Fourth pick Chuwa Wizard won this year’s Champions Cup to register his first JRA-G1 victory, putting a stop to the streak of JRA G1 races being won by race favorites since Sprinters Stakes at seven. The five-year-old son of King Kamehameha has only been raced on dirt since his debut start in February of his three-year-old season. While his only JRA graded win was in last year’s Heian Stakes (G3, dirt, 1,900m), he has multiple major titles at NAR (local public racing) races including the Nagoya Grand Prix (dirt, 2,500m) in 2018, the Diolite Kinen (dirt, 2,400m) and the JBC Classic (dirt, 2,000m) in 2019 and this year’s Kawasaki Kinen (dirt, 2,100m). Coming off a third in the JBC Classic in November, Chuwa Wizard is a consistent runner with 10-3-4 out of 18 starts, his only unplaced start being a fourth in last year’s Champions Cup. This win marked trainer Ryuji Okubo’s third JRA-G1 win following his 2014 Mile Championship title with Danon Shark and jockey Keita Tosaki’s eighth JRA-G1 victory following his 2018 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) win with Epoca d’Oro.
Chuwa Wizard broke sharply and traveled in mid-division, around eighth from the front, eying Chrysoberyl traveling in front. The five-year-old brown continued to stalk the race favorite turning the last corners wide, unleashed a powerful charge in the lane with the tied-fastest closing speed while overtaking his rivals one by one and, once taking the front 100 meters out, easily pulled away to a 2-1/2-length victory.
“The horse was in very good condition and felt really good. With Chrysoberyl traveling in front, I was able to feel his response while marking the race favorite. As it takes time for him to accelerate, I urged him to go early and the horse responded with great strength,” commented Keita Tosaki.
Last year’s runner-up and 2017 winner Gold Dream settled around 10-11th from the front and steered to the outside entering the lane to make bid. The seven-year-old son of Gold Allure produced an impressive late kick—third fastest closing speed—behind Chuwa Wizard and, though unable to catch up with the winner, managed to pull ahead of Inti before the wire for second place.
Tenth favorite Inti surged out from stall 13 to rally for the lead but settled in second to press the pace. Six-year-old son of Came Home continued to run persistently in the lane to take the front 200 meters out but was unable to hold off the challenges by the winner and the runner-up and finished a neck behind the runner-up in third.
Odds-on favorite Chrysoberyl traveled around third from the front and was well-positioned to make bid in the lane but the defending champion was unable to exert his usual late kick and finished fourth.
Other Horses:
5th: (12) Mozu Ascot—sat around 14th, circled wide, launched tied fastest late kick, belatedly
6th: (7) Cafe Pharoah—ran 3-wide around 10th, even paced at stretch
7th: (6) Air Spinel—settled around 13th, showed belated charge between horses
8th: (1) Time Flyer—took economic trip around 8th, lacked needed kick at stretch
9th: (9) Arctos—raced around 7th, made headway in backstretch, showed effort until 200m pole
10th: (4) Air Almas—set pace, outrun in last 200m
11th: (5) Clincher—traveled 3-wide around 11th, unable to reach contention
12th: (8) Sunrise Nova—saved ground 2nd or 3rd from rear, angled out, never fired
13th: (10) Another Truth—tracked leaders in 3rd along rails, used up 200m out
14th: (16) Satono Titan—was off slow, trailed in rear, no factor
15th: (3) Meisho Wazashi—hugged rails around 4th, faded after middle of backstretch
16th: (14) Yoshio—prominent early around 4th, ran out of steam after 3rd corner
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