Victoria Mile Preview: Fillies and Mares in Pursuit of a High-Profile Victory

Twenty-three fillies and mares were nominated for the 20th running of the Grade 1 Victoria Mile, which will be held on Sunday, May 18 at Tokyo Racecourse. The winner will be awarded ¥130 million JPY (about $900,000 USD). 

Fillies and mares ranging from 4 to 6 years of age have been nominated, and 18 of them will go to the gate.

Two Grade 1 winners are among the nominees ― Ascoli Piceno and Stellenbosch. They were the top two finishers in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies and the Oka Sho, with both claiming one G1 title apiece. Both fillies are proven at the distance, with Ascoli Piceno scoring three wins and two seconds over 1,600 meters from five starts. Stellenbosch has two wins and two seconds in four starts over the distance.

The rivalry between Ascoli Piceno and Stellenbosch is heated in the saddles as well. Christophe Lemaire (a three-time Victoria Mile winner over the past decade) is scheduled to ride Ascoli Piceno. Keita Tosaki, who has won the race the same number of times, is listed as Sunday's jockey for Stellenbosch. One more win would move one of the riders to the top of the class. 

Lemaire is set to ride Ascoli Piceno for the first time since her win in Riyadh on February 22. 

Tosaki rode Stellenbosch to a runner-up finish in the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) at Tokyo in 2024 and a third-place result in the Shuka Sho in mid-October.

Preparation for the Victoria Mile 

In the search for the Victoria Mile's top-three finishers, it should be noted that two races leading into the G1 event have long proven springboards to success in the previous 19 runnings. They are the two all-female races, the Grade 2 Hanshin Himba Stakes and the Grade 3 Nakayama Himba Stakes.

The Hanshin Himba Stakes, as a prep race to the Victoria Mile, has yielded six wins, seven seconds, and seven thirds in the past 19 runnings of the Victoria Mile. Ten Happy Rose, the surprise winner in 2024, had finished sixth in the Hanshin Himba Stakes and shocked the stands when she scooped the G1 title as the 14th pick. Third-place finisher Masked Diva had come off a win in the Hanshin Himba Stakes.

On the other hand, runners coming from the Nakayama Himba Stakes have brought two wins, three seconds and two thirds in the aforementioned 19 editions of the Victoria Mile. In 2024, runner-up Fierce Pride finished ninth in the Nakayama Himba Stakes.

Of the 18 nominees that have already secured a berth in the Victoria Mile, those who took on either of the two races just prior to the Victoria Mile are Argine, Christmas Parade, Safira, Shirankedo, So Dazzling, Beyond the Valley, Bond Girl and Mi Anhelo.

All runners will carry 56 kg. The race is the 11th on the Tokyo card of 12, and post time is 3:40 PM.

Here's a look at some of the expected popular picks:

Victoria Mile Entrant Ascoli Piceno Has Solid Credentials

Winner of the Grade 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies in mid-December 2023, Ascoli Piceno returns from victory in Riyadh in the Grade 2 1351 Turf Sprint. Before that, the daughter of Daiwa Major competed in Australia, where things didn't go so swimmingly. 

However, back amid all-female company, she should prove a reliable runner. This will be her first time racing in Japan since September 2024, when she captured the Grade 3 Keisei Hai Autumn Handicap over 1,600 meters at Nakayama. Before that, she scored a win and two seconds in her three straight G1 bids, one in which she also suffered traffic problems in the final stage. 

It will be nearly three months since her return from overseas, but she has worked hard over the woodchip flat course with two other horses for the second straight week and looked very sharp. She is versatile and can display a blistering burst of late speed, as she did in her last race at Nakayama. In that race, her final three-furlong time was 32.7 seconds, winning in a time of 1 minute, 30.8 seconds.

Stellenbosch Looks to Bounce Back

The Epiphaneia-sired Stellenbosch had yet to miss the top three spots in her eight starts until her most recent outing, the Grade 1 Osaka Hai in early April. Back from a grueling run in Hong Kong, racing for the first time in four months, Stellenbosch failed to fire and never advanced past mid-field in the 2,000-meter event.

At Hanshin Racecourse, her weight was down, and she'd shipped west from Miho, Ibaraki Prefecture. But to finish only two off the rear was unheard of for Stellenbosch, who's normally a picture of reliability. 

Many blame her all-out effort in the Hong Kong Vase, where the 3-year-old filly went to the gate as the favorite and competed against an all-male field ranging from 4 to 7 years of age. She finished in third place, only 3½ lengths off the top. Her recent work, however, has her looking back on her feet, and hopes are high Stellenbosch, who scored a 1-2-3 in the filly's Classics in 2024, will show her usual mettle.

Bond Girl Brings Consistent Racing Quality to the Victoria Mile

After acing her debut, Bond Girl jumped to the graded level and has stayed there for all eight starts since. Only twice has she missed the top three, and only once did her name not appear on the board. That occurred in the 2024 NHK Mile Cup, where she suffered serious interference in the stretch. 

The winner's circle eluded her in those eight events, but she did make second place five times (once in all-female G1 company) and third once. This will be her third start of the year following a second-place finish in the G3 Tokyo Shimbun Hai in February and, most recently, a fifth in the Hanshin Himba Stakes, both races run over 1,600 meters.

Bond Girl has had some trouble at the break, but with regular rider Yutaka Take expected up, she is in good hands.

Read the rest of this article about the Victoria Mile and the Japanese horses in contention on JRA News.

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Author: JRA News