Four meetings around Japan on Thursday ahead of a huge weekend of Group 1 racing at Tokyo. We've got racing from Nagoya, Funabashi, Mombetsu and Sonoda to whet the appetite.

Keen to be with Ursula here who struggled badly last start but looks capable of bouncing back to her best, and if she's able to do that she'll be very hard to beat here. The daughter of Orfevre simply doesn't handle wet tracks which is what she encountered last start, beaten nearly 10 lengths. She was also terribly unsuited by running over 920m, compared to her win prior over 1700m, which she's back up to here. If she can get back to that level, and I'm confident she can, she should prove too classy.

Funabashi Race 7 #4 Golden Route

This eight-year-old mare is showing no signs of slowing down as an older horse, racing as well as ever and coming off a narrow but high-rating win here over 1800m last start when leading all of the way. She drops back to 1500m here but that should be no issue as she rated similarly when winning over this trip a few starts back. She'd need to put in a poor run for the others to beat her and I think she can make it back to back wins.

Mombetsu Race 1 #9 Summer Story

Looking to strike early at Mombetsu in a two-year-old contest and whilst there are no stars here, Summer Story looks well positioned to break his maiden having run much improved races at his last two starts, placing in both. The key to his improvement seems to be the rise in distance- he stepped from 1100m to 1700m and instantly improved his ratings by multiple lengths. These ratings stack up nicely against his fairly thin field and if he holds his last start effort he'll prove tough to beat. #5 Riko Hammerli might be the main danger and is racing very consistently but I think Summer Story is clearly the one to beat.

Sonoda Race 11 #7 Venice Beach

The race of the day at Sonoda is headlined by the classy Venice Beach and I'm expecting the (likely) favourite will prove too good here. She comes over from Kanazawa with excellent form for this, having won very stylishly by 3 lengths last time out as a $1.70 favourite. This is a harder race in terms of prize money and class but her figures don't lie- she's the horse to beat. She's run well in much stronger races in the past and if she brings that form to Sonoda the locals will have a tough time beating her. The most likely danger is #6 Antikythira who was a good winner last time out and has gone even better in the past, but all things equal Venice Beach should be winning.

FP	Silk	Horse, Age & Sex Sire & Dam	Jockey Trainer	SP WT
1st		7. SHINING DAYS (JPN) 6yo H HEART'S CRY (JPN) - SHINING ENERGY (USA)	MIKIO FUJIWARA KIYOMI SAKODA	$19.3 56kg
		Tadakuni Sugiyama
2nd		9. MOZU LOTUS LAND (USA) 4yo G TAPIT (USA) - SACRED FEATHER (USA)	TERUHIRO ASANO Uto Hideki	$4.1 56kg
		Capital System Co. Ltd.
	Sales Information  | Keeneland - USA | 2019 September Yearling Sale (59) | Gainesway, Agent Lxii | Capital System Co. Ltd | USD $ 425,000 2019 September Yearling Sale (59)   Gainesway, Agent Lxii  Capital System Co. Ltd USD $ 425,000
3rd		10. MEISHO RAMBU (JPN) 4yo F MATSURIDA GOGH (JPN) - BEST OF CHANCE (JPN)	HITOMI MIYASHITA KATSUYUKI IMAZU	$14.1 52kg
		Yoshio Matsumoto
4th		5. RYUNO ELVIS (JPN) 4yo H MATSURIDA GOGH (JPN) - FRIENDS (JPN)	KODAI ASANO Akiko Okita	$48 55kg
5th		3. NAUGHTY GIRL (JPN) 4yo F CREATOR (USA) - NARITA SECRET (JPN)	TATSUYA WATANABE KAZUO FUJIGASAKI	$8.9 54kg
6th		2. NEO VOICE (JPN) 7yo M ESPOIR CITY (JPN) - VIZCAYA (JPN)	KATSUKI NIWA KOICHI CHIBE	$41.2 54kg
7th		8. A SHIN GIRASOLE (JPN) 4yo H EISHIN FLASH (JPN) - TROPICAL FLORE (IRE)	SACHIO YAMADA KATSUYUKI IMAZU	$4.6 56kg
8th		1. URSULA (JPN) 5yo M ORFEVRE (JPN) - UMIRAGE (GB)	SOICHI KATO HIROYUKI IMAZU	$2.1 54kg
9th		4. MEGA FARAVAHAR (JPN) 5yo H PYRO (USA) - TAIKI ROSARIO (JPN)	SHINICHI MARUYAMA HIROYUKI IMAZU	$30.8 56kg
10th		6. MEISHO MAGUWASHI (JPN) 4yo F ADMIRE MOON (JPN) - FUMINO CINDERELLA (JPN)	HOSOKAWA SATOSHI KIYOMI SAKODA	$44.3 53kg