Japan’s Derma Sotogake lined himself up for a crack at the Kentucky Derby as he made every post a winning one in the 1900m dirt Group 2 UAE Derby, a race totally dominated by Japanese representatives.
Trained by Hidetaka Otonashi, owned by Hiroyuki Asanuma and ridden with supreme confidence by the impeccable Christophe Lemaire, the chestnut won unchallenged by five and a half lengths from Dura Erede.
Japanese runners filled the first four places with another four lengths back to Continuar in third and three and a half more back to Perriere in fourth. Derma Sotogake, however, totally dominated and was stepping up in distance after finishing third in the Saudi Derby over 1600m last month when he finished never nearer than at the line.
Trainer Otonashi confirmed that Derma Sotogake would indeed travel to Kentucky direct from Dubai for the ‘Run for the Roses’ on the first Saturday in May at Churchill Downs. He said: "It's my first time here and Derma Sotogake is my first ever runner in the UAE. Now, I have one runner and one winner: it doesn't get much better than that!
"We didn't exactly plan to go straight to the lead but he broke so well. We were expecting him to improve and go well but you can never expect things to go that well. We had a different jockey and different ground so you can never be sure how well it works out, but it did. He will go straight to Kentucky from Dubai.
We'll discuss it but Christophe will probably keep the ride; he said he would anyway!" Jockey Lemaire added: “He can break a little slowly so it was important he began well to use his good gate position on the rail and he did just that. “He travelled nicely on the lead and he relaxed for me down the back stretch.
He was still moving smoothly for me as we came into the home stretch and once I pressed the button he was very impressive and I could enjoy the finish on him. “I hope he goes to America and I would love to ride him there. How could anyone refuse that?”
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