Japanese ace Oju Chosan chasing fifth consecutive win in Nakayama Grand Jump

Oju Chosan is out to create more history in Japanese racing as he bids for a fifth successive win in the Grade 1 Nakayama Grand Jump on Saturday (7.40am BST).

The race is one of two top-level jump races staged in Japan. The contest is run over 2m5f, with a prize-money pot of ¥126,060,000 (£938,000/€1.08million) making it one of the richest steeplechases in the world.

Shoichiro Wada's runner is already the most successful horse in the race's history and is odds-on in Japan to record the five-timer.

Oju Chosan has raced 23 times over jumps, winning 15 times, six of which have come at Grade 1 level. He comes into the race in fine form having won the Grade 2 Hanshin Spring Jump in a record time.

He takes on ten rivals, with Meisho Dassai and Shingun Michael his biggest threats according to the bookmakers.

There is Classic action in Japan on Sunday, with Nakayama also hosting the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas).

Star Australian jockey Damian Lane is aboard likely favourite Salios, who is unbeaten in three starts and was the highest-rated two-year-old in Japan last season.

Noriyuki Hori, trainer of Salios, said: "He moves smoothly and is calm enough to control as we’d like. It’ll be his first time at the track, but the way he’s running he can adjust to the pace and he’s just how the jockey thinks he should be. Among the horses I’ve trained, mentally he seems one of the best."

British-bred Darlington Hall represents Godolphin in the race. He never raced in Britain and the Tetsuya Kimura-trained runner comes here off the back of a win at Tokyo last time.

Kimura said: "The horse is very well in himself, and he did well in his last race when the ground was not so good, so that was encouraging. He can be difficult to control, but I'm not worried about his position in the race, nor the other strong horses, as long as he finds his natural quick rhythm. I'm hoping for a good result."

Contrail, a son of the ill-fated Deep Impact who has four representatives in the race, was voted two-year-old of the year in Japan last season. He is another key contender and runs for Yoshito Yahagi.

Yahagi said: "He's looked good in training, getting into the flow of things and responding well, even when the training track has been a bit heavy. He seems fired up. At this time of year, the going at Nakayama is better than it was for the Hopeful Stakes last year, so that’s a good thing."

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