Top-level Japanese racing action this weekend (31 March) moves to Hanshin Racecourse, with the G1 Osaka Hai (2000m). A field of 16 featuring many of the top names in Japan will battle it out on the venue’s inner turf course. First place carries a substantial prize of JPY200 million (approx. HK$10.4 million).

2023 G1 Japanese Derby (2400m) winner Tastiera and G1 Satsuki Sho (2000m) winner Sol Oriens headline the field, but three other Group 1 victors – Killer Ability, Geoglyph and Stunning Rose – are amid this year’s brilliant cast and all are considered good for the money.

Though the past decade has featured several upsets in the Osaka Hai, in the seven years since the race was promoted to its Grade 1 status, outstanding horses have reached the winner’s circle three times.

It is also a race where fillies and mares have traditionally blossomed. Over the last decade, three females have won, three have finished in second and one was third.

Open to four-year-olds and up, the youngsters have been overshadowed in the seven years the race has been run as a Group 1, with five-year-olds claiming five wins and four-year-olds two.

This could be a year that the younger runners prevail, with keen rivals from the three-year-old Classics Tastiera and Sol Oriens meeting for the first time in 2024. In the four times the two have met at the top level, it’s Tastiera who has more often finished ahead of Sol Oriens. Tastiera has posted a 2-1-2-6 in the Classics and the G1 Arima Kinen (2500m), with Sol Oriens 1-2-3-8 in the same races.

Though Tastiera goes unraced to the Osaka Hai from the Arima Kinen on 24 December, his sharp morning work this week has had him hogging headlines. And, being a sharp starter, he is expected to secure a good position over Hanshin’s inner course.

In any case, it’s going to be red-hot at the betting windows, with the Group 1 winners heading into battle facing those still pressing for their first big win, names such as Rousham Park, Pradaria and Bellagio Opera.

Bellagio Opera was fourth in last year’s Derby, with his finishing time matching that of the winner. And, he has proven himself over the Osaka Hai inner 2000 with victory in the G3 Challenge Cup (2000m). Last out in the G2 Kyoto Kinen (2200m) at Kyoto on 11 February, he was beaten by three-quarters of a length by Derby fifth-place finisher Pradaria, who has proven relatively consistent except for the Arima Kinen, where he failed to settle. In the Kyoto Kinen, Pradaria was back to his usual level-headedness. That said, Bellagio Opera’s keen racing sense and faster time over the final metres are thought to bode well for the furlong shorter test this time.

Rousham Park is back on the track for his first time since a rather poor showing in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) last December. A late break worked against him in a race that called for a blistering final-stage turn of foot, something that doesn’t come easily to him. But the Osaka Hai tends to maintain a sharp pace throughout and this fellow, not short on talent, has what it takes to win.