Victoire Pisa led home a Japanese 1-2 in the world’s richest horse race, the Dubai World Cup, at the Meydan racecourse on Saturday with Transcend finishing second in an emotional victory coming in the wake of the earthquake and tsunami disaster that struck the country.
Victoire Pisa, trained by Yoshimi Ichikawa, was brilliantly ridden by Mirco Demuro, who sported a black armband in honour of the tsunami victims, to see the four-year-old 12/1 shot home and become the first Japanese horse to take the 10million dollar prize.
The Koji Maeda-trained 40/1 outsider Transcend finished fast down the outside to hold off Godolphin’s Mahmoud Al Zarooni-trained Monterosso, also 40/1, third.
Favourite Twice Over couldn’t overcome his bad draw and the two-time Champions Stakes winner failed to feature in the decisive stages.
AFP gjw
