Wish Me produced the performance of her career to dominate the Jeju Governor’s Cup (1400M KOR-G3) at Seoul Racecourse on Sunday, leading from gate-to-wire and shaving a tenth of a second off Eoma Eoma’s track record for the distance in the process.
Coming in off a string of five runner-up finishes, Wish Me was somewhat unsurprisingly sent off as second favourite for what is one of the biggest prizes of the year for locally bred fillies and mares. Korean Oaks runner-up Raon The Spurt was the market leader while there was plenty of support too for this year's filly Triple Crown winner Golden Power.
Raon The Spurt was expected to lead but a burst of speed from the barrier under Korea Sprint winning jockey Moon Se-young, enabled Wish Me to cross from gate twelve to get the early advantage with Raon The Spurt having to settle in 2nd place.
Those positions would never change as Wish Me set a relentless pace that first the returning Dia Road , then Lady Kelly and ultimately Raon The Spurt couldn't handle. She crossed the line seven lengths to the good from a tiring Raon The Spurt with the closing 48/1 chance Wonderful Kitty a further two-lengths back in 3rd.
The frustration shown by Raon The Spurt's jockey Choi Bum-hyun as the pair crossed the line was telling. The time they posted would have been fast enough to win almost every single race over 1400M ever run at Seoul Racecourse. But not this one. Wish Me stopped the clock at 1:22.4, one tenth of a second inside Eoma Eoma's previous track record.
Wish Me [Ecton Park – Wish Me Success (Successful Appeal)] is a five-year-old mare, owned by Kang Mu-ung and trained by Choi Yong-goo. She own five of her first six starts before running 4th behind Raon First in this race last year when it was run in December. She then embarked on her run of near misses which included 2nd places in the Ttukseom Cup and KNN Cup, both of them Queens' Tour races.
For trainer Choi, it was a third Group race win following two KRA Cup Classic successes with Samjeong Jewang in 2014 and Clean Up Joy in 2016. For jockey Moon Se-young, who was riding Wish Me for the first time, it was a second win in the race, having partnered Jigeum I Sungan to victory in the inaugural edition in 2013.
Golden Power, who has excelled at longer distances, didn't make much of an impact, coming home in 8th place. Dia Road, winner of this race back in 2019 and returning to action for the first time since last year, showed prominently earlier but was one of many to wilt under Wish Me's onslaught, ultimately finishing in 9th place.
Next week Moon Se-young will be well-fancied to find his way into the big race winner's circle once more as Raon The Fighter, runner-up to Winner's Man in the Korea Cup last month, returns to action in the KRA Cup Classic (2000M KOR-G2) at Seoul Racecourse on Sunday afternoon.
Race Video: https://youtu.be/WXAcow2oWtg
