Harp Star and Gold Ship, two of the three Japanese horses set for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, dominated the G2 Sapporo Kinen last weekend in their final race on home ground before they depart for France.

The 3-year-old filly Harp Star showed her mettle by topping race favourite Gold Ship by three quarters of a length. Gold Ship had to concede 5kg to the filly.

They dominated finishing five lengths ahead of the third placed Whale Capture.

Harp Star became the first 3-year-old filly in 22 years to capture the Sapporo Kinen on the fast turf in a time of 1.59.1 before a crowd of 46,000.

From the break Norihiro Yokoyama held Gold Ship back, putting him a good 3 lengths behind the rest of field.

Harp Star also took up a characteristic rearward position two off the back.

At the end of the back stretch, the pair moved up, with Harp Star making her move first.

Gold Ship accelerated sharply on the far outside with Harp Star directly inside and the rest of the field was left behind from 200m out.

Harp Star held her ground to the end while Gold Ship advanced again late, asking for just a bit more distance.

Jockey Yuga Kawada, who had ridden Harp Star for all her six previous starts, said the filly was on her best behaviour after missing the start in two previous runs.

“She was very full of herself in the preliminaries and I saw that as indicating she was feeling good and raring to run,” he said.

“These last two runs she has been able to keep up with the others from the start and I think she ran nicely balanced from the first half.”

“Ï rode just as instructed to move up slowly coming out of the backstretch.

”I looked back and confirmed where Gold Ship was and I was thinking Harp Star was very comfortable and was feeling good.

“She's not in her very best condition. With the Arc as a goal, I hope she can get there without incident.”

Trainer Hiroyoshi Matsuda put Harp Star's condition at “70 percent” and boasted “if she can run like this in just normal condition, she'll run even better when she fills out a bit more.”

Kawada will be Harp Star’s rider in the Arc on October 5 at Longchamp.

Harp Star will join Gold Ship and Just A Way in quarantine from September 13 with the trio flying out together on September 20.

All three will be housed at the stables of Satoru Kobayashi in France.

Harp Star, a daughter of Triple Crown champion Deep Impact, has five wins and two seconds from her seven races.

Gold Ship was coming off a win of the G1 Takarazuka Kinen over 2200m on June 29 at Hanshin and is expected to be better suited to the softer going at Longchamp.

Gold Ship's trainer Naosuke Sugai was satisfied with his second placing.

“The 5kg made a difference. Losing couldn't be helped, but he showed his strength,” Sugai said.

Despite their Sapporo form Just A Way is considered Japan’s top hope for a first win the Árc.

Just A Way made history this year by becoming the first Japanese-trained thoroughbred to sit alone at the top of the World's Best Racehorse Rankings.