the first Kyushu-born horse to win at the highest level while most are born and bred on the northern island of Hokkaido. For trainer Kazuya Makita, who opened his yard in 2011, this was his first G1 title after claiming three graded wins in flat racing. Jockey Yu Kuroiwa also celebrates his fourth grade-race and first G1 title since his debut in 2002.

The field of ten broke on the rain-soaked track with third favorite Village Eagle taking the lead as expected, followed by T O Socrates and Mikki Meteo while Irogotoshi was settled in mid-pack. After taking a wide move into the backstretch coming out of the last dip still in fifth, the son of Vincennes cleared the 10th obstacle (no.8) beside the race favorite in fourth, made rapid headway from the outside to easily take over the lead from the tired pacesetter before the 11th jump (no.9) and showed incredible stamina to pull away comfortably for the win, 3.1 seconds ahead of the next finisher.

"His experience as a jumper is very short but since he prepped here at this same racecourse last month, I had a good feeling he was going to show a better performance today. He has an amazing sense of the game—to run like that against such a strong field nearly as a novice—we have a lot to look forward to in the future," commented Yu Kuroiwa.

Second favorite Mikki Meteo was positioned in fifth early, advanced to run in third from the 3rd jump (no. 2) up to the backstretch, dropped to sixth before the 11th jump (no.9) but found another gear to accelerate and inherit the runner-up seat 100 meters out while never imposing any threat to the winner.

Favored fifth, Daishin Clover raced in around seventh, steadily closed the gap with the frontrunners after the 7th jump (no.7), circled wide into the stretch and after clearing the final obstacle (no.10) in fourth, showed a late charge to pass the tiring T O Socrates at the wire for third.

Race favorite Nishino Daisy missed his break and trailed in the rear but gradually elevated to fifth by the 8th jump (no.2), cleared the 10th obstacle (no.8) in third, but was used up by the last corner and faded to ninth.

Other Horses:

4th: (8) T O Socrates—tracked leader in 2nd, took brief lead after 10th jump (no.8),
              soon surrendered lead, overtaken by runner-up 100m out and missed third
              place just before wire
5th: (4) Smart Apex—settled near pace around 4th early, dropped back after 5th
              jump (no.6), angled out to improve position at stretch
6th: (1) June Velocity—ran near rear, passed tired rivals at stretch
7th: (5) Village Eagle—set pace until 10th jump (no.8), faded
8th: (6) Emilio—raced 2nd from rear, no factor throughout trip
10th: (9) Kurino Oja—traveled around 5th early, gradually fell back