Asia Latest

JPN: Forever Young given Prince of Wales’s Stakes entry

Japanese dirt star Forever Young (Real Steel) was a surprise entry for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (Gr 1, 1m 2f) when entries came out on Tuesday. The five-year-old is a four-time winner at the elite level however all four of those, and indeed all of his starts to date, have come on dirt tracks, with the Prince of Wales’s taking place during Royal Ascot on the turf. Trainer Yoshito Yahagi told the Racing Post: “I’ve been thinking – and saying in public – that I should send Forever Young to a turf race in the future. His owner Susumu Fujita shares this feeling and the Prince of Wales’s Stakes is one of the turf-race options I should consider. It’s very prestigious for a trainer to have a runner at Royal Ascot, while I think it’s a very attractive idea to send Forever Young for the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, although he has had an easy time since he returned from the Middle East.”