Horse Racing
Mile Championship Preview: Charyn, Namur and Soul Rush are Among the Top Entrants
Namur aims to become the seventh horse to win the Mile Championship in consecutive years. Gran Alegria was the most recent repeat winner in 2020 and '21.
Deciding the top miler of the latter half of the year is the Grade 1 Mile Championship on Sunday, November 17 at Kyoto Racecourse.
The 41st edition of the race is set to feature 17 runners, including overseas challenger Charyn. He's one of the strongest, if not the strongest contender from abroad to take on the race since it opened to overseas-based entrants in 1998 and he could become the first to win it.
Lameness caused the withdrawal last week of Mainichi Okan winner and expected Mile Championship popular choice Sixpence. Despite that, there's an abundance of talent to keep an eye on.
Japan's runners are headlined by 2023 champion and probable race favorite Namur, as well as Soul Rush, who followed her over the line last year in second by a neck. They are the pair to beat. Soul Rush followed Namur home again, in June's Yasuda Kinen, this time in third by a nose. Meanwhile, Namur finished half a length behind the winner, Hong Kong's Goliath Romantic Warrior, in that race.
Info on the 41st Mile Championship
In October 2024, Queen Elizabeth II Cup winner Brede Weg returned after a year to scoop the Grade 2 Fuchu Himba Stakes. Serifos winner of the Mile Championship in 2022, is also still considered a force to be reckoned with. Brede Weg and Serifos are rated as solid candidates for the Mile Championship's first-place prize of ¥180 million JPY ($1.15 million USD) or at least a share of the purse worth nearly ¥389 million (almost $2.5 million).
The Mile Championship is the 11th race of 12 on the Kyoto Sunday card. Post time is 3:40 PM.
Here's a look at some of the expected popular choices.
Namur Coming Off a Long Layoff
A 5-year-old daughter of Harbinger, Namur aims to become the seventh horse to win back-to-back Mile Championships. She's had a tough year since the 2023 Mile, with two overseas excursions. The Hong Kong Mile brought her a third-place finish in early December 2023, then she was the runner-up in the March 30 Dubai Turf over a furlong longer.
Slow from the get-go in both the Victoria Mile and the Yasuda Kinen, Namur raced from far to the back, placing eighth and second, respectively, in May and June. Unlike the 2023 Mile Championship, which she prepared for by winning the Fuji Stakes a month earlier, this will be her first race in 5½ months.
In 2023, she ran under Kota Fujioka. On Sunday, Cristian Demuro, who rode her Dubai start and triumphed aboard Stunning Rose at the Queen Elizabeth II Cup on November 10, is her jockey.
Soul Rush to Run in Mile Championship for the 3rd Time
Rulership-sired Soul Rush, who is 6 years old, will take on his third Mile Championship. He has only figured out of the money once in his four starts since last time, and all were graded stakes, including two G1s.
His one finish out of the top three was still strong, amid tough competition in the Hong Kong Mile. Soul Rush finished in fourth, a length and a quarter behind third-place Namur, with the top two spots going to the legendary Golden Sixty and Voyage Bubble.
Based at the Ritto stable of Yasutoshi Ikee, Soul Rush is prepped and poised after taking second by a length behind Jun Blossom in the Grade 2 Fuji Stakes at Tokyo Racecourse on October 19. Fourth in the 2022 Mile Championship (held at Hanshin), and second in '23 (back at Kyoto), this may be the year Soul Rush strikes gold.
Soul Rush can clinch a race with his excellent turn of foot and can still perform well over a rain-affected track, a plus with rain predicted for Kyoto the day before the big race.
Charyn is Having a Banner Year
A son of Dark Angel, out of the Kodiak mare Futoon, Charyn has come into his own as a 4-year-old, winning five of his seven starts this year. He bagged three of the five G1s he attempted and was second in the other two.
Bred at Grangemore Stud in Ireland, Charyn's winning form at his home base in Newmarket, England, has been replicated in France. The Roger Varian-trained gray colt has captured three Group 1s over a span of six months ― the Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot, the Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville, and most recently, the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, also at Ascot.
Though the Ascot and Deauville miles were all run over straight tracks, Charyn's second in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp was over a track with a right-hand bend. His success has a great chance of translating equally well over the Kyoto outercourse, with its gentle turns and longer stretch.
Six offspring of Dark Angel are registered with the JRA, including this year's Takamatsunomiya Kinen winner Mad Cool.
Ryan Moore is scheduled to ride Charyn on Sunday.
Read the rest of this article about the Mile Championship and the Japanese horses in contention on JRA News.
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Author: JRA News
