Authority showed he is a horse to watch with a dominant win against older opposition in Sunday’s Gr2 Copa Republica Argentina over 2500m at Tokyo.
Making his first start for more than six months and tackling older horses for the first time, Authority was settled in third place by Christophe Lemaire and moved up to challenge around the home turn to accelerate away to comfortably defeat Last Draft (Novellist) by one length with Sun Appleton (Zenno Rob Roy) in third.
A three-year-old son of Orfevre and inbred to Sunday Silence, Authority suffered a leg fracture winning the Gr2 Aoba Sho at Tokyo this spring in record time. The fracture forced the colt to miss the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) and the final 3-year-old classic Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger).
Christophe Lemaire told the JRA he had concerns before the race.
“I’m really happy to have won,” Lemaire said. “I was a bit worried with it being his first race after a layoff, but Mr Kimura and his staff really did a fantastic job getting him ready.
“The horse felt really strong in the stretch and was able to accelerate gradually while running at a good speed at length. He got up to top speed at the top of the hill and didn’t let up until the end.”