"Gold Ship, Gold Ship!!"
"Gold Ship takes the lead! There's no stopping this final kick!"
Charging up from behind, Gold Ship surged straight to the front.
Kenichi Ikezoe stopped using his whip, urging him faster with steady forward pushes instead.
There had been plenty of pressure going into this race, but thankfully, Gold Ship had delivered. Ikezoe did not know how far ahead they were, but judging by his earlier assessment, there should be no major problems.
Hrrph-!
Hrrph-!
Gold Ship, naturally, had eyes only for the track ahead.
He understood the instructions.
"Behind Gold Ship is Yuichi Fukunaga, but the gap between them keeps growing."
"Gold Ship is all alone out front! This is the power of an unbeaten double crown winner!"
No matter how anyone looked at it, Gold Ship had won this race. The horses behind him simply could not catch up.
An overwhelming victory.
This year's undefeated Triple Crown was practically in the bag.
After crossing the finish line, Kenichi Ikezoe glanced back.
Sure enough, they had not caught up.
There were at least three lengths between them, with an even wider gap to the horses farther back.
Great!
Kenichi Ikezoe pumped his fist, then gave Gold Ship a couple of pats.
Now, when Koichi returned, he could say he had lived up to the trust placed in him.
He had to admit that riding a good horse felt completely different.
He could also understand why he had lost to Koichi in the Derby.
The gap between their horses had simply been too great.
"Congratulations to Kenichi Ikezoe on taking first place in the Kobe Shimbun Hai."
This was an unexpected bonus for Kenichi Ikezoe.
Under normal circumstances, winning would never have been this easy.
For the upcoming Kikuka Sho, Gold Ship would certainly be back