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.
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.
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 Creek 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 past 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.
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.
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!
TOKYO, Japan– It’s not just the trains that run on time in Tokyo—the buses do, too
I arrived Wednesday evening at the Keio Plaza Hotel, the official press headquarters for the Japan Cup, after a 24-journey from Kentucky. Despite the lack of a good night’s sleep since Saturday, I still had that 3 a.m. jet-leg alarm go off in my head my first night here.
The itinerary for Thursday was to meet in the lobby for a 6 a.m. bus trip to Tokyo racecourse to observe the training of the five international horses in Sunday’s Japan Cup—two-time Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Conduit and Grand Prix de Chantilly winner Scintillo from Europe, and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic winner Interpatation, Northern Dancer Turf winner Just As Well and 2008 Canadian International winner Marsh Side from North America.
I walked into the lobby earlier than my customary five minutes late, asking the bell captain at precisely 6:01 a.m. if the Japan Racing Association bus had yet arrived. “It left a minute ago,” he said. I shouldn’t have hit the snooze button.
No worries. Shinjuku Station is just a five-minute walk from the hotel, and there’s a Starbucks on the way. But Tokyo, I discovered, is not an early-morning town. Starbucks wasn’t open yet, and for good reason. The streets are deserted at that hour of the day. This is, it turns out, a city that sleeps.
THE TRAINING WENT WELL ENOUGH, and the press conference that followed was predictable. Jonathan Sheppard may be the only trainer who spoke that would pass a lie-detector test. Each trainer (or assistant) of the five international horses was asked on a scale of 1-to-100 how his Japan Cup entry was doing. All said 100%, with the exception of Sheppard, who said “about 95%.”
A brief summary of the international horses:
Scintillo seems overmatched in here, but Richard Hannon is a trainer to be respected. The son of Fantastic Light is clearly a horse who likes a distance of ground, so he should be closing in the final stages of the Japan Cup. But a victory would shock me.
Conduit. Trainer Michael Stoute hadn’t arrived yet, but his assistant said the decision was made to run in the Japan Cup following a post-Breeders’ Cup evaluation of the son of Dalakhani’s condition. I have to think the travel from Europe and back for the Breeders’ Cup, followed by the trip to Japan, might take a toll. But he’s entering stud in Japan for 2010, and this is a chance for Conduit to go out in style in front of the breeders who will have the opportunity to support him at stud.
Interpatation. Trainer Bobby Barbara and owner Elliot Mavorah (pictured, right) seem to be having the time of their lives in Tokyo, and why not? It’s an all-expense paid trip for the horse and his connections, and it’s nice to see an owner and trainer who are clearly making the best of it. Mavorah profusely thanked the JRA for extending the invitation and said he hoped the horse’s performance justifies it. Despite Interpatation’s win over Gio Ponti on a deep, deep Belmont Park turf in the Joe Hirsch, he’ll be an enormous longshot on Sunday, and the ground will be firm. Someone asked Mavorah about the name, and he told a story about how he was an Orthodox Jew and was trying to build a synagogue and needed some type of legal interpretation. He wanted to name the horse “interpretation,” but that name was taken, so he purposely spelled it wrong and that name went through.
Just As Well. Wouldn’t a Japan Cup victory be an interesting tale for this 6-year-old son of A.P. Indy, who was off nearly two years while experiencing lameness that veterinarians never could fully explain. During that time, breeder George Strawbridge elected to get rid of Just As Well and Sheppard made a deal with his longtime friend and client to buy him. “It would be a shame for someone else to get him and be successful,” Sheppard said he told Strawbridge, adding that Strawbridge wins whenever Just As Well wins because he still owns the dam and some siblings. But a Japan Cup victory would still be a tough one to explain to the boss!
Marsh Side. He was the hard-luck horse of the 2008 Japan Cup when he was scratched from the race due a fever after arriving in Japan. Trainer Neil Drysdale thinks the 6-year-old by Gone West is best suited to large turf courses like Tokyo’s, along with the courses at Woodbine and Dubai. “He’s a big horse and doesn’t run as well on the American courses with their tighter turns,” he said. Marsh Side will stay in training in 2010, said Drysdale–who was accompanied to the podium by bloodstock agent Patrick Lawley-Wakelin—unless someone is interested in standing him at stud. “I believe he deserves a chance to be a stallion,” Drysdale said. Hint-hint!
NAOHIRO GODA IS MY GO-TO GUY on all matters pertaining to Japanese racing. He is a world traveler, savvy about racing and breeding just about anywhere, but a true expert on what’s going on in Japan. Goda said 2009 will be the 12th consecutive year that pari-mutuel betting on JRA racing will be down—despite numerous measures by the government entity to increase handle through an expanded menu, a rearranged schedule of Grade 1 races in the autumn, and even a reduced takeout promotion on some major races. In 2011, the JRA will be introducing a pick five wager (similar to pick threes, pick fours, and pick sixes in the U.S.). Multi-race wagers have previously not been legal in Japan.
The big problem, Goda said, is that Japan’s trendy youth market is less and less interested in the sport of horse racing. They are more interested in computer games and other sports, especially soccer. Betting on soccer has been introduced in the last decade, and that’s hurt horse racing, too. One of the most popular bets on soccer is a computer assisted wager that eliminates any need to think or handicap.
Horse racing isn’t the only form of gambling that is suffering in Japan. Legal betting on motorboats and bicycle racing is down, too, and the Pachinko parlors (the closest thing Japan has to slot machines) are also off.
Despite the dire news about Japanese horse racing, it’s still a pretty popular sport, as evidenced by the throng of writers and photographers on hand for Thursday morning’s workouts and press conference. Tokyo’s daily sports newspapers are devoting several pages to the Japan Cup, despite the absence of a true Japanese superstar this year. It is still big business and Sunday’s Japan Cup will be sure to draw more than 100,000 people to Tokyo race course, and handle on the race will dwarf what is wagered on Kentucky Derby or Breeders’ Cup Day in the United States.
THE JAPANESE REALLY DO GET CAUGHT UP IN FADS. Just two years ago, when my wife Carol and daughter Meg traveled with me to the Japan Cup, we came across Tokyo’s first Krispy Kreme donut shop just to the south of the Shinjuku Station. We were amazed to see the DisneyWorld-like lines outside the story, complete with a sign telling the donut-hungry public how long the wait would be to get inside (it was 45 minutes when we walked by…and, no, we didn’t wait). This morning, when I returned from the track I noticed there wasn’t a single person standing outside the Krispy Kreme shop. I guess it’s yesterday’s news. But those warm donuts are still just as tasty!
By Ray Paulick One or two million dollars just doesn’t get you what it used to.
Was it that long ago that felonious financier Robert Brennan shook up racing’s Triple Crown with a $2-million bonus linking victories in three stakes at the now-defunct Garden State Park in New Jersey with a win in the Kentucky Derby? Spend a Buck went after and won that bonus following his runaway victory in the 1985 Kentucky Derby, leaving officials at the three Triple Crown tracks apoplectic when he skipped the Preakness and Belmont Stakes. They were so worried they went out and did the unthinkable: working together to create their own bonus scheme (which has now lapsed after Visa dropped its Triple Crown sponsorship).
The original Triple Crown Challenge bonus would pay a total of $5 million in purses and bonus money to any horse that won the Triple Crown (it was upped to a $5-million bonus plus purse money in 1997), and a $1-million bonus to the horse accumulating the most points from top three finishes in all three races. The latter bonus was dropped after the 1993 Triple Crown.
The absence of a bonus hasn’t hurt the Triple Crown, although without a participation bonus there have been fewer 3-year-olds running in all three races. I guess the feeling is that the owner of a horse that wins the Triple Crown will get his bonus when he retires him to stud (assuming he’s not a gelding or filly).
This past year, several entities clamored to get 3-year-old filly superstar Rachel Alexandra and older female champ Zenyatta in the same race. Jim McIngvale, the Houston furniture store owner better known as Mattress Mac, made the first run by offering to put up $2-million for a match race at Sam Houston Race Park in his home town. That gave McIngvale 15 minutes or so of free publicity, but it was a match race that was never going to happen. (McIngvale’s Gallery Furniture recently announced it is sponsoring a new $100,000 race on the Texas Day Champions program Dec. 5 at Sam Houston, proving he’s more than a publicity seeker. McIngvale and the Houston track haven’t given up on a race involving the two fillies, either, and offered $1.5 million if they showed up to face one another during the track’s winter meeting.)
TVG then teamed up with the New York Racing Association in an effort to get Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta to both contest the Oct. 3 Beldame at Belmont Park. TVG offered to put up $400,000, which would increase the purse for the Grade 1 race to $1 million. That at least got some consideration from both camps, but it wasn’t in the cards for either Rachel Alexandra or Zenyatta.
Finally, the Breeders’ Cup gave it the old college try, offering to pad the winner’s share of the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic if both Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta were in the starting gate. That would have resulted in a $3.7-million winner’s share of the Classic. But Rachel’s majority owner, Jess Jackson, had already made it clear he wouldn’t run his filly on the synthetic track at Santa Anita which he disparagingly calls “plastic.”
It’s no wonder, then, that the Japan Racing Association is having a hard time getting much buzz over its Autumn International series of four Grade 1 races on consecutive Sundays, beginning Nov. 15 with the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup, and continuing with the Nov. 22 Mile Championship, the Nov. 29 Japan Cup and Dec. 6 Japan Cup Dirt. The four races offer about $13 million in total purses, plus lucrative bonuses for horses that have won or finished second in major stakes in North America, Europe, Australia or Dubai.
For example, if Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird won the Japan Cup Dirt, a 1 1/8-mile race run clockwise at Hanshin racecourse in Osaka, he would receive $1.37 million of the $2.9-million purse but also get a bonus of $1.37 million for his Derby win, making the victory worth a total $2.7 million. That’s about the same as the Breeders’ Cup Classic’s winner’s share of its $5-million purse. I’d venture to say Mine That Bird would face a much softer field in Japan than he’ll see on the Pro-Ride track at Santa Anita. Of course, he could run in both races.
The Derby is but one of 12 American races whose winners would qualify for a bonus ranging from $525,000 to $1.37 million for winning the Japan Cup Dirt. Even a second-place finish for those horses in Japan would pay them a bonus between $210,000 and $550,000. Click here to see the bonus scheme for the Japan Cup Dirt.
The Japan Cup on turf has similar bonuses. That race winner could take home more than $4 million in purse money and bonuses and the second-place finisher could win as much as $1.6 million in purse and bonus money. Click here for complete information on the Japan Cup’s purse and bonus details.
Nevertheless, based on recent interest in the Japanese races from American horsemen, it’s doubtful many serious contenders will be shipped to Tokyo or Osaka to contest these rich races, bonuses or not. No American horse has won the Japan Cup since 1991, when the late Charlie Whittingham sent Golden Pheasant postward for a victory. Golden Pheasant was the fourth American horse to win the Japan Cup in the race’s first 11 years.
In recent years, the Japanese have dominated the race with horses they bred or bought in the West as yearlings, winning nine of the last 11 runnings. The quality of Japanese-bred horses has improved, largely through the importation of stallions and broodmares from Europe and the United States in the 1980s and ‘90s. I think Americans have gotten tired of sending their horses over to Japan and getting their butts kicked.
The Japan Cup dirt, inaugurated in 2000, has had just nine runnings, with eight going to Japanese-trained horses. The lone exception was in 2003 when the Doug O’Neill-trained Fleetstreet Dancer, a previously unheralded runner in California, posted a huge upset.
American horsemen have been leery of sending good horses to the Japan Cup dirt, in part over legitimate concerns that the dirt tracks in Japan are deep and sandy. In fact, when Fleetstreet Dancer won, it may have been due in part to the fact rain tightened up the racetrack.
There’s a lot of money at stake in the Japan Racing Association’s Autumn International races, but purse money apparently doesn’t carry as much weight as it used to for some horse owners. Either that, or American horses ain’t what they used to be.
Teruya Yoshida’s Screen Hero pulled off a huge upset in the 2,400-meter Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on Sunday, taking the lead in the final 100 meters and holding off a fast-closing Deep Sky, winner of this year’s Japanese Derby. The 4-year-old filly Vodka, winner of the Japanese Derby of 2007 and the wagering favorite in the North American pool, was third. A third Japanese Derby winner, Meisho Samson, battled for the lead into midstretch but faded late.
A 4-year-old son of the Silver Hawk stallion Grass Wonder out of Running Heroine, by Sunday Silence, Screen Hero was bred in Japan by his owner’s Shadai Farm. He is trained by Yuichi Shikato and was ridden by Italian jockey Mirco Demuro, who one day earlier was issued a 30-day license to ride in Japan. Demuro has ridden at Japan Racing Association tracks on a temporary license every year since 1999.
The win was the fifth in 17 starts for Screen Hero and his first in a Grade 1 race. He was coming off a victory in the Grade 2 Copa Republica Argentino over the same Tokyo grass course. Click here to see past performances for the race.
Screen Hero covered the distance (about 1 ½ miles) in 2:25.50 and paid $122.80 to win in the North American pools. The race was televised in North America by TVG.
There were no North American horses in the race following the scratch by trainer Neil Drysdale of Canadian International winner Marsh Side due to a fever.
After 48 hours of being told horse racing needs newer and younger and more female fans, Ray Paulick is mad as hell and he isn’t going to take it anymore. He wants to know, among other things: Why does racing hate us old men? Ray’s gavel to snooze button coverage of the 32nd Asian Racing Conference takes a diversion today as he offers stream of consciousness (when conscious) coverage of the final programs from Tokyo, which touch on television, wagering, and the dreaded S.S. (synthetic surfaces).
CONFESSION: I’M AN OLD (55) MAN and am feeling a bit lonely. Racing doesn’t want me anymore. It seems more interested in younger people, men with fulls heads of hair, and women who giggle and love horses but have never bet more than $2 to show on a race. What have I done, to borrow from the Aussies, to hack you off? All I and my fellow old men do is go to your tracks, buy your lousy food, bet till our pockets are empty, and fall asleep on the train on the way home. Yet you would rather cater to people who don’t even like your product. Where’s the love, racing?
It’s not just an American problem, this fixation racing has on replacing the dead with people with a heartbeat. It’s going on in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan. Everywhere horses race, the marketers hate us old men.
Just yesterday, a producer from Fuji television, which broadcasts into 90% of Japanese homes, was lamenting that his Sunday racing telecasts have a demographic that is so old that he can only sell advertising time to rocking chair and walking stick manufacturers. Actually, it isn’t quite that bad, but old men were making up such an increasing percentage of the Sunday racing programs’ audience over the past 10 years (from 47% to 63%) to the point that producers decided to shake up the broadcast and bring in people who knew nothing about racing but had some connection with celebrity. There’s hope for David Hasselhoff over here in Japan!
Worse yet, Fuji’s racing telecast ratings declined over those 10 years, from 7.7 (about 3 million households) to 5.0 (about 2 million). Fuji’s metrics people are very clever, measuring their audience segments into eight categories (two youth, and three each by age group for male and female). The "old man" portion of the audience remained the same over those 10 years, with losses coming in the younger and female segment. So Fuji decided to take it out on the old men by providing programming that was irrelevant or irritating to them.
But wait. The Fuji TV producer, Masanari Funaki, said the younger generation is watching all of television less, not just racing telecasts. They have discovered the Internet, video games and mobile phone networking. Nevertheless, Fuji opted to ignore the old men and provide less information about handicapping and gambling (which us old guys like) and show more personality features, make the program more entertaining and focus more on "the sporting aspects of horse racing."
His reason? "We wanted to catch some of those sports fans who might be channel surfing," Funaki said. "We think it’s very important for viewers to see horse racing programs in the same way they see other sports programs, so we don’t overpromote the gambling aspect and get viewers to see the human element. We show more about jockeys, their histories and their background."
What a fool, I thought.
Not so fast, my friend. "This year’s racing telecast ratings are up," Funaki said.
Fuji TV also developed a Saturday night midnight racing telecast that focuses on handicapping the Sunday race, using well-known handicappers from six Tokyo newspapers who scream at each other about how stupid they are.Kind of like the three talking heads on TVG. "Those programs are very popular with younger men," Funaki said.
In my country, Mr. Funaki, old men are asleep by midnight.
SOMEONE ELSE ON THE TELEVISION PANEL SET UP A HORSEY PINATA representing the American racing industry and people took turns whacking it and reminding us of how stupid we are in the United States.
Those guys from the United Kingdom and Australia are so smart, just because they know how to tell time. Smug. They have a 3 o’clock race at Ascot and a 3;15 at Lingfield in the UK, and in Australia (where the clocks are upside down), they manage to televise about 12,000 horse races every day without having any post times overlapping with one another. The reason? Apparently, they can maximize wagering by coordinating post times for the races.
In America, experience has shown that it’s much better to have three races from major tracks all start at exactly the same time, so that simulcast or account wagering customers have to choose between races rather than bet on all three. It’s called maximizing stupidity, or something like that. "America’s most famous racetracks have races going off right on top of each other," said Brendan Parnell, chief operating officer for Australia’s Tabcorp. "They are cannibalizing or eating each other’s lunch and missing great opportunities. People are getting shut out."
Whack! Take that, you damned Yankees.
OLD MEN AREN’T THE ONLY ENEMIES OF RACING. So are governments, who set and enforce ominous hurdles that keep the sport from seizing on some great opportunities, such as a "global bet." (Aren’t most governments and racing regulatory bodies run by old men? Yes!)
John Stuart, who carries the creative title "director of international marketing and operations" for the make-believe Phumelela Gaming and Leisure Co. (what, there really is a place called Phumelela?), presented a science fiction video about a global horse bet called the "Universal," where fans in any country pick the first eight finishers of a big international race like the Japan Cup and create a betting pool in excess of a billion dollars. "Had Barack Obama been watching that," Stuart said, "he’d be shouting ‘yes, we can,’ ‘yes, we can.’ So should we be."
Of course, that will never happen because too many governments have protectionist laws prohibiting commingling of betting pools from one country to another. Plus, the American totalizator companies would still be accepting bets after the race is over.
A SERIES OF PRESENTATIONS ON MEDICATION featuring dreadfully boring attorneys and veterinarians has just about everyone in the room nodding off until a snappy Q&A segment near the end when the moderator directed a question about illegal drugs to Brian Stewart, head of veterinary regulation and international liaison to the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Specifically, Stewart was asked by Australian turf editor Bart Sinclair whether blood-doping agents like EPO, which have plagued cycling and some other sports, are being used in racing. Stewart nodded to the affirmative. "How big a problem is EPO?" Sinclair asked. "I’d say it’s widepread," Stewart said. That sent many Asian Racing Federation delegates straight to the bar for a stiff one.
THERE ALSO WAS MUCH DISCUSSION ABOUT HANDICAPPING INFORMATION. What should be given to these young fans who don’t exist yet? How should we deliver information to them? Gift wrapped with local currency, I think.
Howard Wright, senior editor for England’s Racing Post and one of the people in the media who "gets it," had me going there for a minute when he said the racing industry in Great Britain actually wants to make money from newspapers for providing information about horse racing to fans. Good one, Howard. They can’t be that arrogant over there, can they? Seems like the industry should be paying newspapers to promote the sport, not the other way around.
Howard, like me, is a slightly grumpy old man who does see the need for racing to replace those of us who will soon be pushing daisies. He also understands these young kids today don’t know how to read a newspaper, but doesn’t think the traditional ways of providing handicapping information (Racing Post, Daily Racing Form) should be abandoned. "One size fits all no longer applies," he said. "The media has to find ways of satisfying its traditional horse racing audience while also accommodating the PlayStation generation, who want their involvement presented in small pieces and want it now." It’s time for "Racing Form Lite" he said. Tastes great, less filling!
Howard also mentioned the budget cutbacks in most daily newspapers (e.g., they are dying faster than us old men), and suggested that racing isn’t alone in having its editorial space reduced. "Racing will never beat football," he reminded. Someone got out the Pinata again and started talking about how American newspapers have stopped covering horse racing altogether. Whack, whack, whack!
SOMEONE SUGGESTED THIS NEW THING CALLED THE INTERNET might be a good way to deliver information to these newbies. That’s where the kids are hanging out these days, aren’t they? To strategerize about this, the Asian Racing Federation found a really smart kid, Koichi Yamamoto, who must be the youngest senior research director the Dentsu Institute has ever had. (He got his MBA from Columbia University when he was, like, 12 years old.)
Yamamoto outlined how blogs and social networking have changed things and talked about how businsses need to reach "new influencers," people who are constantly communicating online by networking and commenting on blogs and never breathing fresh air. These "new influencers" might not be as informed as us old guys or as opinioned; in fact, they are more easy to influence than us stick in the mud types, Yamamoto said. But don’t inundate these "new influencers" with gibberish, he said, because they are adept at filtering out useless crap. "Only the most attractive and relevant information gets through," he said.
If the message gets through, however, Katy bar the door. Word of mouth is the new king, he said. Social trends spread at lightning speed. "People want to tell friends about things that at least some people know, but not too many people know," Yamamoto said. "The topicality window opens faster and closes faster."
Yamamoto said the newbs are hip to the trick of marketing people. "Increasingly sophisticated consumers can easily see through marketing schemes," he said. "Relationships with these consumers is more important than ever. Strong relationships turn information-filtering consumers into information-hungry consumers."
Can I get a translator please?
"WHAT IF STEVE JOBS WERE TO ENTER THE RACING INDUSTRY? How would Apple innovate the customer experience?" Those questions were asked by Edward Tse, a McKinsey and Co. consultant to the Hong Kong Jockey Club who encouraged racing associations to think more innovatively than they have done in the past. Tse reviewed the depressing statistics that show pari-mutuel handle losing altitude and asked if it is sufficient to simply launch new bet types, which many racing associations have tried. "Or," he asked, "do we need a new approach?"
He then listed six building blocks needed for innovation: 1) tax reform and product pricing; 2) customer segment expansion; 3) channel innovation and expansion; 4) product and service innovation; 5) image or brand building; 6) customer relationship management/loyalty.
Savvy guys like Tse do all sorts of analytics, and he said the most valuable ones are predictive in nature: in other words, get a swami to crunch your numbers. Short of that, he said, try and get predictive analytics that answer the following questions: What’s the best thing that can happen? What will happen next? If these trends continue, why?
Tse said companies that do this well include Capital One, the annoying credit card company that fills your mailbox with junk every day, the consumer electronics store Best Buy (news of their current problems hadn’t reached Tse yet), and the Harrah’s casino company, which he said "revolutionized the casino industry by adopting highly analytic customer focused innovation."
Harrah’s, he said, separates all of its customers into segments by profit potential, drives those customers to aspire to a higher level, optimizes placement of its slot machines in the best locations, and uses customer satisfaction measurements to shape their business plan. The whole point of this is to separate the customers from their money, and Harrah’s is extremely good at that.
Back to racing. Tse insisted that new approaches to the customer experience are required to modernize the industry. Following Harrah’s lead, racing associations must use deep customer segmentation and analytics as the foundation for innovation. "For most racing organizations," Tse said, "this will require a different mindset and new skills."
Unfortunately, many people with those skills end up working at a company like Apple.
DO LOWER PRICES INCREASE SALES? The Hong Kong Jockey Club was curious to see if the cost of a bet could affect how much is wagered, so they tried something foreign to most horseplayers: they lowered prices. Specifically, the HKJC offered rebates for losing bets made by some of their highest-rolling customers. The net result: players who received rebates, thereby effectively lowering their takeout, wagered more.
It wasn’t that easy, though. To give rebates, the HKJC had to cut a deal with government that gave them the flexibility to offer innovative programs like rebates. The agreement worked both ways, with the HKJC guaranteeing HK$8 billion in annual revenue to the government, more than they’d gotten the previous year. The HKJC wanted to expand the number of race days from 78 a year and the number of commingled simulcasts from 10. The government didn’t budge on those requests.
The rebates were for losing bets of HK$10,000 and up (about US$1,200) on win, place, quinella and quinella place wagers. To coincide with the introduction of the bets, the HKJC convinced 500 bettors from different wagering segments (frequent, occasional, big bettors, small bettors) to allow their betting to be tracked for analytical purposes. Not surprisingly, big, frequent players took advantage of the rebates the most, effectively lowering takeout from 18.7% to 16.9% and increasing the volume of their bets by having more money to churn. For the occasional and smaller players, the rebate and lure of lower takeout made little or no difference.
The rebates were funded by the HKJC, which looked at them as a marketing investment in their future. Handle increased, but not to the extent that it paid for itself. Bill Nader, the former New York Racing Association chief operating officer who is now executive director of the HKJC, said the organization hopes it will pay dividends in the long run.
MR. SEKIGUCHI, WHERE ARE YOU? Fusaro Sekiguchi, the flamboyant Japanese businessman who raced Fusaichi Sekuguchi to victory in the 2000 Kentucky Derby and has been a major buyer at foal and yearling sales around the world over the last decade, has been keeping a very low profile in his native Japan recently.
Some Japanese racing insiders have said he has sold most of his horses and others have suggested the global credit crunch may have dealt him a severe blow. Last time I saw him was in the paddock of the Tokyo Race Course at the Japan Cup a couple of year ago, where he was nattily dressed as usual. Sekiguchi has had some ups and downs in his racing and business career (famously failing to pay Keeneland on some yearling purchases prior to buying FuPeg for $4 million, and later getting fired by the company he started), and he always seems to land on his feet.
Here’s hoping we see him in the winner’s circle again real soon.
DARLEY JAPAN FARM EXPANDING: Darley Japan Farm, the Japanese breeding entity on Hokkaido owned by Ken Mishima, has expanded with the purchase of Nishiyama Farm, whose previous owner raced Paradise Creek, winner of the Eclipse Award as outstanding turf male in 1994. Though it’s a bit confusing, Darley Japan Farm and Darley Japan (which stands stallions) are separate entities, in part because of the licensing peculiarities of the JRA that require Japanese owners of breeding farms.
FINALLY, THE GRAND FINALE THAT WE HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO…the "cage match" discussion arguing the merits of synthetic surfaces.
Ian Pearse of Pro-Ride surfaces of Australia, bragged on the results of the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita while Michael Dickinson, waiting for his turn to speak about his creation, Tapeta Footings, sat patiently onstage sticking pins into a voodoo doll that resembled Ron Charles, who chose Pro-Ride over Tapeta for Santa Anita, host of the 2008 and 2009 world championships.
Raji Jayaraju then sang the praises of the synthetic surface installed at the Singapore Turf Club track where he is senior manager. Singapore’s new track has been very useful because of the heavy rain they get in Singapore that often leaves the turf course extremely soggy. Jockeys and trainers said in a video that the synthetic track was terrific (under threat of a caning?).
Dr. Toshiyushi Takahashi, a representative of the JRA, presented some scientific research that showed why synthetic tracks might be safer than Japanese dirt tracks. The JRA installed synthetic material on one of its training tracks and compared hoof impact between dirt and synthetic tracks, measuring the velocity of impact and time of hoof stabilization at impact. Dr. Takahashi summarized by saying that synthetic tracks are more stable and provide more traction than dirt or wood chip tracks, and are more constant at the time of hoof landing.
But that science is meaningless in the face of comments from turf writers and horse players who are more concerned with tradition and form than the safety of horses.
"To those of you who train, for those of you who’ve got sand and dirt tracks, please switch to synthetics," Dickinson said. when asked about safety. "Whether you go with Tapeta, Pro-Ride or my good friend Martin Collins’ Polytrack, please change. It’s much safer for the horses." Apparently, someone "got to" the panelists and said no name calling. Cage match cancelled.
That’s it from the Asian Racing Conference. I’ll summarize what I’ve learned over these last few days in a forthcoming commentary.
Jess Jackson seemed to dismiss a repeat attempt by Curlin in the Breeders’ Cup Classic as if he was flicking a piece of lint off the lapel of his tweed jacket.
“Been there, done that,” Jackson said to reporters the other day in a teleconference to announce future plans for the reigning Horse of the Year.
Instead, Jackson seems bent on some exotic mission that he hopes will prove more satisfying, like the Hong Kong Cup or Japan Cup in Asia.
So that’s how far the Breeders’ Cup Classic has fallen. The majority owner of the best horse America has seen, perhaps since Cigar more than a decade ago, is seeking new worlds to conquer rather than go for a repeat in the richest and what should be the most important race run on American soil – the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Did I say run on American “soil”? Right now, no one is sure exactly what the Classic will be run on when the Breeders’ Cup comes to Santa Anita Park for its two-day race meeting on Oct. 24-25. As I write this, 80 days before the self-proclaimed “world championships,” an Australian company is sifting a variety of materials onto the oval that that has hosted some of the greatest races this sport has seen. The company, Pro-Ride, has some experience in installing and maintaining training tracks and materials for lunging rings et al, but Santa Anita will be the first major meeting that uses Pro-Ride for racing.
Instead of world championships, perhaps this year’s Breeders’ Cup (and next year’s since Breeders’ Cup management and its board decided to go back-to-back at Santa Anita in 2009) should be called the grand experiment. Jackson (and who can really blame him?) doesn’t feel he should use Curlin as a guinea pig on such a surface.
Once Breeders’ Cup (and the industry) determines whether or not these man-made tracks are better for the horses and for the sport, there will remain the serious question of how to keep a Breeders’ Cup champion like Curlin interested in going for a repeat.
Tiznow is the only horse to have won the Classic twice (2000 and ’01), and only a handful have even tried it. For many winners, it’s been the final stop on the road to the breeding shed. Jess Jackson decided to keep Curlin in training for another year, and you can select from one of the following reasons: a) he’s a sportsman who doesn’t need the money; b) there were legal entanglements involving his ownership that might have made a stud deal difficult; c) all of the above.
Say, for example, trainer Rick Dutrow is able to hold Big Brown together through the end of the year and win the Classic with the same verve with which the colt won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. He’ll go from there to Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky to get ready for the 2009 breeding season. The economic reality is that a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner can earn more money by breeding than he can by racing.
Does it have to be that way?
Has Breeders’ Cup looked into the possibility of offering a bonus for a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner that repeats the following year? Has it considered enhancing the Classic purse for winners of Triple Crown races to keep them in training for another year? Even if Big Brown lost this year’s Breeders’ Cup, dangling an extra few million dollars in his direction for the 2009 Classic might be enough of an incentive to keep him in training. Well, perhaps not Big Brown, but you get the idea.
The international competition to attract the world’s best horses is getting tougher. Many of these international events pay all shipping fees for horses and expenses for their connections, something the Breeders’ Cup has not done. Organizations like the Japan Racing Association have included bonuses in the already-rich purses for their international races to attract good horses.
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.
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 
“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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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!
I arrived Wednesday evening at the Keio Plaza Hotel, the official press headquarters for the Japan Cup, after a 24-journey from Kentucky. Despite the lack of a good night’s sleep since Saturday, I still had that 3 a.m. jet-leg alarm go off in my head my first night here.
Interpatation. Trainer Bobby Barbara and owner Elliot Mavorah (pictured, right) seem to be having the time of their lives in Tokyo, and why not? It’s an all-expense paid trip for the horse and his connections, and it’s nice to see an owner and trainer who are clearly making the best of it. Mavorah profusely thanked the JRA for extending the invitation and said he hoped the horse’s performance justifies it. Despite Interpatation’s win over Gio Ponti on a deep, deep Belmont Park turf in the Joe Hirsch, he’ll be an enormous longshot on Sunday, and the ground will be firm. Someone asked Mavorah about the name, and he told a story about how he was an Orthodox Jew and was trying to build a synagogue and needed some type of legal interpretation. He wanted to name the horse “interpretation,” but that name was taken, so he purposely spelled it wrong and that name went through.
NAOHIRO GODA IS MY GO-TO GUY on all matters pertaining to Japanese racing. He is a world traveler, savvy about racing and breeding just about anywhere, but a true expert on what’s going on in Japan. Goda said 2009 will be the 12th consecutive year that pari-mutuel betting on JRA racing will be down—despite numerous measures by the government entity to increase handle through an expanded menu, a rearranged schedule of Grade 1 races in the autumn, and even a reduced takeout promotion on some major races. In 2011, the JRA will be introducing a pick five wager (similar to pick threes, pick fours, and pick sixes in the U.S.). Multi-race wagers have previously not been legal in Japan.
THE JAPANESE REALLY DO GET CAUGHT UP IN FADS. Just two years ago, when my wife Carol and daughter Meg traveled with me to the Japan Cup, we came across Tokyo’s first Krispy Kreme donut shop just to the south of the Shinjuku Station. We were amazed to see the DisneyWorld-like lines outside the story, complete with a sign telling the donut-hungry public how long the wait would be to get inside (it was 45 minutes when we walked by…and, no, we didn’t wait). This morning, when I returned from the track I noticed there wasn’t a single person standing outside the Krispy Kreme shop. I guess it’s yesterday’s news. But those warm donuts are still just as tasty!
In my country, Mr. Funaki, old men are asleep by midnight.
which have plagued cycling and some other sports, are being used in racing. Stewart nodded to the affirmative. "How big a problem is EPO?" Sinclair asked. "I’d say it’s widepread," Stewart said. That sent many Asian Racing Federation delegates straight to the bar for a stiff one.
It wasn’t that easy, though. To give rebates, the HKJC had to cut a deal with government that gave them the flexibility to offer innovative programs like rebates. The agreement worked both ways, with the HKJC guaranteeing HK$8 billion in annual revenue to the government, more than they’d gotten the previous year. The HKJC wanted to expand the number of race days from 78 a year and the number of commingled simulcasts from 10. The government didn’t budge on those requests.
Some Japanese racing insiders have said he has sold most of his horses and others have suggested the global credit crunch may have dealt him a severe blow. Last time I saw him was in the paddock of the Tokyo Race Course at the Japan Cup a couple of year ago, where he was nattily dressed as usual. Sekiguchi has had some ups and downs in his racing and business career (famously failing to pay Keeneland on some yearling purchases prior to buying FuPeg for $4 million, and later getting fired by the company he started), and he always seems to land on his feet.
Raji Jayaraju then sang the praises of the synthetic surface installed at the Singapore Turf Club track where he is senior manager. Singapore’s new track has been very useful because of the heavy rain they get in Singapore that often leaves the turf course extremely soggy. Jockeys and trainers said in a video that the synthetic track was terrific (under threat of a caning?).