Red Desire, the Group 1 winner in Japan who will make her next start in the Grade
1 Flower Bowl Invitational at Belmont Park on October 2, completed the lengthy journey from
her native country to New York when she
arrived at Aqueduct Racetrack yesterday and will be transferred to Belmont tomorrow once she
completes her time in quarantine.
“She had a very long trip, about 24 hours,” said Nobutaka Tada, racing manager for Yoko Yamamoto’s
Tokyo Horse Racing. “She was tired last night for sure, but she seems OK. This
morning she was fine.”
Tada said Red Desire’s connections decided to send her to
the United States
for the Flower Bowl and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf after she
bled following a workout in June. By running her in the Flower Bowl, they’ll
have the chance to see how she performs with the addition of Lasix prior to the
Breeders’ Cup on November 5.
“We can’t give her Lasix in Japan,” said Tada. “We don’t know
how she’ll behave. It’s a long trip, and she’ll be racing with Lasix for the
first time.”
A daughter of the Sunday Silence stallion Manhattan Cafe,
Red Desire defeated her nemesis Buena Vista by a nose in the 2009 Group 1 Shuka
Sho, having previously finished second to that rival in the Oka Sho (Japanese
1000 Guineas) and the Yushun Himba (Japanese 1000 Guineas). Following a third
in the Group 1 Japan Cup, Red Desire went to Dubai, winning the Group 2 Al Maktoum
Challenge: Round 3 and finishing 11th in the Group 1 Dubai World
Cup. She’ll enter the Flower Bowl off a fourth in the Grade 1 Victoria Mile
back in Japan
on May 16.
Tada believes the Flower Bowl’s 1 ¼-mile distance is perfect
for Red Desire, who has won at distances ranging from 1600 meters (approximately
one mile) to 2000 meters (approximately 1 ¼ miles) and was third going 2400
meters (approximately 1 ½ miles) in the Japan Cup.
“We like a mile and a quarter to a mile and a half,” said
Tada. “She won going a mile and a quarter in Dubai. That race gave us much confidence in
her ability.”
Yoko Yamomoto’s husband, Hidetoshi Yamamoto, owns Casino Drive, who
came from Japan to win the
2008 Grade 2 Peter Pan at Belmont, and that
experience was a factor in the decision to have Red Desire come to Belmont Park to prep for the Breeders’ Cup.
“We like the track and the people in New York,” said Tada. “There are other
places we could have gone, but we like the people there.”