The Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In\u00a0returns its international reach to South Korea Sept. 6 with bids to the Oct. 31 Breeders’ Cup World Championships on the line in the Korea Cup (G2) and Korea Sprint (G3).<\/p>\n
The feature attraction is Japan-based\u00a0Diktaean<\/a>\u00a0, an 8-year-old gelding by King Kamehameha\u00a0who seeks a repeat win in the 1,800-meter (about 1 1\/8-mile)\u00a0Cup and an entry to the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1).\u00a0<\/p>\n He followed last year’s victory in Korea with a win in the Tokyo Daishoten (G1) at Oi Racecourse Dec. 29, a breakthrough for National Association of Racing horses against the more dominant Japan Racing Association rivals. The back-to-back wins boosted him to the NAR’s Horse of the Year honor.<\/p>\n This year, Diktaean reported fifth in the Kawasaki Kinen April 8 and third in the Teio Sho July 1 at Oi\u2014a similar pattern to his year-ago performance of second and fourth in the same races. Overall, Diktaean has 11\u00a0wins from 33\u00a0starts.<\/p>\n Diktaean, out of the King Halo\u00a0mare Medeia\u00a0, is trained by Katsunori Arayama.<\/p>\n Crown Pride<\/a>\u00a0, a more familiar name on the international scene, is the last back-to-back winner of the Korea Cup, in 2023 and 2024. Crown Pride won the UAE Derby (G2) in 2022 in Dubai and used that as a springboard to the Kentucky Derby (G1), where he finished 13th after disputing a suicidal pace. He finished fifth in both the Saudi Cup (G1) and the Dubai World Cup (G1) in 2023.<\/p>\n Korea Sprint<\/p>\n Hong Kong-based Beauty Waves\u00a0tackles local and Japanese rivals in the Korea Sprint at 1,200 meters (about 6 furlongs), a “Win and You’re In” for the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1). The 6-year-old Starspangledbanner<\/a>\u00a0 gelding’s record is not particularly impressive at first glance, but improves with a look at the company lines, which include the likes of Ka Ying Rising at the top level of global competition.<\/p>\n Hong Kong also returns last year’s winner\u00a0Self Improvement, who has not maintained form at home. But if the Seoul Racecourse sandy surface was a big plus a year ago, it’s still there.<\/p>\n Dragon Welds, a Kentucky-bred Frosted colt, and American Stage<\/a>\u00a0 head\u00a0the Japanese contingent in the Korea Sprint. Dragon Welds steps up in class on the back of three straight wins, lately in the Tokyo Sprint at Oi.<\/p>\n American Stage will be a more familiar name to American racing fans. Bred in Kentucky by Spendthrift Farm, the globe-trotting 4-year-old Into Mischief<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0 colt finished fourth in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar, beaten 4 1\/4 lengths. He is seeking a return to form for trainer Yoshito Yahagi, having not won since December 2024, despite placing in a group 3 in Dubai last spring and finishing fourth in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint (G2) in February. He returns to dirt after making his last three starts on turf in Japan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series: Win and You’re In\u00a0returns its international reach to South Korea Sept. 6 with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":86272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[54747,54681,54682,27393,54748,420,8,54750,54751,54749,419,52],"class_list":["post-86271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tokyo","tag-beauty-waves-ire","tag-breeders-cup-dirt-mile","tag-breeders-cup-sprint","tag-breeders-cup","tag-diktaean-jpn","tag-international","tag-japan","tag-korea-cup-g2","tag-korea-sprint-g2","tag-self-improvement-aus","tag-thoroughbred-racing","tag-tokyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}