Japan conquer Goodwood in awesome Nassau Stakes success

02nd August 2019

Deirdre, trained by Mitsuru Hashida and ridden by Oisin Murphy, quickly went from being the first Japanese runner at Goodwood to the first Japanese winner at the track, on a historic day.

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She finished with a flourish in the mile-and-a-quarter Nassau Stakes for fillies and mares to capture Group 1 honours by a length and a quarter from long-time leader Mehdaayih, ridden by Frankie Dettori. The victory was the second time Japan have won a G1 contest in Britain following Agnes World's win in the 2000 G1 July Cup at Newmarket.

Despite Deirdre finishing down the field in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, connections blamed the soft ground for her performance and decided to remain in England for a tilt at the Goodwood alternative. 

The mare is owned by Mr Toji Morita, who owns a family business in Osaka, Japan. His Racing Manager Seiko Hashida Yoshimura, who is also the daughter of the winning trainer Mitsuru Hashida, was thrilled by Deirdre's success.

She said: "That was a special performance from Deirdre. It is fantastic to have a winner at the Qatar Goodwood Festival. This is very important not only for us, but also for the whole of Japan to come over to Britain and have a big-race winner. Today's victory is important for Japan because it showed that it is not just possible to come here and compete, but that it is also possible to win. Hopefully, we can have a good influence on Japanese racing with this win.

It was a very big challenge to come here. We have been in Britain for three months with Deirdre and we are so pleased that we kept believing in her. We had a lot of support and this has made this victory possible. We were just hoping for the best for her today. It was a gloriously sunny day at 'Glorious Goodwood' and everything just fell right for her. Goodwood is a beautiful racecourse. It is very different to Japanese racecourses which are usually oval-shaped. We were sure that she would like this track and it worked out very well. The quicker ground was another important factor for her today and it is very special to win a G1 event in Britain.

'GLORIOUS GOODWOOD' 2019 GALLERY

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