Connaught Cup Stakes (Grade 2)- $175.000 Purse
WO- For Four Year Olds and Upward
Seven Furlongs on the Turf
June 3, 2017

For the third race in a row, Tokyo Secret has picked up a highly impressive victory. This time, the triumph marks his first graded win, coming in the Grade 2 Connaught Cup Stakes at WO. The secret to Tokyo Secret’s run? They’ve all been at this seven furlong distance, allowing him to finally find his perfect niche. He’s run very well in some graded events before, so the talent was always there. For trainer Tiratzo, the perfect formula may have now been discovered, because they are not just wins, but they have been triple digit SRF victories. We don’t know his official speed figure for this one, but it was two tenths quicker then Sweep The Event, who got a 99 for that run last year. It is the first win in the stake both for the trainer, and for jockey M Rainford. The race time of 1:20.09 is impressive and the third quickest in the stake’s history with the identical conditions. Congratulations! Here’s how it went down!

1/4 Mile (:22.69)- The great Jamfest jumps out to the early lead from his outside post position for trainer Jkk Racing Stable. To his inside, there is only one that is applying much pressure at this point, and that would be Night Time Breeze from Maxmillion Farm. These two lead the way into the turn by about two lengths. Running third is our eventual winner, Tiratzo’s Tokyo Secret, who is running patiently along the rail with Waiting To Danz (Threshold) matching his stride to the outside. Seven Colors (Allinthegate) is fifth, but looks to be in an undesired three wide position as they move into the turn. Behind them, Mb Stables’ sees his pair running side by side in Champion Farley and Venture Capitalist, and Forgive Me (Luz International) is in the fourth lane at the end of the backstretch. Running behind the pack, Crimson Flare (TwinTowersRacing) watches it all unfold.

Top Of Stretch, 2.0 Furlongs to Go- The ½ mile came and went in :45.36 with very little new action taking place, but things would get very exciting on exit of the turn and into the stretch run. It was still Jamfest running at the front, and you can never count out a champion of his caliber, so those behind him knew they needed to start positioning themselves to make a move. Night Time Breeze was still second by 3/4 of a length, but seemed to be glued to the same stride as Jamfest, and not really making a move. Towards the end of the stretch, we see Tokyo Secret continue to ride the rail to perfection, and M Rainford, tells him that its time to go, and he does so with authority. Just as he moves to the inside of Jamfest, we see Waiting to Danz and Seven Colors go outside a bit, with allows a nice gap for both Champion Farley and Venture Capitalist to pounce on, and they would do exactly that. These two were ready to explode with run in the stretch, and had about three lengths to make up. Forgive Me seemed to just be holding his own, but not making a push as of yet. Crimson Flare started to look more and more like an also-ran at this point.

Finish (1:20.09)- Briefly, Jamfest and Night Time Breeze show some fight, but they would succumb to the strength of Tokyo Secret, who just kept pouring it on a persistent stride in the stretch. With about a furlong to go, he would clear the field and it looked like it would be in the bag at that point, but there were some pursuers that were going to make this interesting. Venture Capitalist was also running very well in the stretch, but had a little more traffic to deal with, though it was handled nicely by E R Da Silva as he split Jamfest and Night Time Breeze. Once clearing them, he made a valiant push to steal the win from Tokyo Secret, but the wire came up just in time for Tokyo Secret to get the win! It may have also shown that indeed, seven, is the perfect number for Tokyo Secret. Champion Farley also ran well in the stretch, but he was really at the mercy of having to follow Tokyo Secret, and that kept him from making a winning push of his own. Forgive Me’s consistent stride allowed him to be fourth, a tad over Night Time Breeze and Seven Colors. Waiting To Danz was seventh, followed by the disappointing Jamfest in eighth. Crimson Flare had the best seat in the house to watch the action the whole way.

About The Winner: Tokyo Secret, trained by Tiratzo and ridden by M Rainford, is a four year old gelding by Asakusa King, and out of Secret Appeal. He was bred in Louisiana by Halo Thoroughbreds as a yearling, and acquired by Tiratzo in a $45.000 claimer at MNR in November 2015. Congratulations to the connections! It is his third win a row, but first graded stake victory. Overall, his career record shows seven wins in 19 career starts, with earnings now sitting at $373.500.

Track: Firm
Time: :22³  :45¹  1:08²  1:20

$2 Mutuel Prices:

$1 Exacta: 1 – 6 Paid 33.40
$1 Trifecta: 1 – 6 – 2 Paid 53.10

Scratched: None

Winner picked NS

— NS

Categories: Grade II, STAKES ARTICLES