BC Internationals: Filly & Mare Turf contender Nuovo Record

High-class Japanese racemare Nuovo Record has been among the leaders of her division for the past couple of years. A return to her top form would make her a win threat, but that’s the rub. Winless since March 2015, the five-year-old mare hasn’t had as productive a season so far, and hopes are that the fast pace on firm going at Santa Anita will spark a revival.

Nuovo Record’s pedigree features no fewer than three Breeders’ Cup winners. Her sire, Heart’s Cry (famous for handing Deep Impact his first defeat), is by 1989 Classic (G1) legend Sunday Silence. Her broodmare sire is Spinning World, the 1997 Mile (G1) hero. And her second dam is by inaugural BC winner Chief’s Crown, who opened the championships in the 1984 Juvenile (G1).

Mixing it up with Japanese champion Harp Star as a three-year-old in 2014, Nuovo Record was third in the Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) (G1) before turning the tables with a well-timed move in the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) (G1):

 

With Harp Star away on her fruitless Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) expedition, Nuovo Record captured the Sho Rose (G2), a prep for the final fillies’ classic. But in the Shuka Sho (G1) itself, she was just denied by rail-skimming Shonan Pandora – who would go on to win the following year’s Japan Cup (G1):