NEWS
Vermilion, Daiwa Scarlet to clash in February Stakes
Posted: Thursday, February 21, 2008 3:06 PM
by Jenny Blandford
Champions Vermilion and Daiwa Scarlet will face off in the $1,868,215 (201,020,000 yen) February Stakes (Jpn-G1) on Sunday at Tokyo racecourse.
The 1,600-meter (7.95-furlong) dirt race is the Japan Racing Association’s first Group 1 race of the year and the feature dirt race on the Japanese Spring racing calendar. A total of 44 first nominations were accepted for a place in the 16-horse field.
Vermilion, who was named JRA’s champion dirt horse, established himself as one of Japan’s best dirt horses last season after beginning the year on turf.
After a fourth-placed finish in the Emirates Airline Dubai World Cup (UAE-G1), Vermillion reeled off three consecutive victories on dirt beginning with a four-length win in the JBC Classic 170,000,000 at Ohi Racecourse on October 31. The El Condor Pasa horse completed the season with victories in the Japan Cup Dirt (Jpn-G1) on November 24 at Tokyo racecourse and the Tokyo Daishoten on December 29 at Ohi.
Vermilion will cut back in distance for the February Stakes for the first time since finishing fifth in the 2006 edition. He was scratched from a planned start at the end of January by trainer Sei Ishizaka due to an inflammation in a back knee, but the six-year-old horse has been in training since.
Champion three-year-old filly Daiwa Scarlet will make her debut on dirt in the February Stakes.
The Agnes Tachyon filly has six wins and three runner-up finishes from nine career starts. Daiwa Scarlet completed her stellar 2007 season with a runner-up finish in Japan’s biggest race, the Arima Kinen Grand Prix (Jpn-G1) on December 23 at Nakayama racecourse. Her half brother, two-time champion sprinter Daiwa Major, finished third in that race.
Daiwa Scarlet won the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup (Jpn-G1) and Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas) last year for trainer Kunihide Matsuda. Depending on how Daiwa Scarlet performs on dirt, she could continue her preparations for a possible trip to Dubai for either the Dubai Duty Free (UAE-G1) or the Dubai World Cup on March 29 at Nad al Sheba racecourse.
Others likely starters include Field Rouge, who finished second in the Japan Cup Dirt in 2007 and third in ’06, and Wild Wonder, who enters off a victory in the Negishi Stakes (Jpn-G3) on February 4 at Tokyo.
Jenny Blandford is a Thoroughbred Times assistant daily news editor
