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 or 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.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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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

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 3:35 pm and is filed under International Racing, Japan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.