Matsuyama eyes historic double after Lovcen books Derby favouritism

Japanese jockey Kohei Matsuyama has his mind set on both the Japanese Oaks (Yushun Himba) and the Japanese (Tokyo Yushun) after a record-breaking all-the way win on Lovcen in the Satsuki Sho on Sunday.

Matsuyama completed a Group 1 double with his success aboard the Haruki Sugiyama-trained Lovcen, seven days after winning the Oka Sho on Star Anise.   

The three-year-old colt smashed the Nakayama track record, running 1:56.5 over the 2000 metres, making the pace all the way and winning by three-quarters of a length. He had won the Hopeful Stakes over the same track and distance as a two-year-old.

He will now be the favourite for next month’s Derby, with a strong staying pedigree, headed by his sire World Premiere, who won both the Kikuka Sho and the Tenno Sho spring in his own career.

Matsuyama is the seventh jockey to have won both early three-year-old classics in the same year and will be aiming to become the first since Christophe Lemaire in 2017 to win both the Oaks and Derby.