Third pick Queens Ring stamped her claim as the champion distaffer on turf in this year’s Queen Elizabeth II Cup, her first G1 victory which followed grade-race wins won in the Kyoto Himba Stakes earlier this season and the Fuchu Himba Stakes, her last start before coming into this race. While winning three in a row since her debut in December of her two-year-old season and quick to claim her first grade-race title in the G2 Fillies’ Revue in her third career start, she was fourth, ninth, and second in her three-year-old fillies’ Triple and eighth in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup last year. Trainer, Keiji Yoshimura, came into this race with three grade-race titles—all won with Queen Ring—since he opened his year in 2012 which makes this victory his first JRA-G1 title. Meanwhile, jockey Mirco Demuro, whose latest G1 victory was with Red Falx in the Sprinters Stakes last month, claimed his 18th JRA-G1 title with the win.

Queens Ring broke in air and was keen early while Mirco Demuro kept her covered inside rivals and behind Mikki Queen in mid-pack. Angling slightly rounding the last turn and asked to go, the Manhattan filly unleashed a bursting turn of speed to surge out between horses and pinned down Sing with Joy just before the wire for a neck win.

“I’m really happy to have won a G1 at Kyoto for the first time. She missed her break and I would have liked her to race a little more in front but since the distance was over 2,200 meters, I knew we had time to make up the loss. I wanted to take her out a little more for the stretch run but there was a horse outside of us so I had her go inside, she’s has a terrific turn of speed and quickened really well,” commented Mirco Demuro.

Sing with Joy was quick out of the gate to secure a forward position in fourth along the rails early. Closing up on the leaders rounding the last corner, the Yasuo Tomomichi-trained filly launched her bid impressively, hitting the front before the furlong pole, and pulled away and almost made it to the wire but was unable to withstand the winner’s bid in the last strides.

Mikki Queen broke smoothly from the innermost stall and saved ground in mid-field inside race favorite Marialite, was asked for the run as Queens Ring swept past her inside but was a little late in switching to gear but closed up impressively for the share.

Defending champion Marialite broke smoothly to chase the leader in around fourth position but was bumped, almost unseating the rider, and shuffled back rounding the first corner. Having to make up ground again, moving up to around eighth along the backstretch, she was unable to gain much more ground while giving much of what was left to finish sixth.

Other Horses:
4th: (15) Pearl Code—advanced to 3rd from widest draw, ran gamely but pinned by Mikki Queen before wire
5th: (13) Primera Azul—set moderate pace, led until 200m pole, showed tenacity for 3rd, weakened in final strides
6th: (10) Sundarbans—sat 3rd from rear, switched to outside at early stretch, quickened up to 100m marker
8th: (8) Touching Speech—traveled behind winner, showed brief effort, even paced in last 200m
9th: (7) Maximum de Paris—ran in mid-division, even paced throughout
10th: (12) Asuka Biren—settled near rear, lacked needed kick at stretch
11th: (11) Denko Ange—trailed in rear, angled wide, passed tired rivals
12th: (5) Meisho Mambo—stalked leader in 2nd, sustained bid up to 300m then faded
13th: (4) Hiruno Matera—raced outside winner, lacked needed kick at stretch
14th: (6) Proletariat—traveled outside winner, turned wide, unable to reach contention
15th: (14) Chaleur—sat in 5th, faded after entering stretch