Four meetings around Japan on Thursday with Kawasaki, Mombetsu, Nagoya and Sonoda all hosting and we've got a best bet from each card.

This four-year-old filly looks the one to beat having run very well at her last two starts. She was given a pipe-opener first up over a shorter trip before winning comfortably over 1400m second up. She then improved her rating despite being beaten last start, again over 1400m when up in grade, leading into the turn before being run down late. Now she steps up to 1870m fourth up which is the longest journey she's faced, however I think that will suit. A daughter of Danon Shark (Deep Impact), she should lead again here and be very hard to catch. #4 Maple Pudding is a strong danger, a 3yo filly by Orfevre, she was dominant winning last time out and just needs to hold that form to be going close again.
 

Good contest at Kawasaki and I like Mikki Legend who is very lightly raced having just had the three career starts, two at Kawasaki and one at Tokyo in a strong newcomer event. He's won both starts at Kawasaki and returned strong figures in both, having spelled in between each start. He comes here fresh again and just has to hold the level he's shown to be right in the mix again, with potentially more improvement to come. His main danger is #3 Old Bomber who is fit and racing well but I think Mikki Legend is a better horse who can win better races.
 

Over the 1000m here and Kawakami Stasha sets up well from barrier two. They should go a good tempo and she'll get a soft run in behind the speed before in-form jockey Fuyuki Igarashi gets her into the clear to pounce late. Her ratings stack up well against this field having run a strong second last time out and her form this preparation has been very consistent. She won four starts ago and has backed it up with three placings in a row since. Just needs to hold that to be winning.
 

She's still a maiden this filly but I think she's the best horse in the race coming out of stronger events in the JRA circles. She was very good at Tokyo on debut and was solid first up at Sapporo, running fifth and beaten 2.6 lengths. This isn't a strong race and she looks awfully hard to beat. If she holds that rating here she should be going close, but we've seen her go even better and she can go forward or back from the draw.

FP	Silk	Horse, Age & Sex Sire & Dam	Jockey Trainer	SP WT
1st		4. MAPLE PUDDING (JPN) 3yo F ORFEVRE (JPN) - MAPLE PROUD (JPN)	TOMOHIRO YOSHIMURA TOSHIFUMI OYAMA	$1.5 55kg
		Eiji Setsu
2nd		3. HOKUZAN GOLD (JPN) 3yo C FURIOSO (JPN) - HOKUZAN ROUGE (JPN)	NAGAO TASUKU TADAAKI HASHIMOTO	$8.4 56kg
3rd		6. LORD VOLARE (JPN) 7yo G ORFEVRE (JPN) - UNBEATABLE (JPN)	WATARU HIROSE RYOHEI HORI	$8.7 56kg
		Lord Horse Club
4th		8. WONNY (JPN) 4yo H BATTLE PLAN (USA) - MOON LAKE (JPN)	S KAWAHARA AKIHIRO INADA	$14.3 56kg
5th		5. FURI TIME (JPN) 5yo H FURIOSO (JPN) - SILK FABULOUS (USA)	SASAKI SEREI AKIHIRO INADA	$54.9 54kg
6th		7. MARTIN HILL (JPN) 5yo H CURREN BLACK HILL (JPN) - MARTIN GOLD (JPN)	KOSUKE MATSUMOTO TAKESHI NAKATSUKA	$75 56kg
7th		1. SEVEN MILE (JPN) 6yo H ZENNO ROB ROY (JPN) - PRECIOUS LINE (JPN)	TOYOKAZU TANO HIROYUKI TSUCHIYA	$13.3 56kg
8th		2. SWEET CHOCO (JPN) 4yo F DANON SHARK (JPN) - CHOCO DAISUKI (JPN)	YOSHIKI KAMOMIYA KAZUHIRO CHONAN	$5.5 54kg