Four lengths, five lengths, five lengths, three -- those were the margins by which the undefeated Fine Motion claimed her first four races.
"She's in a class of her own," was how trainer Yuji Ito described the sister of the six-time Group I winner Pilsudski before the big race Sunday.
And, once again, in her first outing at Kyoto, race favorite Fine Motion left the others behind, this time for a 3 1/2-length win of the Shukasho, the final leg in Japan's Triple Crown for fillies.
"There's not many horses like her out there," winning jockey Yutaka Take said postrace as he looked at Fine Motion with unabashed admiration.
"She's a horse that actually makes you feel good to ride." After a good start Fine Motion ran smoothly in fourth position down the backstretch shadowing Osumi Cosmos behind frontrunners Yu Carat and Tamuro Cherry.
Take confidently took her four wide through the final turn and into the straight, where she slid to the front with but a shake of the reins, and broke free of the rest of the 18-strong field with 200 meters to go.
It was blue skies and clear sailing ahead. There was absolutely no contest.
Rose Stakes runnerup and Shukasho second choice Sakura Victoria was up for an impressive drive that took her past third pick Sirius Bio in the final four strides for a second-place finish.
Sirius Bio followed a neck later with Kanetoshi Desire in fourth another length back. Fine Motion covered the 2,000 meters of turf in a race-tying time of 1:58.1.