Jockey Yuichi Fukunaga steered Contrail to the horse's first Grade 1 victory on Saturday at the 36th running of the Hopeful Stakes, the final major race of the year.

The top favorite finished the 2,000-meter turf race for 2-year-olds in 2 minutes, 1.4 seconds, beating third-pick Weltreisende by a length and a half at Nakayama Racecourse.

Contrail was fourth in the 13-horse pack for the majority of the race, but came from behind down the final stretch to end the year on a winning note. The colt, sired by seven-time G1 champion Deep Impact, has now won all three career starts since his September debut.

"(Contrail) was fast. All I did was hang on," Fukunaga said.

"Of course the main objective today was to win ... but this race was also important in terms of predicting how successful the horse will become," he said.

Second-favorite Wakea, ridden by Christophe Lemaire, was third.