Aguri First Japanese Winner for Caravaggio

Caravaggio scored a winner in a fifth country on Saturday when Aguri (2c Caravaggio x Old Time Waltz, by War Front) romped home by three lengths at Tokyo.

The one-mile turf race saw Aguri take up a spot just behind the leader and relax under Yuga Kawada. With the littlest of urging, the colt took over the lead inside the final furlong and a half with his jockey barely moving on him in the closing stages.

Trained by Takayuki Yasuda for Masahiro Miki, the Northern Racing-bred colt was a ¥105,000,000 (USD$982,202) yearling purchase at the JHRA Select Yearling Sale last year.

He is out of the winning War Front mare Old Time Waltz, who is one of four winners out of the Grade I winner and Irish champion Together. That mare also produced Old Time Waltz’s stakes-placed brother Battle of Jericho and her Grade II-placed half-sister Earring.

Together is a three-quarter sister to Group I winner Jan Vermeer and half-sister to stakes-placed Terrific. Also in the family are Grade I winners Drain the Clock and Imperial Beauty.

While her daughter is now in Japan, Together is still in the United States and has a 2-year-old American Pharoah colt named Matvei Platov, a yearling Justify colt, a weanling Justify filly, and returned to the undefeated Triple Crown winner this year.

Aguri is the second new winner for Caravaggio in two days after Inuit also won by three lengths in France on Friday.