Gentildonna storms home in Oka Sho

Gentildonna stormed home to win the Oka Sho(Japanese 1000 Guineas) this afternoon at Hanshin Racecourse. She beat Verxina by a 1/2-length in an exciting finish with another 1/2-length back I'm Yours third. Race favorite Joie de Vivre finished a disappointing sixth place. Yasunari Iwata guided the winner to cover the 1,600-meter distance in 1 minute 34.60 on firm ground.

Within the 200 meters to go, Verxina and I'm Yours pulled away from the rest. It looked like a two-way battle, but Gentildonna drew up to them on the outside. The three locked together in a moment before Gentildonna got past the two rivals.

Gentildonna, trained by S. Ishizaka and owned by Sunday Racing Co. Ltd., has now won three in five starts with 166+ million jp yen in career earnings. Northern Racing was the breeder of the bay filly.
Gentildonna is a 3-year-old filly by Deep Impact out of the Bertolini mare Donna Blini.