Archive for the ‘Japan’ Category
Monday, December 28th, 2009
By Ray Paulick
I was feeling pretty good about Santa Anita’s opening day program on Saturday, the day after Christmas. There was a lot to like about this 75th anniversary of Thoroughbred racing at Southern California’s Great Race Place: two Grade 1 races, full fields, a curtain call by Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Zenyatta, the unveiling of the John Henry statue, the annual wall calendar giveaway, and the presentation of $260,000 to retirement and rescue operations from CARMA, the organization funded by California owners.
It was a big day, with more than 35,000 fans in attendance and total handle of almost $15 million, nearly one third of that on-track.
Then, on Sunday morning, I got a press release from the Japan Racing Association about their final program of the year from Nakayama Race Course in Tokyo, where more than 115,000 fans turned out in chilly weather to watch the season-ending Arima Kinen horse race. Those fans, along with others at OTBs or watching at home, wagered a total of $550 million on the day’s program.
The wagering total is three times higher than American racing’s biggest day of all time, the 2006 Kentucky Derby, when $175 million was bet. The 2009 Breeders’ Cup, a two-day affair, just topped $150 million in total handle.
So the JRA handled more than half a billion dollars on one program. Of that total, $440 million was wagered on the Arima Kinen, an invitational race where the starting field is selected by a popular vote of racing fans. It was a very big day for Japanese racing, even though the year’s biggest star, reigning Horse of the Year Vodka, the probable favorite to repeat in that role, was unable to run because she bled in the Japan Cup in late November.
So what’s the point of this comparison between American and Japanese racing? I think we’ve got some upside. There has been and will continue to be retraction in the number of tracks and races run here each year, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing in the long run. If major players in this industry can somehow create a better structure for the sport and develop a national strategy, I am convinced we can be stronger and secure a better future. And, no, this isn’t an early April Fool’s Day column. Saturday’s opening day program at Santa Anita showed what a compelling and great sport horse racing can be. If only we can get our act together.
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Tags: Arima Kinen, Breeders' Cup, carma, japan cup, japan racing association, John Henry, kentucky derby, Nakayam Race Course, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, santa anita, vodka, zenyatta
Posted in California, International Racing, Japan, Thoroughbred Business | 20 Comments »
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
By Ray Paulick
I recently returned from my 20th horse racing-related trip to Japan, and each visit brings with it something new and interesting that makes me want to keep coming back. I leave Japan each time with a renewed sense of hope that horse racing can once again be a sport that appeals to more than a niche audience in our country, just as it does over there. I also bring back images of some of the cultural differences between our two societies that often bring a smile to my face.
 In my mind, there is no getting around the fact the Japanese structure for horse racing is superior to what we have in the United States, where there really is no structure at all. The Japan Racing Association, a branch of the federal government, controls all aspects of horse racing. There is a lot of good and some bad that comes with such a defined structure and central rule-making and control.
The good: scheduling, marketing, product development and presentation, licensing, regulations and enforcement of rules done on a consistent, national basis. What you get at Nakayama race course is the same as what you get at Hanshin or Tokyo, whether it’s the betting menu, regulations or interpretation of rules by stewards.
The bad: a greedy government that takes more out of each yen wagered than it should (25% in most cases), a top-heavy bureaucracy that doesn’t appear to invite creativity from the rank-and-file within the JRA, and a seeming inability to adapt quickly to change. Betting menus have not grown quickly enough to help racing compete with new forms of gambling, such as soccer pools, takeout is too high on most bets, and fans are denied the opportunity to bet on Japanese stars when they race overseas because of protectionist policies.
On balance, however, the good far outweighs the bad.
Having said that, the JRA will suffer its 12th year of declines in year-end betting turnover at the end of 2009 (Reality check: JRA handle for 2009 will still more than double the total U.S. handle despite offering 90% fewer races.)
But the organization’s top executives have not given up and said they can’t compete with pachinko parlors (similar to slot machines) or recently added wagering on soccer. They are slowly expanding the kinds of bets offered; when I first visited Japan in 1993, there was only win, place and quinella wagering; they have since added exacta and trifectas and announced the 2011 debut of a Pick Five bet.
The JRA has continued to market the sport but has shifted away from multi-generational geared marketing (i.e., a father teaching his daughter to appreciate the dignity of the Thoroughbred and the sport of racing as an honorable activity) to campaigns that are more focused on the fun of going to the track with friends and wagering on the outcome of a race. I am told that in Japan the youngsters no longer like associating with their parents or elders (sound familiar?).
One of the biggest challenges the JRA sees is getting young fans involved with racing and hoping those who do attend won’t find the challenge of handicapping too intimidating. As in the U.S., many in the younger generation in Japan are more interested in video games than real-life activities like horse racing. Market research has shown they don’t have the patience to learn how to handicap and would prefer to play lottery-type quick pick bets like the soccer pool wagers offer. Thus, the JRA has recently introduced testing for Quick Pick, computer generated bets.
 This year marked my first visit to Hanshin racecourse and its breathtaking architecture. Hanshin (left) has been the home of the World Super Jockeys Series, an event that brings riders from around the globe to compete against one another in four contests spread over two days. I was amazed to see how many people stayed for the post-race awards presentation in the track’s paddock, and the interaction between the jockeys and Japanese racing fans was really something to see. They were treated like superstars.
But what’s more amazing to me is the serious studying by Japanese horseplayers of the horses in the paddock prior to each race. Every JRA track was built with this in mind, offering a tiered view of the paddock/walking ring to permit thousands of fans to study the horses before making their wagers. On-track wagering accounts for less than 5% of the total handled by the JRA, but those fans who do attend tracks for live racing are not forgotten.
Some final memories of this year’s trip:
 * The shinkansen (bullet train) trip from Tokyo to Osaka that went right by the stunningly beautiful Mt. Fuji. The trains seem to run every 10 minutes or so between the two cities. The efficiency of the Japanese rail system is amazing, and nothing about it is more amazing than these high-speed trains that travel up to 180 miles per hour. From Tokyo, Mt. Fuji can occasionally be seen in the distance, but the bullet train provided an incredible view.
* Watching jockey Calvin Borel embrace his first overseas trip was something to remember, whether it was his journey through the food line at the Welcome Reception, his winner’s circle celebration after winning the first race in the World Super Jockeys Series (after sweating out an inquiry), or his interaction with fellow riders and fans during the WSJS awards ceremony. If you don’t like Calvin, you just don’t like people.
 * I missed out on dinner with the crew from TVG on my final night in Japan, but host Chris Kotulak (right) was kind enough to send some photos, including one allegedly showing him eating the eyeball of a poor, dead fish. I’ve had many enjoyable and interesting meals during my visits to Tokyo, Hokkaido and now Osaka, but I’ve never been tempted by a fish’s eye.
* A trip to the Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium was well worth the time. An eight-story building that has its aquatic wildlife divided by world regions (Aleutian Islands, Monterey Bay, Antarctica, Tasman Sea, Great Barrier Reef, Pacific Ocean et al), the aquarium has the coolest collection of King Penguins I’ve ever seen, and the two whale sharks were something to see as well.
 * No visit to Japan should be complete without a trip to a local drug store to buy some items you may have forgotten to pack. It’s often a guessing game as to what might be inside a package (unless you can read Japanese), but there are often some hints in the surrounding signage as to what a product might be (i.e., what else can the photo on the left be promoting other than some kind of diet pill?).
* Finally, after walking past a silly-looking elf-like statue in the Osaka train station a dozen o r so times, I finally decided to stop and see what this Billiken fellow was all about. The explanation (written in Japanese and English) said Billiken was created more than 100 years ago by a Missouri art teacher, who modeled it after portly President William Howard Taft (the original manufacturer had some luck with a “teddy” bear modeled after President Theodore Roosevelt). Billiken found his way to Japan a few years later as an homage to America and was presented as “the God of things as they ought to be.”
Supposedly, if you scratch Billiken’s feet, good luck will come your way. I did so on the morning of the Japan Cup Dirt and second day of the World Super Jockeys Series. But after America’s Tizway finished far back in the JC Dirt and Borel and fellow American Garrett Gomez were shut out in the WSJS, I’m no longer a Billiken believer. I suppose I can try it again next year.
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Tags: Billiken, Calvin Borel, Chris Kotulak, garrett gomez, Hokkaido, Japan, japan cup dirt, japan racing, japan racing association, Mt. Fuji, Osaka, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, shinkansen, tizway, tvg, world super jockeys series
Posted in International Racing, Japan | 4 Comments »
Sunday, December 6th, 2009
By Ray Paulick
OSAKA, Japan—Espoir City made it look easy in Sunday’s $2.9-million Japan Cup Dirt at Hanshin race course, wresting the lead after a quarter from the lone American-based runner, Tizway, then coasting to a 3 1/2-length victory under jockey Tetsuzo Sato. The win was the fourth in a row (third straight in a Grade 1 race) and ninth from 17 starts for the 4-year-old son of the Sunday Silence stallion Gold Allure out of Eminent City, by Brian’s Time.
Espoir City paid 310 yen to win (on a 100 yen bet) after covering nine furlongs in 1:49.90 on a fast track. Silk Mobius was second and Golden Ticket third in the 16-horse field. Tizway, who broke on top, wound up 12th under Rajiv Maragh after getting shuffled back on the last turn and caught behind a wall of horses.
The winner is trained by Akio Adachi and is owned by the Yushun Horse Club, one of the oldest and largest racing clubs licensed by the Japan Racing Association and boasting about 10,000 members.
Espoir City is the sixth consecutive Japanese-bred winner of Japan’s biggest dirt race and the ninth Japanese-trained horse to win the event in the 10 runnings since being inaugurated in 2000.
Trainer Adachi, who sent Bamboo Ere to Dubai to contest the 2009 Golden Shaheen sprint, where he finished fourth, said he would consult with the head of Yushun Horse to discuss a possible trip overseas for the Japan Cup Dirt winner. Adachi credited jockey Sato for helping turn Espoir City around from a runner who was too eager in the early portion of his races to one who now is more settled and mature. “Mentally, he’s still a baby,” Adachi said of Espoir City. The colt began his career racing on grass but has been much more successful since being switched to dirt racing.
Sato, who won the 2003 Japan Cup in similar wire to wire fashion aboard Tap Dance City, said his plan was to let Tizway take the early lead and wait to see if the American horse drifted out while rounding the first turn on the clockwise course (all of Tizway’s races have been run counter-clockwise in the United States). “I knew Tizway would be the early speed and would probably go off the rail on the turn, giving me a chance to take over,” Sato afterwards.
ALSO ON SUNDAY’S HANSHIN CARD were the final two races in the World Super Jockeys series. Norihiro Yokoyama, who was tied for the points lead going into Sunday’s finale, locked up the title when he guided Taghano Premiere to victory in the day’s 10th race. Yokoyama ended up with 47 points, well ahead of Hong Kong’s Douglas Whyte (38 points) and Ryan Moore (37) of Great Britain. Calvin Borel, who won one of the two Super Jockey races on Saturday, along with Garrett Gomez, were blanked in Sunday’s competition, though Gomez won an earlier race on the program on Yamanin Chasseur, a huge longshot that paid 33,850 yen on a 100 yen bet (338-to-1). Borel finished fifth in the standings and Gomez was last of the 15 riders.
Several thousand of the 40,226 fans on hand for Sunday’s program stayed around for the World Super Jockeys awards presentation in the track’s walking ring. Each of the riders wore matching hats and warmup jackets and ran into the paddock under a spotlight after being introduced individually to the crowd. Following an Olympic Games type of ceremony, the jockeys doused Yokoyama with champagne, and many of them tossed their caps and jackets into the crowd for fans to keep as souvenirs. Many of them, including Gomez and Borel, waded into the crowd to sign autographs. They were the human stars on a day, but there’s no question that Espoir City was the equine celebrity.
The loss of Summer Bird from the Japan Cup Dirt to an injury sustained the prior weekend, undoubtedly had an impact on the gate. Attendance was down 17.5% from the 2008 Japan Cup Dirt. Handle on the Japan Cup Dirt was 15.2 billion yen (about $172 million), down 5.9% from 2008. Total handle on the day was 23.2 billion yen (about $264 million), down 3.4%. Only 3.4% of the total handle was wagered on-track.
Tags: akio adachi, Calvin Borel, espoir city, garrett gomez, hanshin race course, Horse Racing, japan cup dirt, japan racing association, japanese horse racing, Norihiro Yokoyama, Paulick Report, Rajiv Maragh, Ray Paulick, tetsuzo sato, tizway, world super jockeys, world super jockeys series, yushun horse club
Posted in International Racing, Japan, Jockeys | Comments Off
Saturday, December 5th, 2009
OSAKA, Japan—Calvin Borel won the opening race of the two-day World Super Jockeys Series at Hanshin race course on Saturday, but the victory was an eventful one. Borel, riding the favorite, the Australian-bred Red Ransom colt Oceana Boss, had to sweat out a lengthy inquiry after an incident at the top of the stretch.
Borel pleaded his case to the stewards after he swung out from a tight spot on the inside on the turn for home, causing another horse in the race to check in the seven-furlong turf contest. The horse directly in front of him, Borel said, had taken a bad step, and he was concerned that he was going to break down. The horse in question did finish the race but was vanned off.
The inquiry seemed to take forever, which oftentimes indicates a disqualification is coming. In this case, however, it’s more likely the translator didn’t speak Cajun, and had a difficult time explaining to the stewards in Japanese what the Louisiana native was saying. Don’t look for Borel to learn Japanese anytime soon, either. On a sightseeing trip in the Osaka area Friday, a tour guide was explaining how to read the Japanese kanji symbols. “How am I going to learn that?” Borel joked. “I can barely read English.”
After Borel’s winning race was made official, he quipped, “The trainer told me he had a horse that could run like Rachel Alexandra. I just tried to get him to relax early and he was much the best.”
He is learning Japanese customs, however, bowing on cue during the winner’s circle ceremony and the presentation of a gold medal.
The win gave Borel a brief lead in the competition, which consists of a total of four races Saturday and Sunday. All the horses in each of the races are weighted A, B, C or D by racing officials, and the jockeys ride one of each class. Oceana Boss was Borel’s “A” horse. A victory is worth 20 points, with 15 for second, 13 for third, 11 for fourth, 10 for fifth, and then 6, 5, 5, 3, 2, 2, 1, 1, 1, 1 for the remaining finish positions. A total of 15 riders are competing.
Japanese jockey Norihiro Yokoyama and Hong Kong-based Ryan Moore ended the day tied as the points leaders. Yokoyama finished second to Borel and fifth in the second leg of the competition behind Moore, who won aboard Charm Nadeshiko after finishing sixth in the first leg. Garrett Gomez was third in the final race following an 11th-place finish in the first leg. Borel could do no better than 12th of 15 horses in the second leg while aboard a 130-1 shot. For a minute, it looked like Borel was on Mine That Bird, trailing the field by a wide margin the early stages of the nine-furlong dirt race. But rather than taking the inside route like he did to win the Kentucky Derby, Borel rallied to the far outside and only passed a few horses.
Here are the leaders after day one of the World Super Jockey Series:
1-Norihiro Yokoyama, 26 points
Ryan Moore, 26 points
3-Yutaka Take, 23 points
4-Calvin Borel, 21 points
5-Shinji Fujita, 19 points
6-Douglas Whyte, 15 points
Mick Kinane, 15 points
Garrett Gomez, 15 points
New York-based Rajiv Maragh, in Japan to ride Tizway for trainer Jim Bond and owner William Clifton Jr. on Sunday, was the riding star of the day, winning two races earlier in the card—one on turf and one on dirt. The experience was a good for Maragh, who has never raced in a clockwise direction, as Hanshin races are run. (Neither had Borel or Gomez, for that matter.) Maragh also has some mounts on Sunday’s card before the Japan Cup Dirt.
Maragh won aboard the first-time starter Steal Pass (by Neo Universe) going seven furlongs on dirt on the fifth-race of the card, then took the seventh aboard Meisho Jimmu going nine furlongs on turf.
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Tags: Calvin Borel, Charm Nadeshiko, Douglas Whyte, garrett gomez, hanshin race course, Japan, japan cup dirt, jim bond, kentucky derby, Meisho Jimmu, mick kinane, mine that bird, Neo Universe, Norihiro Yokoyama, Oceana Boss, Osaka, Paulick Report, Rajiv Maragh, Ray Paulick, Red Ransom, Ryan Moore, Shinji Fujita, Steal Pass, tizway, William Clifton Jr., world super jockeys series, yutaka take
Posted in Japan, Jockeys | 4 Comments »
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
By Ray Paulick
OSAKA, Japan—Trainer Jim Bond had only arrived a little more than 12 hours earlier when he faced the Japanese press for the first time on Thursday morning at Hanshin race course near Osaka to talk about Tizway, the 4-year-old son of Tiznow he’ll be saddling for William Clifton in Sunday’s Japan Cup Dirt.
One of the questions of Bond and Clifton had to do with a preferred post position. “Seven, is my lucky number,” said Bond, James Bond, though I’m not sure the Japanese press quite understood his reference to the 007 character, especially after the translation.
A few hours later, when post positions were drawn, guess what happened? Tizway ended up in post position seven for the $3-million race.
 Bond and Clifton (pictured, left, during the press conference) will need plenty of luck, and even that might not be enough, when Tizway takes on a field of 15 Japanese runners in the nine-furlong race run on the clockwise track at Hanshin. Only one of the 24 previous runners from outside of Japan has won the race, and that was on the counterclockwise Tokyo race course, where the Japan Cup Dirt had been run from 2000-’07. The lone non-Japanese winner was Fleetstreet Dancer, trained by Doug O’Neill and ridden to victory by Jon Court, in the 2003 renewal, held on a racetrack tightened up considerably by heavy rain. This year’s running is expected to be on a dry track, and that’s bad news for horses who have not competed here, since running on a Japanese dirt track is like running on the dry portion of a sandy beach: it’s very deep and very tiring.
Tizway is far from being the most accomplished American horse to compete here. Among those who have failed to hit the board in previous years are major stakes winners Lido Palace, Lava Man, Student Council and Frost Giant. Tizway has never finished better than third in a stakes race, that coming in his last start, when beaten 5 1/2 lengths by Summer Bird in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Summer Bird came to Japan and suffered a hairline fracture while training and has been shipped home where he will require surgery.
Tizway’s career has two distinct chapters. In the first, beginning in November 2007 and running through June 2008, it took him six races to break his maiden, that finally coming at Woodbine on the Polytrack. After that win, he was sidelined for nearly a year, Bond said, to recover from soundness problems that were never specifically identified. He speculated on Thursday that Tizway might had some bruising in the area where the cannon bone connects to the ankle. “That kind of thing can happen on Polytrack,” he said. “We had five vets look at him and nothing ever came up on X rays. So we sent him to the farm and gave him plenty of time."
The time off helped. Tizway came back with a strong allowance victory at Aqueduct in April, finished second in another allowance in late May and then romped by 7 1/2 lengths over 2008 Belmont Stakes winner Da’ Tara in July. Bond jumped him from there to the Grade 1 Whitney at Saratoga, where he finished fourth of six runners behind Bullsbay, then third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup. Any thoughts of going in the Breeders’ Cup Classic were thwarted by a fever.
The local horses are far from being chumps. Espoir City is considered by some to be the strongest of the home team, but then there’s the veteran Vermilion, who finished fourth in the 2006 Japan Cup Dirt, won it in 2007 and finished third last year. The 7-year-old son of El Condor Pasa set a JRA record by winning eight Grade 1 races during his career. He will be ridden by the 40-year-old champion jockey Yutaka Take, who is coming off a stinging disappointment when booted off race favorite Vodka in the Japan Cup. French jockey Christophe Lemaire was given the mount and rode Vodka perfectly to win by a nose.
 SPEAKING OF YUTAKA TAKE, I had the opportunity to speak with him at Thursday evening’s Welcome Party for the Japan Cup Dirt and this weekend’s World Super Jockeys Series, which is being held for the 23rd consecutive year. (Click here to see details of the event.)
Take holds virtually all Japanese riding records, including career wins, money won, and victories in a single season. He’s been riding 22 years and has been leading jockey on 16 occasions. He burst onto the scene when Japanese racing was becoming extremely popular, and his appeal, good looks and charisma are credited for a significant part of the sport’s growth in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
But now Take is a 40-year-old veteran, and the competition is nipping at his heels. He told me that he plans to ride at least until he’s 50 and believes he has many good years ahead of him. “My experience has made me a better rider than I was in my younger days,” he said in an interview that was part English and partly through a Japanese interpreter. “ I don’t feel as though my physical skills have declined at all. Of course I hope to be able to stay on top. I also want to try California again.”
Take had previously spent a block of time in California but without much success. His attempt to showcase his skills to California horsemen and racing fans came at a time when speed was king on the dirt tracks there, and Take’s style in Japan had always been more patient, come-from-behind to win. I think he would be much more successful now, with the synthetic tracks putting more of a premium on horses coming from off the pace.
CALVIN BOREL AND GARRETT GOMEZ will be representing the United States in this weekend’s World Super Jockeys Series. Both were on hand at the Welcome Party and took turns dipping into the sushi trough.
 “I love sushi!” Borel told a group of inquiring Japanese racing journalists, though he shied away from chopsticks, attacking the raw fish with a fork instead. To their credit, the writers were more interested in learning about Rachel Alexandra, the super filly he rode to eight straight victories in 2009, including three over male competition.
“What makes her so special?” one of them asked.
“Her stride,” the Louisiana native said. “She has an incredible stride, longer than any other horse I’ve ever ridden. They say that only Secretariat had a stride as long as Rachel Alexandra.”
Another asked if Borel was sorry that Rachel Alexandra never faced Zenyatta, who beat colts in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and is in a tight race with her for Horse of the Year. “Or course I’m disappointed,” he admitted, but said he agreed with owner Jess Jackson not to run on the synthetic track in California. He said he looks forward to being reunited with the filly at the Fair Grounds, which Borel described as one of the fairest tracks in America, and wishes the two super fillies could somehow meet there.
This was Borel’s “first time out of the lower 48,” as his wife, Lisa, put it, and the two of them plan to soak it all in. They’ll have something to put in their scrapbook, along with two Kentucky Derby victories, and a state dinner at the White House honoring England’s Queen Elizabeth. (And, unlike some recent White House dinner guests, Calvin and Lisa received official invitations.)
Gomez came to Japan last year but left disappointed when the Bobby Frankel-trained Mast Track was scratched from the Japan Cup Dirt with a foot injury. He’s got a busy weekend ahead of him, riding six horses on Saturday, including two in the jockeys’ competition, and more on Sunday. Gomez said he loves the Japanese culture and would be very interested in riding in Japan on a short-term basis, something Kent Desormeaux has done in the past, as have a number of European jockeys, including Lemaire and Olivier Peslier. With the JRA opening up ownership licensing to foreigners, the opportunities for someone like Gomez may be greatly expanded.
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Tags: 007, Calvin Borel, el condor pasa, espoir city, garrett gomez, james bond, japan cup, japan cup dirt, japan racing association, jim bond, jra, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, Summer Bird, tiznow, tizway, vermilion, william clifton, world super jockeys series, yutaka take
Posted in International Racing, Japan, Jockeys | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
By Ray Paulick
TOKYO, Japan—I’ve been coming to the Japan Cup every year but one since 1993 and have yet to see an American-trained horse win. The first couple of years were promising: Kotashaan finished second, a length and a quarter behind Legacy World in 1993, and Paradise Cre ek was nosed out by Marvelous Crown in ’94. Since then, only one American-trained horse has even hit the board—that being Sarafan, who was beaten a nose by Falbrav in 2002.
I’m beginning to wonder if an American horse will ever win this race again. Americans won three of the first eight runnings from 1981-’88 and took a fourth Japan Cup when the Charlie Whittingham-trained Golden Pheasant won the 1991 renewal. But that was the last American victory in this major international race.
The Breeders’ Cup, inaugurated in 1984, has certainly had an impact on the Japan, with most of the best American turf horses staying home. So has the introduction of the early December international race meeting at Hong Kong. But there’s more to the story; Japanese runners have simply gotten better, the result of a concerted effort in the 1980s to improve the breed, when the American bloodstock market was in a down cycle and the Japanese yen was strong against the dollar.
We have a similar condition today.
THE DISAPPOINTMENT I have felt watching one American horse after another go down to defeat in the Japan Cup is nothing compared to the feeling I experienced Sunday morning at the Tokyo race course when a representative of the Japan Racing Association told me that Summer Bird was injured and would be forced to miss this Sunday’s Japan Cup Dirt.
 The Birdstone colt, the probable 3-year-old male champion of 2009 in North America, is almost certainly the best horse sent from the U.S. to Japan for the Japan Cup Dirt. The race was inaugurated in 2000 and has been won just once by an American horse—the longshot Fleetstreet Dancer in 2003.
This is a race American horses should be able to win, since the best Japanese horses compete on turf and there have been virtually no European contenders in the Japan Cup Dirt. Yet the winner’s share of the $3-million prize is not likely to go to an American runner this year, unless the Tiznow colt Tizway, fourth in the Whitney and third in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, pulls off a big surprise.
Some horsemen go through an entire career without having the opportunity to train a horse the quality of Summer Bird. Tim Ice had the good fortune of having Summer Bird in his barn shortly after going out on his own as a head trainer. Ice took the injury in stride, saying you have to accept the bad with the good that comes along, but you know the injury had to hit him like a punch to the gut.
Ice did an outstanding job with Summer Bird all season long. Let’s hope surgery is successful on the colt’s injured leg and he returns as good as ever in 2010. If not, as Ice said, Summer Bird “owes him nothing.”
Japan Racing Association officials were devastated by news of the injury, too. Summer Bird was a heavily promoted international star in the Japanese media and his defection from the Japan Cup Dirt will have an impact on both on-track attendance and handle, two economic indicators that have been trending in the wrong direction for a dozen years in Japan.
 Over the last several years, the JRA has added new bet types, and plans to introduce a pick five wager in 2011. But nothing the JRA has attempted so far has boosted business.
Despite the grim economic news (if attendance of 98,000 and handle of over $300 million for the Japan Cup is grim!), Japanese racing fans continue to show an incredible affection for the sport and its equine and human stars. On Japan Cup morning (and on almost all days when important Grade 1 races are run), the gates of the JRA tracks open at 8 a.m., and there is a ritualistic “mad dash” to desirable spots along the rail just p ast the finish line by hundreds of amateur photographers, many of whom have camped outside the track for several days to be first through the gate, The enthusiasm of these fans is infectious and can serve as a tonic to jaded souls who feel racing has lost its connection with the public.
Tomorrow, I’ll be heading to Osaka and Hanshin race course in anticipation of Sunday’s Japan Cup Dirt. I’ll report from there on Thursday.
A FINAL NOTE: There have been some unfortunate rumors floating through the internet that this reporter was spotted at a Tokyo karaoke studio on Sunday night, warbling with a trio of Japanese racing journalists. Unless you have pictures or a recording of the event, it is nothing more than a rumor. What happens in Tokyo…well, you know the rest.
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Tags: Birdstone, Horse Racing, international horse racing, japan cup, japan cup dirt, japan racing association, jra, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, Summer Bird, tim ice, tizway
Posted in International Racing, Japan | 10 Comments »
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
By Ray Paulick
Trainer Tim Ice said he hopes to ship Summer Bird back to the United States Wednesday on a flight that would also include Marsh Side, one of the American starters in Sunday’s Japan Cup. Summer Bird came out of a Sunday morning workout at Hanshin racecourse in Osaka, Japan, with a vertical, non-comminuted fracture of a bone in his right front leg that will require surgery. A decision has not been made whether to retire the three-time Grade 1-winning son of Birdstone or put him back in training in 2010.
“One of the surgeons we’ve consulted with (in the United States) has already seen the X rays and says the prognosis is excellent,” Ice told the Paulick Report Monday morning (Japanese time). “It will take one screw to put it together and should be no problem.”
Ice explained how some confusion over the type of injury Summer Bird suffered may have occurred in the racing press. The Paulick Report, which first reported on the injury, referred to it as a medial fracture of the carpal bone after speaking with the trainer Sunday afternoon. Other news outlets, which contacted Dr. K.K. Jayaraman, who bred and owns Summer Bird with his wife, Vilasini, called it a bone chip, based on early information provided to the Jayaramans. The Jayaramans had arrived in Tokyo shortly before the injury occurred and had not yet had the opportunity to travel to Osaka and see the horse or look at the X rays. Ice confirmed Monday that the injury is a fracture to the medial, or inside, front portion of the right ankle. The Jayaramans were to arrive in Osaka later Monday.
“The first impression I got was that there was a chip,” said Ice, who relayed that information to the Jayaramans. “Once I was able to see the X rays myself, I could see that it was a fracture, not a chip. I don’t think the communications was real clear between the (Japanese) interpreter and myself.”
Summer Bird is resting comfortably and in no distress, said Ice, who said a cast was applied to the leg as a precaution.
“I’ve been out with him all morning, and checked on him last night,” Ice said. “He’s able to lay down and takes care of himself. He’s always been an intelligent horse and I think knows to take weight off it. He knows something happened. He’s a horse with a very good attitude. We have a cast on him right now, but he probably doesn’t need it. We’re just giving him extra protection.”
The 35-year-old Ohio native took a minute to reflect back on a year that included wins by Summer Bird in the Belmont Stakes, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup, victories that make the colt the favorite to win an Eclipse Award as 3-year-old male champion. “These horses are hard to come by and what he’s done for me this year and for my career is something that I can’t really put into words. But you’ve got to take the good with the bad and this is part of the business we are in.
“I’m thankful for the year I’ve had with him. If he doesn’t come back to run again he doesn’t owe me anything.”
Ice said Summer Bird was doing very well in his training in preparation for the the Japan Cup Dirt, which is to be on a very sandy racetrack whose surface he compared with Belmont Park. One challenge would have been the clockwise-style of racing done at Hanshin, in contrast to American racing, which is all counter-clockwise. “He had adjusted to the turns,” Ice said, “and handled both turns well in Sunday’s breeze.”
Summer Bird worked five furlongs in 1:02 4/5 Sunday morning and pulled up without incident. It was only after being unsaddled back at his stable that Summer Bird began showing signs of the injury that will require surgery back in the United States. Ice could not confirm who would be performing the surgery or where it would take place.
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Tags: hanshin race course, Horse Racing, japan cup dirt, kk jayaraman, Paulick Report, racing injury, Ray Paulick, Summer Bird, tim ice
Posted in International Racing, Japan, racing injuries | 16 Comments »
Sunday, November 29th, 2009
By Ray Paulick
The year of the super filly continued at the Tokyo race course in Japan on Sunday as the 5-year-old Vodka, who beat colts in the 2007 Japanese Derby, scored a nose victory over the fast-closing Oken Bruce Lee in the $5.6-million Japan Cup. Another filly, the 3-year-old Red Desire, finished third, completing a Japanese 1-2-3 sweep. Vodka was the betting favorite in the 18-horse field that included two-time Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Conduit, who finished fourth.
(Click here for the Japanese chart and race information, which includes a link to the video of the Japan Cup.)
 Already the richest filly or mare in Japanese racing history with career earnings over one billion yen, Vodka captured the mile and one-half Japan Cup in her third attempt, bettering her fourth-place finish in 2007 and a third-place effort in 2008. She covered the distance in 2:22.40, the third-fastest time in the 29 runnings of the Japan Cup. The victory was the 15th for a Japanese-trained horse, tipping the sales in the home team’s favor for the first time. Fourteen renewals have been won by international horses. Japanese horses have won the last four runnings and 10 of the last 12.
The win was the 10th in 25 starts for Vodka, a 5-year-old daughter of Tanino Gimlet out of Tanino Sister, by Rousillon. She was the 2008 Horse of the Year in Japan and stands a good chance to repeat this year. The Japan Cup win comes less than a month after unbeaten Zenyatta’s come-from- behind victory over males in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, which vaulted her into a contentious battle with the 3-year-old filly Rachel Alexandra for American Horse of the Year honors. It has been quite for fillies all around the globe.
Unfortunately, Vodka came out of the Japan Cup bleeding in the nostrils and will be unable to race for at least 30 days, according to Japan Racing Association regulations. That will preclude her from racing in the season-ending Arima Kinen, which could determine Horse of the Year. Her connections did not say whether or not she would be retired.
 Christophe Lemaire rode Vodka for trainer Katsuhiko Sumii (pictured, left), replacing Yutaka Take, who had been the filly’s regular rider. In a rare display of displeasure with the Japanese racing legend,Take faced public criticism for his most recent rides aboard Vodka. Sumii said the decision to replace Take was his. Owner Yuzo Tanimizu said the stable wanted a jockey that had "no previous knowledge of her wanting to go early" in her races. She had been somewhat rank and eager under Take, but relaxed beautifully into fourth position in the early stages of the Japan Cup for Lemaire.
Take was aboard Reach the Crown, who set the fractions in this year’s Cup but faded in the stretch and wound up ninth.
Oken Bruce Lee, fifth in last year’s Japan Cup, was flying on the outside at the finish, and it took several minutes for placing judges to post Vodka’s No. 5 as the winner. The margin was said to be only two centimeters.
"Oken Bruce Lee finished so fast and was in front after the winning post, so I had some doubts whether I’d won," Lemaire said. "I could hear the crowd shouting, and even when something is happening behind you, you feel when someone is coming."
 Lemaire (pictured, right) said he was surprised when he got the call to replace Take. "The most important thing they wanted me to do was get her to relax," he said. "French jockeys may be used to riding keen horses due to the style of our racing. Maybe that’s why they wanted me.
"The filly was very quiet and calm. The pace of the race was good enough. She wanted to go in the last corner, but I tried to keep her energy for the last 200 meters." The tactic played out perfectly as Vodka had just enough left to get the nod.
Conduit’s jockey, Ryan Moore, said he did not get off to as good a start as he’d liked, but appeared to get a good trip thereafter, but may have had too much ground to make up from his bad early start. "There was not much time between his last race and today, so maybe he got a little tired," Moore said.
A trio of American horses was led by Just as Well, who finished seventh. Interpatation wound up in a dead-heat for 14th and Marsh Side 17th. No American-trained horse has won the Japan Cup since Golden Pheasant in 1991.
A crowd of 98,811 was on hand, a decline of 8.4% from 2008 and the first sub-100,000 attendance for a Japan Cup since the Tokyo track’s grandstand had been rebuilt. Total handle on the day was 27.5 billion yen (about $320 million) and 19.2 billion yen (about $222 million) was wagered on the Japan Cup itself. The betting totals reflect declines of 12.1% and 13.5%, respectively, from 2008.
Tags: japan cup, japan racing association, katsuhiko Sumii, vodka
Posted in International Racing, Japan | 4 Comments »
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
By Ray Paulick
Multiple Grade 1 winner Summer Bird suffered a fracture to his right front leg while training at Hanshin race course Sunday morning in preparation for next Sunday’s Japan Cup Dirt. The injury is not life threatening but could end the racing career of the 3-year-old Birdstone colt, who captured the Grade 1 trio of the Belmont, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup and is the favorite to win an Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old male.
Summer Bird is owned and bred by Drs. K.K. and Vilasini Jayaraman.
Trainer Tim Ice, who has been at Hanshin in Osaka to oversee Summer Bird’s training, said the colt worked five furlongs in 1:02 1/5 without incident and walked back to the barn without any apparent lameness.
“It was a very good breeze, exactly what we wanted,” Ice told the Paulick Report Sunday afternoon. “He finished up strong. Once we got him off the track and unsaddled him he showed a slight limp and the further he went the more he started limping. We immediately put him in his stall, put him on ice, and took X rays an hour later.”
Ice described the fracture as going “straight up” the medial carpal bone (click here for a diagram) and speculated the fracture might require surgery and the implant of a screw into the bone.
“It’s definite that he will not run in the Japan Cup Dirt,” Ice said. “Once we get him back to the States and get him to the veterinarian of our choice we’ll further evaluate whether he’ll have a 4-year-old campaign or not. We’re taking every precaution we can to get a safe and comfortable trip home for him.
“Dr. J. will decide whether we’ll need the surgery,” he said. “The plans were to bring him back as a 4-year-old as long as he was sound. We just need to sit down and figure out what to do. The one thing we don’t want to do is put him through everything and waste a year of racing if he’s not 100%.”
Ice said it hasn’t been determined how soon Summer Bird will travel back to the U.S. and where he will go for evaluation, though he mentioned Kentucky and Colorado (where renowned orthopedic surgeon Wayne McIlwraith is based) as the most likely possibilities. Ice said Summer Bird will need to spend a couple of days in quarantine at Hollywood Park.
“Everything was going good, and I was looking forward to the race,” the trainer said. “I check his legs every morning and this morning before his breeze he was ice cold. There was nothing to indicate something was wrong. He did stumble slightly for one step when he turned around to begin his gallop, but there was no indication at all in the work.”
Summer Bird would have been the first winner of an American Triple Crown race to contest the Japan Cup Dirt.
“I’m feeling very, very disappointed,” said Ice, “not because we didn’t make this race but because this had to happen to this horse. He’s been a very good horse all summer long and into the fall and for something like this to happen is devastating.
“It’s been a whirlwind experience. This is the letdown of the sport. I have to accept this just as I accept the good. The one thing I’m thankful for is he does have a future. I’ll always remember this horse. Once he gets into the breeding shed I hope he’ll reproduce what he showed as a racehorse.”
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Tags: Horse Racing, japan cup dirt, japan racing association, Paulick Report, Ray Paulick, Summer Bird, tim ice
Posted in International Racing, Japan, racing injuries | 9 Comments »
Saturday, November 28th, 2009
By Ray Paulick
TOKYO, Japan–Mirco Demuro had just been punk’d by, of all people, Sir Michael Stoute, and he looked like a deer caught in the headlights.
 An Australian journalist wanted to introduce Demuro to the legendary British trainer during the cocktail hour of Friday night’s Welcome Party to the 29th annual Japan Cup. Demuro, Italy’s top jockey and last year’s Japan Cup winner aboard Screen Hero for Teruya Yoshida, said he’d never had the opportunity to meet Stoute, who will be saddling two-time Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Conduit in Sunday’s big event at Tokyo race course.
“Actually you rode for me once at Royal Ascot,” Stoute reminded Demuro (both pictured, left). “Finished second.” Then, with a perfectly timed pause, added, “Moved too soon.” No one enjoyed the good-natured ribbing better than Stoute himself, who let out a big belly laugh at his own joke. Demuro didn’t know what to say. But perhaps he’ll have the last laugh on Sunday as he tries to defend his Japan Cup title aboard Screen Hero.
Stoute is relaxed and confident as he bids for his third Japan Cup victory, having won back-to-back runnings with Singspiel and Pilsudski in 1996 and ’97. The native of Barbados, who has been among the world’s foremost horsemen for more than three decades, has won major races in 10 countries, including five Breeders’ Cups.
 I asked which of his international triumphs meant the most to him. “The Dubai World Cup,” Stoute said, without hesitation. “And for that I give a great deal of credit to Jerry Bailey.”
Stoute recalled how the Hall of Fame jockey worked Singspiel before the scheduled running of the 1997 World Cup but returned to the United States when the race was postponed after a deluge flooded the Nad al Sheba racetrack. “He came all the way back a few days later when the race was rescheduled,” Stoute said. “I think that breeze really gave him confidence in the horse.”
Another international visitor to Tokyo commented that Stoute has perfected the art of shipping horses around the world to win big races. “No, no, no,” he said. “No one’s perfected this. But you learn from the mistakes you make and from the things that go right. And no two horses react the same way to travel.”
Among other things, Stoute sends his own horse feed to Japan, well in advance of his horse, allowing the Japan Racing Association plenty of time to test its contents for any prohibited substances. Many other trainers are content to use the feed provided by the JRA. It’s a small detail perhaps, but it’s the kind of thing that adds up and pays off in the end.
 I MADE THE MISTAKE OF ASKING PATRICK LAWLEY-WAKELIN whether he’d been to the Japan Cup previously. “Last year,” he said, sadly, “but this is as far as we got.” Lawley-Wakelin, who is representing 2008 Canadian International winner Marsh Side on behalf of owner Robert Evans, was referring to last year’s Welcome Party, which he attended with trainer Neil Drysdale (pictured, left, with Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida). The next day, Marsh Side was scratched from the Japan Cup due to a fever, and Drysdale and Lawley-Wakelin departed immediately for the Tattersalls December sale. Let’s hope they get a chance to stick around and see Marsh Side compete this year.
Drysdale was stunned to hear no American-trained horse had won the Japan Cup since Golden Pheasant captured the 1991 renewal for trainer Charlie Whittingham and jockey Gary Stevens.
“I should have won it in 2002,” said Drysdale, recalling the running held at Nakayama racecourse while the Tokyo track’s grandstand was being rebuilt. Italian-based Falbrav and jockey Frankie Dettori edged the Drysdale-trained Sarafan and survived an inquiry after Falbrav drifted in and brushed Sarafan several times in deep stretch. “He really slammed us,” Drysdale recalled, “but the stewards let the result stand. There was no point in an appeal, since the same officials who looked at the original inquiry would hear the case.”
 THE WELCOME PARTY TOOK PLACE at the glitzy Ritz Carlton Hotel in the new midtown development adjacent to Roppongi. The JRA upgraded its host hotel this year to provide owners, trainers and jockeys a better experience during their visit to Tokyo (the international press remains at the Keio Plaza, a fine business hotel but not in the same class as the Ritz). It’s a smart move by the JRA, which has to compete with the Hong Kong Jockey Club for top horses and has lagged a step or two behind the HKJC as a host association and in providing a world-class experience for owners. Connections of Japan Cup Dirt horses will be staying at the Ritz Carlton in Osaka, near Hanshin race course, prior to next Sunday’s race.
The entertainment at this year’s party was quite different than anything I’ve seen in my previous 15 journeys to Tokyo for the Japan Cup. A group of Yabusame (yah-bu-sahmee) archers gave a demonstration of their martial arts skills, which entail riding on horseback at full speed and shooting a bow and arrow and several small targets. It’s a Japanese tradition going back nearly a thousand years to the days of Samurai warriors when the targets were more than wooden squares, and the skill was required to help protect the empire.
Of course, the originators of Yabusame never envisioned riding their horse into the Ritz Carlton ballroom, so some accommodations had to be made. The “horses” were decorated wooden mounts spun in a circle by an assistant, and the targets were only a few steps away on stage. But I think we got the point: don’t mess around with these fellows.
 IT’S BECOME SOMETHING OF A PAULICK REPORT TRADITION to comment on the food we enjoy at various industry gatherings, and the Japan Cup Welcome Party certainly offered a veritable feast, beginning with something called amuse bouche, contuing with a second course of ravioli style shogoin turnip, marinated seafood, crispy pasta, shiso and citrus fruit vinaigrette; followed by pan-friend sea bream, leak, taraba crab, clam sauce, braised savoy cabbage and green vegetable; and then a main course of pot-au-feu style beef fillet, chicken leg, autumn vegetables, truffle flavor white wasabi and seaweed salt. My favorite, though, was the “seasonal dessert sampler” of chestnut, sweet potato, Mont blanc, autumn fruits, apricot sorbet, wasonbon, and green tea sauce. I couldn’t really identify any of it, but it was all good!
Tags: Breeders' Cup, charlie whittingham, conduit, dubai world cup, falbrav, frankie dettori, Gary Stevens, golden pheasant, hkjc, hong kong jockey club, japan cup, japan racing association, jerry bailey, jra, mirco demuro, neil drysdale, patrickc lawley-wakelin, Ray Paulick, ritz carlton, screen hero, singpiel, sir michael stoute
Posted in International Racing, Japan, People | 1 Comment »
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