Making her 2021 debut, snow-white filly Sodashi kept her record at a perfect five for five in Sunday's Group 1 Oka Sho (1600m) (Japanese 1000 Guineas) at Hanshin.
Given a peach of a ride by Hayato Yoshida, the Naosuke Sugai-trained daughter of Kurofume fended off Christophe Lemaire's challenge on the hard-charging Deep Impact filly Satono Reinas by a neck in track-record time of 1m31.1. It was the same exacta as the season-ending Group 1 Hanshin Juvenile Fillies on December 13 when the margin was a nose.
The last start Group III Fairy Stakes (1600m) winner Fine Rouge (Kazuna) was a half-length further back in third.
The cult of Sodashi began when she made a winning debut in an 1800m 3yo Newcomers race last July. She added the Group III Nisai Stakes (1800m) at Sapporo in September, then the Group III Artemis stakes (1600m) at Tokyo in October before her heroics in the Juvenile Fillies.
Sodashi is the best of a line that has thrilled Japanese racegoers through her dam Buchiko (King Kamehameha) and granddam Shirayukihime (Sunday Silence), who was born white.
Soda
shi is a three-quarter sister to the multiple stakes-winner Yukichan (Kurofune), whose daughter Shiroinger is the dam of another of this seasons leading three-year-old fillies Meikei Yell who pulled up last in the Oka Sho
A daughter of the former Arrowfield shuttler Mikki Isle (JPN), Meikei Yell was fourth behind Sodashi and Satono Reinas in the Group 1 Juvenile Fillies, having gone into the race unbeaten in three starts, including a pair of Group IIIs.
At her first start in 2021, Meikei Yell won the Group II Tulip Sho at Hanshin and was a solid third favourite in the Oka Sho.
Buchiko has a 2yo sister to Sodashi, who is bay. The daughter of King Kamehameha was covered by Maurice (JPN) last year.
