Lemaire continues fine season with first JBC Sprint success

The in-form Christophe Lemaire added another string to his considerable bow when landing his first JBC Sprint at Kyoto on the Shinsuke Hashiguchi-trained Graceful Leap.

The eight-year-old, who was registering his 12th success, tracked the leaders in fourth before closing in on the pacesetters and winning the 6f contest by a neck from favourite Matera Sky.

Lemaire said: "We were able to secure a perfect spot behind [Yutaka] Take [on Matera Sky] and from there the horse gave a great effort."

The jockey, who won the Tenno Sho on Rey De Oro last month, has been in a fine spell of form and also finished third on Sunrise Soar in the JBC Classic behind the Haruki Sugiyama-trained K T Brave.

K T Brave has not looked back since switching to the dirt and was landing his 11th career success following a three-quarter length verdict at the line.

Jockey Yuichi Fukunaga said: "The horse was in top condition, which made me very confident today. He struggled a bit to keep up with the fast pace, but he has won at the highest level under the same kind of circumstances so I wasn’t worried about that."

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