Runner-up for the past three years in the JPY369.9 million (approx. HK$18.6 million) G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen (1200m) at Chukyo Racecourse in Japan, Namura Clair will attempt to bow out with a first elite victory on Sunday (29 March).

With seven minor placings at Group 1 level, Namura Clair is synonymous with heartbreaking, narrow defeats in the Takamatsunomiya Kinen – Japan’s spring sprint contest – in a sequence which started in 2023 under regular rider Suguru Hamanaka as the pair charged from the tail of the field failing to overhaul First Force by a length.

A similar tale unfolded in 2024, when Namura Clair sliced through the soft conditions from last on the turn to go down by a head to Mad Cool, before the pattern continued for the mare last season when, under Christophe Lemaire, she again thundered home late to be denied by around three-quarters of a length by Satono Reve.

Now, as retirement beckons, Namura Clair will reoppose formidable rivals Satono Reve, Mama Cocha, Win Carnelian and Pair Pollux as the race’s sentimental favourite – a year after her owner Mutsuhiro Namura abandoned retirement plans to instead chase Group 1 glory.

Hamanaka is in the plate for the first time since the 2024 G3 Keeneland Cup (1200m) and, after partnering the seven-year-old in trackwork at Ritto, he said: “She moves as brilliantly as ever. She’s even better than last week, and even though she’s now seven, I don’t feel any decline at all.”

Trainer Kodai Hasegawa said: “She’s showing no signs of ageing, and her balance has shifted a bit more forward. Hamanaka, too, says she’s feeling good.”

Lemaire will ride Satono Reve on Sunday as he bids to fill the last remaining gaps in a bulging collection of Japanese feature victories. The Frenchman has won 21 of the Japan Racing Association’s 24 Group 1 crowns with only the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen, G1 Osaka Hai (2000m) and the G1 Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes (1600m) missing.

Runner-up to Ka Ying Rising in the G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m) at Sha Tin in April, Satono Reve was also second in the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (1200m) to France’s Lazzat at Royal Ascot in June. Satono Reve resumes after finishing ninth behind Ka Ying Rising in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint (1200m).

Panja Tower is regarded as an emerging sprint force in Japan, and his trainer Shinsuke Hashiguchi said the colt had recovered well after his last-start fifth in the G2 1351 Turf Sprint (1351m) in Riyadh.

“The ground was quite poor in his last outing. I think the distance was just a bit too long. He came out of his last race with no damage and things have gone well since. The 1200 metres is his best distance, and he has had good results racing to the left,” Hashiguchi said.

The Takamatsunomiya Kinen is carded as S4-1 and will be run at 2.40pm (Hong Kong time) on Sunday, 29 March.

Photo: JRA