![\"Christophe](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Lemaire-landscape-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAlohi Alii\u2019s head-turning victory at Deauville last month revealed a different side to the colt that has surprised his rider, Japan\u2019s seven-time champion jockey Christophe Lemaire.<\/p>\n
The Frenchman, like the nation he has embraced as his home for the last decade, is seeking a long-awaited first victory in the G1 Prix de l\u2019Arc de Triomphe on October 5, and Alohi Alii is one of three exciting Japanese candidates along with this year\u2019s G1 Tokyo Yushun winner Croix du Nord and Byzantine Dream.<\/p>\n
Unusually, all three have won their lead-up races on French turf and that has their connections and fans daring to hope this might be Japan\u2019s year. But it is Alohi Alii that has leapt out of the shadows with his impressive three and a half-length win in the G2 Prix Guillaume d\u2019Ornano.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest, I was surprised by the way he won,\u201d Lemaire told Idol Horse. \u201cNot only winning the race but it was the way he won that surprised me because he showed that day a very good turn-of-foot, which he didn\u2019t show here in Japan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alohi Alii is entitled to be strengthening and maturing as his three-year-old summer turns to autumn: he has only five races under his belt, having debuted with a win in a Tokyo Newcomers contest last November. He was second next start, then third in the G2 Deep Impact Kinen, a recognised step race to the Classics. In the G1 Satsuki Sho \u2013 the Japanese 2,000 Guineas \u2013 in April, he was a fair eighth, about three lengths behind the runner-up Croix Du Nord.<\/p>\n
After that, a break, a flight to France, and four months on from his Group 1 debut came that slick, front-running, late summer success on the Normandy coast.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the fact that he could control the race from the front made him very happy and comfortable because usually he is slow out of the gates and runs behind 15 horses,\u201d Lemaire said. \u201cSo it looked like the horse is very happy racing in France.\u201d<\/p>\n
But as is the case most years, Paris\u2019s autumn weather \u2013 usually wet \u2013 is the great fear. Japanese horses generally do so much better on the lightning quick ground they experience almost every time they go out to race at home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Alohi Alii worked on the Longchamp turf last week under work rider Hiroyuki Yamazaki as trainer Hiroyasu Tanaka watched. Tanaka expressed satisfaction with how his charge handled the easier surface during his light gallop. But race conditions will be a different test, especially if it does rain.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope the ground will remain good for him,\u201d said Lemaire. \u201cAt Deauville he beat the horse who finished second in the French Derby and won the Prix Niel, the Arc trial, so the form is good.<\/p>\n
\u201cIs he good enough to win the Arc? We can\u2019t know, but for sure he\u2019s got ability, he\u2019s a beautiful strong horse and if the ground stays good, I think he will have his word to say.\u201d \u220e<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Jockey Profile<\/p>\n
Christophe Lemaire’s Unconventional Path To Greatness<\/p>\n