Sixpence wins Yasuda Kinen as Take makes history at Tokyo

Sixpence did more than win the Yasuda Kinen. He gave Yutaka Take another chapter in a career that still bends the biggest races in Japan, and he did it in a finish tight enough to hold the entire international scene in place.

At Tokyo Racecourse, the 5-year-old son of Kizuna out of U.S.-bred mare Finley’sluckycharm surged late to beat World’s End by a neck in the 76th running of the mile turf Group 1 on Sunday. Gaia Force dead-heated with World’s End for second, with Seiun Hades only a neck behind that pair and Panja Tower another neck back, a compressed finish that showed how little separated the best milers in the field. The race went in 1:32.1 over good-to-firm ground for total prize money of ¥390.6 million.

For Take, the win was about more than another trophy. The 57-year-old became the oldest jockey ever to win a Japan Racing Association Grade 1 race at 57 years, 2 months and 24 days, passing the mark held by Norihiro Yokoyama. It was also his fourth Yasuda Kinen victory, adding Sixpence to a list that already included Oguri Cap, Heart Lake and Vodka. Few riders have stayed this relevant for this long, and fewer still are still landing Group 1s when the sport has moved through multiple generations around them.

The ride had the feel of a veteran making the right call at the right time. Take took the mount on short notice, contacted Sixpence’s previous riders and trainer before the race, and kept him close enough to strike when the final run began. Hiroyasu Tanaka had told him the horse could carry his speed to the finish, and that is exactly what Sixpence did when the pressure came.

The result also changes the horse’s path. Sixpence came in as the eighth choice in betting, had never finished better than seventh in a Group 1, and was making his sixth attempt at the level. Now he owns six wins in 13 starts, with prior victories in the Spring Stakes, Mainichi Okan and Nakayama Kinen. Carrot Farm representative Machiko Kuroda said a trip to France for the Prix Jacques le Marois was being considered, while the Yasuda Kinen also feeds directly into the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland on Oct. 31 and makes the top three eligible for the Prix Jacques le Marois and the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp. That puts Sixpence on a very short list of horses with real autumn options in both Japan and abroad.