Sodashi, the first white horse to win a top-level Japan Racing Association event and the first white horse to win one of Japan's 3-year-old classics, has returned to the work tab and will take on colts and older horses in the Aug. 22 Sapporo Kinen (G2), the feature race of Sapporo Racecourse's summer meeting.
Last year the Kurofune filly was unbeaten through four starts, including the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (G1), and awarded the title of JRA's 2020 champion 2-year-old filly. In her first start of season for owner/breeder Makoto Kanekohe, she won the April 11 Oka Sho (Japanese One Thousand Guineas, G1) at Hanshin—first leg of the Triple Tiara for 3-year-old fillies in Japan.
After finishing eighth in the May 23 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks, G1) at Tokyo, her first defeat, Sodashi was freshened at Northern Farm and returned July 22 to Naosuke Sugai's barn at Hakodate Racecourse.
The horse to beat for Sodashi in the 2,000-meter (about 1 1/4-mile) Sapporo Kinen, is Loves Only You, a 5-year-old Deep Impact mare who won the April 25 FWD Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1) at Sha Tin after finishing third in the March 27 Dubai Sheema Classic Presented by Longines (G1) at Meydan. Yoshito Yahagi, who trains Loves Only You for DMM Dream Club, has declared that the ultimate goal for the mare in the second half of 2021 is the Nov. 6 Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) at Del Mar.
