61st Kobe Shimbun Hai Turf, right-handed outer course, 2,400 m Weather: sunny Turf: good Post time: 15:35
Although this was Epiphaneia's first race at Hanshin Racecourse, everyone had plenty of confidence in him.
Epiphaneia and Koichi Sasaki were the strongest combination!
Kenichi Ikezoe had done well with Epiphaneia before, but they clearly could not match these two together.
As a two-year-old, Epiphaneia had given Kenichi Ikezoe plenty of tug-of-war matches.
"The 61st Kobe Shimbun Hai is about to begin. Please turn your attention to stall No. 10."
"Horse No. 10 is our favorite, Epiphaneia."
"Which of these eighteen racehorses will secure a place in the Kikuka Sho?"
After the music, the commentator began his pre-race introduction.
There was almost no suspense surrounding this race.
Inside the starting stall, Koichi stroked Epiphaneia's head.
Let's keep working hard in the second half of this year, too.
Epiphaneia tossed his head.
Time to get to work!
Entering the starting stall always fired up his competitive spirit, because he knew another contest was about to begin.
The gates opened!
The instant the gates opened, Koichi gave the command to burst forward.
Epiphaneia reacted swiftly and shot out at once.
Koichi then began checking the horses on the inside.
The horses had charged out as soon as the gates opened, but their formation was still scattered.
Seeing that Epiphaneia had broken cleanly, Koichi pushed his hands forward, urging him to keep charging.
Clop, clop, clop-
The thunder of hooves was at its loudest now, and Epiphaneia soon surged through a gap between two horses.
Koichi turned his head to the right to check the horses on that side.
Their position was already quite good, fairly close to the front. Although horses behind them were still accelerating, they could still choose to cut toward