Justin time for celebrity broodmare Margot Did with significant victory in Japan

Margot Did, who gave Hayley Turner a famous Group 1 victory in the 2011 Nunthorpe Stakes at York, looks to have another star on her hands as a broodmare in the shape of possible Japanese Classic hope Justin Milano.

The Masahiro Miki-trained Kizuna colt is unbeaten in two starts to date, breaking his duck under Tom Marquand at Tokyo in mid-November and returning to the same track on Sunday for the Kyodo News Hai (Tokinominoru Kinen), a Grade 3 event over nine furlongs which can serve as a trial for the Japanese Guineas itself. It has been won by some of the country's elite performers, such as Admire Moon, Gold Ship, Real Steel and Efforia.

Ridden prominently by Keita Tosai, Justin Milano cut down the breakaway run by Power Hall and kept on a length and a half ahead of Jantar Mantar, a Grade 1 winner of the Futurity Stakes at Hanshin in December.

Margot Did was something of a cinderella story who was bought for just 10,000gns by Richard Frisby at the Tattersalls breeze-ups and produced a brilliant sequence in Group races at two and three in Michael Bell's care.

The Exceed And Excel mare, bred by Nicky Hartery, changed hands privately and visited Galileo. Her first foal, Mission Impassable, was third in the Prix Marcel Boussac and won the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham for Jean-Claude Rouget, while her full sister Magic Attitude was second in the Prix Saint-Alary and went on to win the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks Invitational.

Magic Attitude was bred by Katsumi Yoshida and Margot Did is now under his Northern Farm banner. Her Heart's Cry colt named Inzaghi failed to hit the back of the net, while Pietrasanta, a son of Frankel, is a longstanding maiden upon whom even Hollie Doyle and Luke Morris have been unable to work their magic.

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