Deep Impact added to reputation as the best sire to stand in Japan since Sunday Silence when two of his progeny fought out a close finish in the G1 Japan Cup in Tokyo on Sunday.

Shonan Pandora became Deep Impact’s third Japan Cup in the last four years after his champion daughter Gentildonna won the race twice in 2012 and 2013. Shonan Pandora (Deep Impact x Cutie Gold by French Deputy) took her record to five wins and five placings in 16 starts when she pegged back Ryan Moore’s mount Last Impact (Deep Impact x Superior Pearl by Timber Country) to score by a neck with the favourite Lovely Day third.

Bred by Shadai Corporation and owned by Tetsuhide Kunimoto, Shonan Pandora was the first Japan Cup starter for her trainer Tomokazu Takano and just his second G1 winner.

The winner is the fifth filly or mare in the last seven years to win the Japan Cup and extended the long sequence of Japanese-trained winners after the four overseas runners failed to make an impression, the French stayer Erupt best of the four foreigners in sixth.

Germany’s Nightflower was 11th, Edward Dunlop’s Ascot Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris 14th and Germany’s other runner Ito ran last.

Shonan Pandora had run fourth to Lovely Day in the Tenno Sho Autumn and appreciated the extra furlong of the Japan Cup to clinch her second G1 win after her success in the 2014 Shuka Sho.

Shonan Pandora is the only black type winner out of the French Deputy mare Cutie Gold, the dam of three winners from four foals to race.

Cutie Gold is a daughter of Golden Sash (Dictus), making her a half-sister to the G1 Hong Kong Vase winner and sire Stay Gold (Sunday Silence) and nine other winners.

• IN NEW YORK, Tapit’s crack 4YO son Tonalist came flying with a late run to win the G1 Cigar Mile at Aqueduct, edging out stablemate Red Vine in a photo finish.

He was bouncing back from a disappointing fifth in the G1 Breeders' Cup Classic at Keeneland for his fourth G1 victory for trainer Christophe Clement to go with his wins in the 2014 Belmont Stakes and consecutive editions of the Jockey Club Gold Cup in 2014 and 2015.

Tonalist was bred in Kentucky by Woodslane Farm out of the Pleasant Colony mare Settling Mist and holds a 7-4-2 record from 16 starts for earnings of $3,647,000.

He was purchased privately after failing to meet his reserve for $195,000 at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton New York Saratoga select yearling sale.

He is still on the market as a stud prospect.