Contrail remained unbeaten with a fighting win in Sunday’s Gr.1 Satsuki Sho (2000m) at Nakayama.
The Shinji Maeda-owned son of Deep Impact was settled in midfield until the turn for home where he was brought to the centre of the track, finishing strongly to wear down Salios late on to score by half a length with Galore Creek a further 3-1/2 lengths away in third.
Jockey Yuichi Fukunaga said the race had not panned out the way he had anticipated.
“He won strongly today,” Fukunaga told the JRA. “The race itself wasn’t the way as I had expected, I actually had the idea of him racing further up in front as usual.
“But as it turned out, he wasn’t keen to go up front early and I didn’t push him so we were positioned much farther behind going around the second corner, so I had no choice but to change lanes to the outside after that.
“But with the way he was moving in the post parade and the response once I took him to the outside, I had every confidence in him entering the stretch. His power was so that I thought we might pull away but Salios didn’t let us win so easily.
“Winning the way he did today, I am confident that he has every reason to handle the extended distance in the coming Derby.”
Pictured winning the Hopeful Stakes last season, winning Contrail emulated his sire Deep Impact who won Japan’s version of the 2000 Guineas in 2005 and the third winner of the race for Deep Impact following Al Ain (2017) and Dee Majesty (2016).