Ramjet rallies to win Hyacinth, leads Japan road to Ky. Derby

Making his stakes debut in his fifth start, Ramjet circled the field and took the lead in the last 100 yards en route to a worst-to-first, three-length victory Sunday in the US$128,154 Hyacinth Stakes, a points prep on Japan’s road to Kentucky Derby 2024.

The victory moved Ramjet into the lead for Japan’s one berth in the Derby. The 1 1/8-mile Fukuryu Stakes on March 23 at Nakayama, the last of four races in the qualifying series, will decide who gets the invitation that has been accepted only twice in seven years.

Owned by Koji Maeda and trained by Shozo Sasaki, the 3-year-old Majestic Warrior colt was ridden to his second straight victory by jockey Kosei Miura. The winning time for Ramjet (12-1) in the one-turn, left-handed mile was 1:36.3 without a run-up on the fast dirt track at Tokyo Racecourse. He chased early fractions of 23.1, 46.7 and 1:11.6.

Unquenchable (6-5), a Godolphin homebred by Discreet Cat, stalked the early lead before settling for second place. Habire (33-1) rallied to come in third, Logi Adelaide (2-1) finished fourth, and Chikappa (16-1) took fifth.

Ramjet had raced in nothing but seven-furlong races until Sunday. He made his debut July 1 with a win in the slop at Chukyo. That was followed by third- and ninth-place results in allowance races last fall at Hanshin and Tokyo. He finished his 2-year-old season with a one-length triumph Dec. 17 against allowance company at Chukyo.

For the top five finishers, the Hyacinth was worth 30-15-9-6-3 points on Japan’s road to Kentucky. Since the path was established in 2017, only Master Fencer, who finished sixth in 2019, and Continuar, who was scratched just before the 2023 Derby, took that avenue to Churchill Downs.