R STAR is SW22 for Lord Kanaloa after winning Sunday’s Gr3 Kokura Kinen (2000m).
Smothered away along the inside intro the home straight, Yoshihito Nagaoka was able to secure a rails run inside the final 200m for R Star to come through and defeat Satono Garnet (Deep Impact) by one length with Outliers (Victoire Pisa) third, the 2000m completed in 1:57.5 on ground listed as firm.
The five-year-old R Star is the best of seven winners left by Wave Queen (Soccer Boy), a sister to three-time Japanese Listed winner Kyoto City.
Gr1 winner Lord Kanaloa (King Kamehameha) was the leading First-season sire in Japan in 2017. He stands at Shadai Stud in Hokkaido.