First up in Tokyo’s five straight weekends of Group 1 events is the NHK Mile Cup (1600m) this Sunday (8 May). It is a race open only to three-year-olds.

This year’s expected full field of 18 starters, including five fillies, sees attention focused largely on five hopefuls, with Serifos and Danon Scorpion centre stage.

Serifos, with Cristian Demuro up, was second to Do Deuce by a half-length in the two-year-old pinnacle G1 Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes, a mile contest at Hanshin in December.

Unbeaten in his three previous outings, the Daiwa Major-sired Serifos suffered his first loss in the G1 turf event. Half a length behind him in third was Lord Kanaloa-sired Danon Scorpion, who also had gone into the Asahi Hai unbeaten.

Serifos comes to the NHK Mile Cup cold off the Asahi Hai and he’ll be getting a new partner Yuichi Fukunaga, who rode work on 27 April.

“He (Fukunaga) drove him pretty hard work last week over five furlongs (1000m) on the woodchip course,” trainer Mitsumasa Nakauchida said. “And I think he got a good handle on him. They looked good together and the horse was moving well.

“This week, the colt worked alone and we breezed him over four furlongs (800m) and his time was good (11.5s for the final 200m). His responses were sharp and, at his level, he doesn’t need any more than that.”

Though it’s the first time at Tokyo for Serifos, he has done well racing to the left at Chukyo. Nakauchida admitted there were many unknowns, the length of time between races and the appearance of more spectators being the most concerning.

“He has always gotten tense easily and has just started to quiet down, but it will be the first time for him to race before people in the stands. I hope the experience will stand him well,” Nakauchida said.

“Typical of Daiwa Major progeny, he is assertive and powerful, so hope that too works in his favour.”

Danon Scorpion followed his third in the Asahi Hai by contesting two G3 – a seventh in the Kyodo News Hai (1800m) at Tokyo in February and a win in the Arlington Cup (1600m) at Hanshin in April.  

At the Wednesday (4 May) press meet, trainer Takayuki Yasuda said: “For the Arlington Cup he wasn’t quite up to the shape he’d been in for the Asahi Hai, but he was better than he was in Kyodo News Hai. I was worried, but he did a great job.

“He’s had lots of work since but this week was the main workout. The rider kept the pressure off and he took the hill course with ease.”

Japan’s current leading jockey Yuga Kawada is Danon Scorpion’s regular rider and has won three races from four pairings aboard the three-year-old.

“He does seem to be something of a late bloomer,” said Kawada. “But, he has done well and I’m told he’s in the best shape he’s ever been in.”

Also receiving high marks is another Daiwa Major colt, Matenro Orion, off a second in the G2 New Zealand Trophy (1600m) at Nakayama on 9 April. Before that he won the G3 Shinzan Kinen (1600m) at Chukyo. It will be his first time at Tokyo.

Winning the New Zealand Trophy was Jean Gros, a consistent American-bred galloper who finished sixth over the Tokyo mile last year in a lower-class race (both races paired with Yutaka Take, who will ride Sunday).

Take was reserved, but optimistic, in his assessment of the colt.

“The Tokyo mile is very different from the Nakayama mile and I do see him as a sprinter, but he did win,” Take said. “As for his sixth-place finish at Tokyo, he is a different horse now from what he was then. He’s much, much stronger.

“I think he can do better now, He’s also not so high-strung as he used to be, and even if he leads, he’s able to relax under way.”