As compliments go, they can’t get much more flattering in Japan than describing a horse as ‘the next Lord Kanaloa’. That, however, was the tribute paid by jockey Christophe Lemaire to TOWER OF LONDON in the wake of an easy three-lengths-plus victory in the Listed Kikyo Stakes.

Kildangan Stud stallion Raven’s Pass is enjoying a very good run of late and was responsible for the hot streak continuing at Hanshin on Saturday by TOWER OF LONDON, bred by Darley Japan out of the Dalakhani mare Snow Pine.

Lord Kanaloa, the horse to which Lemaire compared TOWER OF LONDON, is by far and away the best sprinter ever to emerge out of Japan where he was Horse of the Year in 2013 after his second consecutive victory in the Hong Kong Sprint.

Raven’s Pass is responsible for four horses in this year’s Goffs Orby catalogue.