By Duane Fonseca -
A terrific ride from Christophe Lemaire ensured Tetsuya Kimura’s Cervinia snapped up the Grade 1 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday.
Sitting towards the rear of the field, the G3 Artemis Stakes winner was asked for an effort in the straight and showed she had plenty left in the tank when gobbling up ground hastily to win by a half length.
Masaaki Koga’s Windstille set the pace under Hiroshi Kitamura but happened to find herself on fumes trying to negotiate the final quarter of the 2400m contest, which left the door open for the chasing pack to close in quickly.
A posse of challengers emerged for the title at the 400m marker, but the list did not include Cervinia and Lemaire. However, during a crucial stretch between the 400 and the 200m poles, a lot changed as the Northern Farm owned Harbinger filly flew down the centre of the track and hit the front to snatch the lead off Oka Sho (1000 Guineas) winner Stellenbosch. Victory helped Cervinia, 13th in the Oka Sho, reverse her form with Stellenbosch.
Light Black was a further length and three quarters behind in third for trainer Taiki Chaki and jockey Ryusei Sakai.
