Monroe Walk becomes latest Japanese Group 1 winner out of an Australian mare
Monroe Walk, a Kizuna filly out of Thousand Guineas winner Amphitrite, remained unbeaten in the Shuka Sho at Kyoto, equalling the course record at her first Group 1 start.
Monroe Walk, the Kizuna filly out of Group 1 Thousand Guineas winner Amphitrite, won the Group 1 Shuka Sho at Kyoto on Sunday, staying unbeaten after five starts and adding another Japanese Group 1 to the record of Australian mares exported to Northern Farm.
The $1.30 favourite beat Garavogue by a neck in the third leg of the Japanese fillies’ Triple Crown, with Dream Core a further one and a quarter lengths away in third. Her time of 1:56.1 for the 2000 metres equalled the course record .
Ridden by Keita Tosaki for trainer Hiroyuki Uemura, Monroe Walk sat fifth while the leaders ran the first 1000 metres in 57.8 seconds. She moved up outside the front-runners approaching the straight and ran her final 600 metres in 34.5 seconds to hold off Garavogue.
It was her first Group 1 start having missed the spring Classics. She returned with two wins at Hakodate before taking the Group 2 Rose Stakes at Hanshin by three lengths in September. She is the first unbeaten winner of the Shuka Sho since Fine Motion in 2002, and the first since Vivlos in 2016 to win it after missing both spring legs.
Owned by M’s Racing and bred by Northern Farm, Monroe Walk cost ¥68.2 million at the 2023 Northern Farm Mixed Sale. She also adds to Kizuna’s Group 1 record, which stood at five individual winners in September.
Amphitrite, by Sebring out of the Redoute’s Choice mare Ocean Dream, was bought by Flying Start Syndications for $50,000 and raced for a syndicate of about 40 people. In the spring of 2018 she went from a maiden win at Sale to the Edward Manifold Stakes and then the Thousand Guineas within five weeks. She later won the Group 3 Vanity Stakes for Lindsay Park and retired with five wins from 17 starts and more than $750,000 in prize money.
William Johnson Bloodstock brokered her private sale to Northern Farm, and she left Australia in January 2020.
Monroe Walk is Amphitrite’s third foal to race, following the Daiwa Major winner Trident Spear. The mare also has a Lord Kanaloa colt, Vasto Mare, and a 2026 Equinox filly. Her Contrail filly sold for ¥56 million, about A$494,000, to Red Magic Co Ltd at the JRHA sale in July.
The last Australian-mare link to the Shuka Sho came in 2023, when Liberty Island, out of Australian-bred Group 1 winner Yankee Rose, won the race.
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