Japanese racing

The upcoming Asian Racing Conference at Sapporo on Aug. 28-30 will feature Japanese industry members' views on the future of racing in Japan. The business programme will consist of nine sessions, and there will also be three dedicated sharing sessions. Opening speeches will be delivered by Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges, ARF chairman and Masayoshi Yoshida, president and CEO of the Japan Racing Association (JRA). Officials from the JRA, National Association of Racing in Japan, Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc., Shadai Farm, Northern Farm, and Big Red Farm, will be sharing their insights during...

HOKKAIDO, Japan-"The world is getting smaller," MV Magnier remarked when discussing some of the pedigrees on offer at this year's JRHA Select Sale, and so it proved when a Kitasan Black (Jpn) colt out of the multiple Group-1 placed Galileo (Ire) mare Delphinia (Ire) set a new record at ¥590 million [roughly €3.34 million] for the highest-priced yearling ever sold at the premier Japanese sale.   It was Rodeo Japan-a guise for an anonymous Japanese owner-who came out on top in the bidding war for lot 100, who boasts a strong...

HOKKAIDO, Japan-One thing the Japanese breeders are not short on is patience. It is here where the middle-distance horse is truly admired and cultivated arguably better than any other racing nation.  That patience will come in handy, according to Shadai Stallion Station's Naohiro Hosoda, when it comes to getting the best out of Equinox (Jpn) at stud.  Officially the best horse that the county has ever produced, having retired with a rating of 135 following a four-length triumph in the Japan Cup, Equinox is arguably the most exciting addition to...

HOKKAIDO, Japan--Expectation rather than trepidation. Pre-JRHA Select Sale nerves are different to the ones we go through back in Europe, that's for sure.  A quick scan through the over 500-strong catalogue of foals and yearlings will remind you just how small the world is with many familiar names cropping up on any given page.  However, a morning spent in the company of JRHA chairman and Shadai Farm boss Teruya Yoshida followed by a trip to Northern Farm, which will consign a massive 180 lots at the sale, pegs into light...

In a wild upset of the G1 Victoria Mile on Sunday at Tokyo Racecourse, Ten Happy Rose (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}) rocketed home late to secure her first win at the highest level and an automatic berth into the GI Maker's Mark Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf at eye-popping 208-1 odds. Having finished sixth in her most recent appearance on track in the G2 Sankei Sports Hai Hanshin Himba S. Apr. 6 and seventh before that Feb. 17 when trying the G3 Kyoto Himba S., her last time in the...

Pensioned Shadai Stallion Station resident Daiwa Major (Jpn) sired the first two home in the G2 New Zealand Trophy S. over 1600 metres at Nakayama on Saturday, with Ecoro Bloom (Jpn) edging filly Bond Girl (Jpn) by three-quarters of a length. Both the first and second were bred by Northern Farm. Sent off at 37-10, Ecoro Bloom soon cruised up to sit in third behind Yukino Royal (Jpn) (Dee Majesty {Jpn}) and Clean Air (Jpn) (Real Impact {Jpn}) before drifting back a bit to the fence while saving ground. Full...

Back in 2000, the amateur rider Mr Mitsumasa Nakauchida rode the first of what would be two eventual winners from just 10 rides on the Flat in Britain, following three appearances in Irish bumpers a couple of years earlier.  Having left Japan at the age of 16 to study initially in Ireland, the young would-be jockey had just turned 22 at the time of his first victory for Richard Hannon aboard Dolphinelle (Ire), beating Eve Johnson Houghton, on her father's Corn Dolly (Ire), by a head.  That was half a...

The Japanese stallion studs are in the midst of hosting their annual parades in Hokkaido and there will doubtless be plenty of interested onlookers at Darley Japan, where the stallion yard has been boosted by a quartet of new recruits for the 2024 season. Two of the four are brand new to stud and have arrived from Britain with pretty lofty reputations, and rightly so. Both Adayar (Ire) and Hukum (Ire) are winners of the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S., while Adayar, more pertinently, is a Derby...

Perched atop the Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings at 129 pounds for much of the year after his sensational 3 1/2-length victory in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic in Dubai this March, the formidable Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}) will attempt to become only the third horse to claim the ¥421,420,000 G1 Tenno Sho (Autumn) in back-to-back years at Tokyo on Sunday. The reigning Japanese Horse of the Year has never finished worse than second in eight starts, and landed the G1 Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin over 2200 metres--200 metres...

As the only trainer to bring a winner of the "new" Prix du Jockey Club to the G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and succeed, Jean-Claude Rouget can be forgiven his aura of zen ahead of the all-important Paris rendezvous for Ace Impact (Ire) (Cracksman {GB}) on Sunday. While the yard's Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) took more than a year to complete the difficult double, late September's freak heatwave means that the 2023 edition of this autumn jewel is not the dire test it habitually represents for the Classic...

Netkeiba.com's Toshi Onikubo takes a deep dive into the three Japanese Kentucky Derby contenders

With at least two, and perhaps three, horses from Japan set to compete in this year's GI Kentucky Derby, everyone wants to know more about these horses and why the Japanese runners have had so much success internationally over the last few years. To answer those questions and more, the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland called upon Toshi Onikubo whose website, netkeiba.com, is among the best sources of information on Japanese racing anywhere. Onikubo was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week. He is a graduate of the...