KYOTO -- Last out of the gate and first over the finish line, Deep Impact dragged the crowd emotionally through the dirt, knocking them about as first they gasped, then sighed, cheered and finally even cried. "I'm 90 percent relieved, and 10 percent overjoyed," an exhausted-looking owner, Makoto Kaneko, said post-Emperor's Cup.
Triple crown winner Deep Impact gallops to win the Emperor's Cup in a record time of 3 minutes, 13.4 seconds on Sunday at Kyoto Racecourse.
Still, riding roughshod over the fans is the kind of behavior you expect from a champion who's ready to take on the world. Sunday at Kyoto Racecourse, Deep Impact looked ready. "He circled with arrogance. He's international group I material," was how Australian rider Glen Boss put it.