Jockey Yuichi Kitamura steered top-favorite Chrono Genesis to victory in the 65th running of the Arima Kinen on Sunday, the third career Grade 1 triumph for the 4-year-old filly.
Chrono Genesis won a sprint over the final 300 meters of the 2,500-meter race on turf to finish in 2 minutes, 35 seconds, a neck ahead of 11th-favorite Salacia, with second-favorite Fierement a neck further back.
After a clean start out of the gate, Kitamura kept Chrono Genesis back in the pack for the first third of the race at Chiba Prefecture's Nakayama Racecourse east of Tokyo.
"She negotiated the pack really smoothly," Kitamura said. "Chrono Genesis has always been able to run with that same feel she has in training."
With a 1,000 meters to go, the filly picked up the pace on the outside and found high gear after the final turn and made it a three-horse race.
"I had a good picture of how this would go, and she surpassed that," Kitamura said, when asked about his endgame.
Related coverage:
Horse racing: Almond Eye goes into retirement as Japan Cup champ
Casino winnings of nonresident foreigners to be untaxed in Japan
