Soul Rush, the 2024 champion miler in Japan, secured a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Mile on Nov. 1 at Del Mar with his upset victory in the Group 1 Dubai Turf in the United Arab Emirates in April.
Two months later, Soul Rush is back in Japan and the focus of attention in Sunday’s Grade 1 Yasuda Kinen at Tokyo Racecourse, the country’s leading mile race for older horses in the first half of the year.
The winner of the $2.41 million Yasuda Kinen will receive a fees-paid berth to the BC Mile. Soul Rush will need another world-class effort to beat 17 rivals.
Soul Rush has won 9 of 25 starts, the most victories of the entrants in the Yasuda Kinen. Last November, Soul Rush clinched his championship with a win in the Grade 1 Mile Championship at Tokyo. He was later second to Voyage Bubble in the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin in December.
In the Dubai Turf, Soul Rush closed in the final sixteenth to win by a nose over the Hong Kong star Romantic Warrior. The result was so close that officials needed five minutes to determine the outcome.
Soul Rush’s competition on Sunday includes a former champion and a lightly-raced colt who beat him earlier this year. Jantar Mantar, the champion 2-year-old colt in Japan, will start Sunday for the first time since a disappointing 13th in the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile at Sha Tin Racecourse in Hong Kong in December. Jantar Mantar had only three starts last year. He won the Grade 1 NHK Mile for 3-year-olds at Tokyo last May.
Sixpence, who has won 5 of 7 starts, beat Soul Rush when they were first and third in the Grade 2 Nakayama Kinen at 1 1/8 miles on March 2 at Nakayama. Sixpence followed that win with a disappointing seventh of 15 as the favorite in the Grade 1 Osaka Hai at 1 1/4 miles on April 6 at Hanshin.
The Yasuda Kinen has a post time of 2:40 a.m. Eastern on Sunday, or 11:40 p.m. Pacific, on Saturday.
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