Des Ailes shows ability to match illustrious breeding in Hanshin Himba Stakes

Dual French Classic winner Avenir Certain claimed Graded success with her first foal on Saturday as Des Ailes won the Hanshin Himba Stakes in Japan.

The favourite, trained by Yasuo Tomomichi and ridden by Yuga Kawada, made up a huge amount of ground from a midfield position to catch the front-runners in the final stride to land the Victoria Mile trial by a neck from the second favourite Magic Castle, with Donau Delta a further neck back in third. The winning time was 1m32s, which was only 0.10s off the course record.

Des Ailes is beautifully bred by Shadai Farm, a four-year-old daughter of Deep Impact and the Le Havre mare Avenir Certain, who took the 2014 French Oaks and Guineas for Jean-Claude Rouget, Ecurie Antonio Caro and Gerard Augustin-Normand.

Des Ailes, who was second in the Japanese Oaks, was winning for the fourth time from seven starts. Her three-year-old sister Honneur has won both her races so far in minor company.

Kawada said: "She showed her own stride. When I rode her in training once and understood her, and I could race like that.

"I took care of her rhythm in the first half, and I wanted her to use her good stride for home so I waited for the stretch. She showed her high ability so I hope she will do her best from now. The mile is good for her and anti-clockwise is not bad for her for the Victoria Mile."

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