John Ingles profiles Alohi Alii, Byzantine Dream and Croix du Nord who have all won their prep races in France.
Which will it be this time? Yet more disappointment, or a long-awaited first victory? Japan’s efforts to win the Arc have been unstinting over the last 25 years or so but for very little reward, it has to be said. There have been some near misses in that time, for sure, but recent attempts from the Far East, if anything, have made the dream of winning the Arc seem even more elusive.
Since 2014, Japan has had 19 runners in the Arc but only one of those, Through Seven Seas, who was fourth to Ace Impact two years ago, has managed to reach the frame. Most of the rest didn’t even make the first ten.
But there are reasons to expect a better showing at the very least from Japan’s runners this year. An intended four-strong challenge is down to three with the scratching of Shin Emperor (12th last year), but each of the trio who remains has won his prep race on French soil which gives much the most solid base from which any Arc bid has been made from Japan.
Plenty of Japan’s Arc runners in the past haven’t had a prep race at all, going into the race instead after a summer break. That was the case with Japan’s most-hyped Arc contender of all, Deep Impact, who met with one of just two defeats in a 14-race career in the 2006 Arc. ‘We don’t need to sharpen this great sword anymore’ claimed his trainer Yasuo Ikee after one of the colt’s final pieces of work. ‘I just put it back in the sheath and wait for the raceday.’
But the best performances from Japan’s Arc runners have come from those who have adopted the French approach and contested a trial beforehand. If nothing else, a run in France beforehand helps to put the horse’s form into a more familiar context.
The first of this year’s Japanese Arc contenders to win his prep race was three-year-old Alohi Alii (Timeform rating 123+) trained by Hiroyasu Tanaka. The lightly-raced colt looked the least credentialled of Japan’s Arc runners when he took his chance in the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano at Deauville in August. His only win from four starts had come in a newcomers race at Tokyo as a two-year-old, and he had last been seen finishing only eighth in the Satsuki Sho, the first leg of Japan’s triple crown, four months beforehand.
But Alohi Alii showed much improved form at Deauville. Soon setting a steady pace under Christophe Lemaire, he readily quickened clear in the closing stages with Brian Meehan’s smart colt Rashabar three and a half lengths back in second. More significantly, the Prix du Jockey Club runner-up Cualificar was a further head back in third and gave the form a boost when winning one of the Arc trials, the Prix Niel, on his next start.
Alohi Alii lacks experience for an Arc contender and he has yet to race over a mile and a half but that shouldn’t be a problem on pedigree. He’s by the Japanese Derby winner Duramente while his dam is by Orfevre who was himself twice runner-up in the Arc.
All three Japanese horses who have finished runner-up in the Arc had contested the Prix Foy, Longchamp’s Arc trial for older horses, beforehand. El Condor Pasa won the Foy in 1999 before going down bravely from the front to Montjeu in the Arc. Nakayama Festa was second to the John Gosden-trained Duncan in the 2010 Foy and clearly came on a lot for that run when failing by just a head against Derby winner Workforce three weeks later. The quirky Orfevre won the Foy before both of his Arc bids, famously throwing away what looked certain victory behind Solemia in 2012 and then coming up against top-class filly Treve in the first of her two Arc wins a year later.
Deep Bond was another Japanese winner of the Foy, in 2021, but trailed home in the Arc. The Foy had a Japanese winner again this month – the Arc trials took place a week earlier than previously this year – with four-year-old Byzantine Dream (Timeform rating 125) successful under Oisin Murphy for trainer Tomoyasu Sakaguchi.
Byzantine Dream had contested all three legs of the Japanese triple crown last year, finishing stone last in the Derby, but ran his best race when fifth in the St Leger equivalent, the Kikuka Sho. He returned a better four-year-old, confirming that he stays well, beating several British-trained rivals to win the Red Sea Turf Handicap on the Saudi Cup undercard, when ridden by Murphy for the first time, and then being beaten a head back home in the Group 1 Tenno Sho (Spring) over two miles.
The Foy, however, showed that Byzantine Dream isn’t simply a stayer. Conditions at Longchamp for the Arc trials were on the quick side but he had no problems handling the drop back to a mile and a half in a well-run race. Ridden from off the pace, Byzantine Dream was forced to switch before making his challenge in the final furlong and asserted late on to beat last year’s Arc fourth Sosie by half a length. That’s high-class form, with Almaqam and Los Angeles (third in last year’s Arc) completing the frame.
Softer ground would be an unknown for Byzantine Dream but it looks like remaining dry in Paris next week, and with his trainer expecting him to improve for his first run for four months, he looks a solid contender for his top jockey.
Conditions had softened at Longchamp a week later for the Prix du Prince d’Orange, the trial chosen for the progressive winner of the Japanese Derby, Croix du Nord (Timeform rating 122p) trained by Takashi Saito. His win under a small penalty in the Group 3 contest took his record to five wins from six starts. He was already a Group 1 winner at two, in the Hopeful Stakes, and met his only defeat on his reappearance when runner-up in the Satsuki Sho with Alohi Alii further back.
Stepping up to a mile a half, Croix du Nord showed further improvement in the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) where he turned the tables on Museum Mile who’d beaten him the time before, that colt finishing sixth this time. Croix du Nord faced ground softer than good for the first time at Longchamp where he gave the impression he’ll be suited by the return to further as he asserted only well inside the final furlong having travelled well behind the leaders under Yuichi Kitamura who has ridden him in all his races.
By Kitasan Black, also the sire of the best horse to come out of Japan in recent times, Equinox, Croix du Nord comes from a British family as his dam Rising Cross was trained for most of her career by John Best, finishing second in the Oaks and winning the Park Hill Stakes. Rising Cross was nothing to look at, being small and sparely made, but her son looks to have much more substance.
Croix du Nord had only a short head to spare over Daryz who finished well once switched wide to get a clear run, but like his two compatriots he was returning from a summer break, after three and a half months off since the Japanese Derby, and his profile is a progressive one.
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