He's always been close but this time he landed the G1 in the Mile Championship in Kyoto.

There were surprises in the minors which went to Elton Barows on 18.9 and Win Marvel on 41.5.

Charyn blew the start and had to find a spot towards the rear of the field and was therefore carried very wide on the turn coming in to the short straight and although he put in a very brave effort it was too late and he finished up in fifth in a tight photo in which Brede Weg got the fourth only a short head away from Win Marvel and a similar margin to fifth.

Namur appeared to have broken down at the end of the race as the jockey dismounted and it didn't look good.  We are trying to find out what happened by unlike Hong Kong there is no Stewards' report post race.  For the sake of transparency the JRA would be wise to look at measures like this instead of punishing young jockeys for using their phones during "lockdown".  In this day and age the locking up of jockeys before the races seems ridiculous.  One of the young jockeys involved has resigned and recently Japan's top and one of a very few female jockeys resigned after a tabloid brought up the story of her brush with the authorities over a similar infraction.  We noted one time in Macao that as the jockeys arrived at the course they would put their phones into a locked locker and that seems a much more realistic way to handle the situation.

On Saturday the 2yos in Tokyo ran according to the Morning Line forecast with Croix du Nord winning from Satono Shining and Red Kingly.