Closing third for Soft Fruit in G3 Mermaid Stakes

Soft Fruit added some more Group-race Black Type to her profile with a staying-on third in the G3 Mermaid Stakes over a mile and a quarter at Hanshin, Japan, on Sunday, 19 June.

The Takashi Saito-trained mare, who had filled the same position in the 2020 G1 Shuka Sho, was held up towards the rear of the 16 runners.

Soft Fruit started to make stealthy headway leaving the back straight and darted up the inner rail turning in to go fourth over a furlong and a half from home.

Yuga Kawada switched Soft Fruit out shortly after and the Deep Impact homebred continued to close on the leaders, narrowly missing out on second by a neck.

Harry Sweeney, President of Godolphin in Japan, said: “It was another solid performance from Soft Fruit and we can have no complaints about the result. That being said, while we are pleased enough with the result, we are certainly not elated. We would dearly love for Soft Fruit to actually win a Group race someday.

“Though she already has career earnings of more than US$1,250,000, she has never actually claimed top spot on the podium. She has of course previously proven her ability by placing in G1 races on two occasions. She is already five years old and will be joining our broodmare band by the end of the year, so time is running out for her.”