Docklands to Target Japan's Mile Championship

Royal Ascot's Queen Anne Stakes (G1) winner Docklands (GB) is set to bid for a first win for a European-trained runner in Japan's Mile Championship (G1) Nov. 23, with the prestigious grade 1 forming the second leg of a plan that also includes the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1) on Qipco Champions Day Oct. 18. Nominations for the £2.05 million grade 1 at Kyoto Racecourse close this week, and trainer Harry Eustace will tread the same path as last year's Queen Anne winner Charyn (IRE), who ran fifth to Soul Rush (JPN) after winning the QEII. Following a nonevent in the Sussex Stakes (G1) won by pacemaker Qirat (GB), Docklands was last seen running an excellent fourth to Diego Velazquez (IRE) in the Prix Jacques le Marois (G1) in mid-August. "He's great and always tends to pull up from his races well," Eustace said. "I was delighted with the run and I felt that if he'd been able to get out earlier he might have been third. But it confirmed that Ascot wasn't a fluke and Japan is very much the plan. "The Moulin was always the race we were going to skip as the plan was Ascot and then Japan, and I just wanted to give him two or three weeks when he could have a bit of a freshen-up." Docklands is a best-priced 14-1 for the QEII back over Ascot's straight mile, with Eustace relaxed about the 5-year-old son of Massaat (IRE)'s ability to handle the ground should it come up soft. "Nearly his best run as a 3-year-old was in the Balmoral at the end of the year," said Eustace. "Unusually for Ascot, it was quite a leader-favoring track that day on really horrible ground, and for a 3-year-old, I thought he ran incredibly well. "He's never really got back onto that surface apart from at Epsom, which was a bit messy. We're looking forward to getting him back on that surface on a track that we know he enjoys. "It'll be a very interesting race, with a lot of the main miling division seemingly heading to the Breeders' Cup outside of Field of Gold." First run in 1984, today the Mile Championship carries a $700,000 bonus to the winner if they have already won a qualifying race, of which the Queen Anne is one. Charyn was the first European challenger to have made the trip since Rod Collet saddled Sahpresa to be third to Eishin Apollon in 2011. Owned by Australian-based syndicate OTI Management, last year Docklands ran in the Cox Plate (G1) and Flemington's Champions Stakes G1), both over 1 1/4 miles, before rounding off 2024 in the Hong Kong Mile (G1). "We're conscious that he loves his racing and he's in training to take people to the races," Eustace said, adding of the challenge of taking on Japan's best milers around the right-handed sweep of Kyoto: "It isn't a straight mile, but if there's a country where they go an end-to-end gallop then it's Japan, which I think on a turning track is what he needs. "There's a bonus if you've won the Queen Anne, so financially it's worth having a go. The ownership group has never been afraid to get beat, so it allows us to try him."