Win Marilyn wins the HKJC Vase Sha Tin

Japanese-trained Win Marilyn gets the HKJC Turf International meeting off to a flyer

THE AIDEN O’BRIEN-trained Stone Age was sent off favourite for the first Group 1 race of the HKJC flagship international meeting, but the son of Galileo could only finish down the field, the race going to Japan’s way with an over-the-top success by Win Marilyn ridden by Damien Lane for trainer Takahisa Tezuka.

The only female in the 1m4f race, she is by Screen Hero and out of the Australian-bred Fusaichi Pegasus mare Cosmo Cielo. It is her first win at the highest level, the five-year-old mare previously a dual Group 2 winner at Nakayama in 2021.

Her Japanese -bred sire Screen Hero, a Japan Cup winner of 2008, is by the US imported stallion Grass Wonder (Silver Hawk), who collected three Japan Group 1s, including the 1m4f Arima Kinen twice.

Bred by Cosmo View Farm, Win Marilyn came into the Sha Tin race in good form – in November, she finished second in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1) to the Maurice filly Geraldina.

The Vase has been a favourite race for Japanese trainers winning three times in the last ten years, Glory Vase (third today) taking the middle-distance event twice.