IT was little surprise that Japan’s Group 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen sprint turned up a bit of a shock last weekend.

Many of Japan’s top horses were in Dubai and the Chukyo turf was rated as yielding, but it still provided a huge shock.

The unheralded Naran Huleg rallied from far back, squeezed through a narrow opening along the inside in final furlong and got up to win by a neck.

Lotus Land was second, a nose in front of another massive outsider Kir Lord and the first 10 finishers were separated by no more than two lengths.

The odds-on favourite, Resistencia, set a brisk pace over the six furlongs but the softer turf took its toll and she faded to sixth.

On his first start in a Group 1 Naran Huleg, a six-year-old son of Gold Allure out of the Brian’s Time mare Kelley’s Beauty, was winning his first stakes race. It was a first Group 1 for trainer Yoshitada Munakata, and jockey Kyosuke Maruta.

Before the race the trainer said the left-handed, 1,200-metre conditions at Chukyo would be “his best trip. We will just have to see how well he can do up against a Group 1 competition.”

Jockey Maruta said afterwards: “Racing from the rear is his usual style so I just concentrated on keeping the horse’s rhythm. He has never experienced heavy ground before but handled it well. I took him through the inner course with confidence as I did in the Tanzanite Stakes.”

Raced originally on dirt, Naran Huleg had four previous wins on turf, the most recent being the six-furlong Tanzanite Stakes in December.

The chesnut now has six wins from 29 starts. His sire, by Sunday Silence, was a dirt specialist, winning four Group 1 races on that surface in 2002 and 2003 in Japan.

The Takamatsunomiya Kinen started a sequence of Japanese Group 1 events that continues tomorrow with the Osaka Hai, run at 2,000 meters at Hanshin Racecourse.