Crown Pride, Remake repeat in Korea, get Breeders’ Cup invites

Crown Pride left little doubt about whether he would pull off a repeat Sunday at Seoul Racecourse. The 5-year-old from Japan led at every call on the way to an emphatic, five-length triumph in the Group 3, US$1,195,126 Korea Cup going about 1 1/8 miles around two left turns on the fast dirt.

Ridden by Yuga Kawada as was the case in last year’s 10-length win, the Reach The Crown entire who is trained by Koichi Shintani earned an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. If he runs, Crown Pride would return to the U.S. for the first time since he finished 13th in the 2022 Kentucky Derby.

The same connections also repeated an hour earlier in the US$1,045,736 Korea Sprint (G1). By finishing first again, Remake earned an invitation to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint, also at Del Mar on Nov. 2. Two-time graded-stakes winner Anarchist, who was shipped from California, finished third.

Starting in the Cup from the outermost stall in the open-company field of 11, Crown Pride (5-2) stumbled before Kawada quickly hustled him to the lead in the first 100 yards. He led by about two lengths after the first quarter- and half-mile and by about three through six furlongs.

By the time the field turned into the stretch, Crown Pride’s advantage was about five lengths. Odds-on favorite Wilson Tesoro (1-5), the 5-year-old who finished fourth in the Dubai World Cup (G1), charged from mid-pack into second place. Global Hit (11-1) moved at about the same time to get to third, and early stalker Light Warrior (14-1) was running in fourth.

As the field spread out in the final quarter-mile, Kawada gave Crown Pride some right-handed urging, and the order did not change among the top four.

The winning time was 1:51.8 without a run-up for the 1,200 meters, 12 yards less than 1 1/8 miles. The only splits that were shown were 1:02.6 for five furlongs and 1:14.4 for six.

Crown Pride paid $7.40 and $3.20 for what would be a show bet in North America. Wilson Tesoro returned $2.10 and Global Hit $5.00. There was no equivalent of U.S. place betting.

Owned by Teruya Yoshida, Crown Pride is 4: 2-0-0 this year. Last out he won the Mercury Cup on July 15 at Morioka. He also finished ninth on Feb. 24 in the Saudi Cup (G1) and 12th on May 1 in the Kashiwa Kinen at Funabashi.

Remake wins Sprint; Anarchist is 3rd

After settling in the middle of the 15-horse field, odds-on favorite Remake (1-5) accelerated in the turn, took the lead with 120 yards to go and ran on to a two-length victory in the Korea Sprint, a 1,200-meter race that translates to about eight yards short of six furlongs.

Anarchist (9-1), the second betting choice trained by Doug O’Neill and ridden by California-based Edwin Maldonado, led briefly before the turn and then stalked pacesetter Jasper Krone (13-1) into the stretch before fading and settling for third.

Remake, a 5-year-old horse by Lani, was tucked in along the rail by Kawada. He then cut the corner to find a path that eventually took him out to the middle of the track to reel in his rivals.

Jasper Krone finished second. He was six lengths better than Anarchist, who finished a half-length ahead of fourth-place Speed Young (20-1).

The winning time without a run-up was 1:10.3 after posted splits of 23.2 for the first quarter-mile and 34.4 for the first three furlongs.

Remake paid $2.40 and $2.10, Jasper Krone $6.80 and Anarchist $3.20.

This was Remake’s first start in more than five months. He won the Riyadh Dirt Sprint (G3) in February on the Saudi Cup undercard and then finished fourth last out in the Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) on Dubai World Cup night.

Remake’s breeder-owner Koji Maeda campaigned Lani to a ninth-place performance in the 2016 Kentucky Derby.