DEL MAR, Calif. – The victories by Japan-based runners March Lorraine and Loves Only You at the 2021 Breeders’ Cup held at Del Mar figured to spur interest in Japanese participation when the event returned to the seaside track this year. But even those closest to the situation were surprised that 19 horses from 13 different trainers have traveled here for the 41st Breeders’ Cup to be held Friday and Saturday.
“I was pretty sure I’d get at least as many as last year,” said Kate Hunter, the Japanese liaison for the Breeders’ Cup, noting there were nine pre-entrants, eight who ran, at last year’s event held at Santa Anita. “I thought we had the opportunity to get that many and maybe one or two more because of Del Mar.”
Hunter said the variety of races available on dirt and turf and the prize money offered – 14 races worth $30 million – have piqued the interest of Japanese horsemen.
“There’s no other race day like it anywhere in the world where you have this many different options on a race card,” Hunter said. “You don’t get those kinds of things in Japan – a buffet of races with good prize money. We’ve been able to promote it in such a way to the Japanese that I think it’s really clicked as much as the location.”
The travel from Japan to California is much simpler than it is to Kentucky. Hunter explained that it is a nine-hour plane ride and quarantine can be done at the track. When the Breeders’ Cup is held in Kentucky, Japan-based horses have to fly 12 hours to Chicago, do 42 hours quarantine there, and then van seven hours to Kentucky.
There are Japanese horses in 11 of the 14 Breeders’ Cup races. Of course, the trio of Forever Young, Derma Sotogake, and Ushba Tesoro in the $7 million Classic are the headliners. But the unbeaten filly Awesome Result intrigues in the Distaff, as do Remake in the Sprint and Geoglyph in the Mile.
Then there are the 2-year-olds. There are six 2-year-olds entered in the five races held Friday.
Hideyuki Mori has brought four prospects here, including the freaky-fast Ecoro Sieg for the Juvenile Turf Sprint, Ecoro Azel and Shin Believe for the Juvenile, and Otomena Shacho for the Juvenile Fillies. Trainer Takashi Saito has brought American Bikini for the Juvenile Fillies, and trainer Noryuki Hori has Satono Carnaval for the Juvenile Turf.
Hunter said the major 2-year-old races in Japan aren’t until December, so there aren’t many options for them back home this time of year.
“To be able to convince them to come this early and run in Group 1 races in America is really exciting,” Hunter said. “When I first started doing this job, I never expected that they would be willing to ship 2-year-olds.”
Mori has attended the 2-year-old in-training sales in Ocala for a long time. At the OBS March sale, he purchased 10 2-year-olds for $2.65 million, including Ecoro Sieg, a $250,000 son of Twirling Candy; Shin Believe, an $800,000 son of Constitution; and Ecoro Azel, a $215,000 son of Shancelot. Ecoro Sieg is 2 for 2, Shin Believe won his only start, and Ecoro Azel is 1 for 2. Otomena Shacho, a daughter of Speightstown, was a $200,000 yearling purchase at Keeneland last September and is 1 for 3.
“We have a couple of reasons,” Mori said through an interpreter about why he’s sent so many 2-year-olds to the Breeders’ Cup. “The yen is weak at the moment. The races for 2-year-olds are limited in Japan. That’s why we elected to race here.”
Citing the high price of horses in Japan, Mori said he would have liked to have purchased more at the OBS sale.
Though this year’s BC Juvenile has a solid group of American-based runners in East Avenue, Chancer McPatrick, Jonathan’s Way, Gaming, and Citizen Bull, Mori is not backing down from the challenge.
“The field is very competitive, but I feel like I have a great chance,” he said.
Mori also has the 4-year-old Meta Max, a horse he bought for $1.1 million at the 2022 OBS March sale, in the $2 million BC Sprint.
It was in 2021 when Yoshito Yahagi sent out March Lorraine and Loves Only You to win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and Filly and Mare Turf, respectively. On Tuesday, he called that “the most perfect day in my life.”
This year, he will run Forever Young in the $7 million Classic. In May, Forever Young came within a head of winning the Kentucky Derby, finishing two noses behind Mystik Dan and Sierra Leone.
“He was not 100 percent condition-wise. He showed us a great race, it was a great performance,” Yahagi said through an interpreter.
Forever Young was given ample time off and returned with a solid prep race in winning the Japan Dirt Classic on Oct. 2.
“His condition was 70 percent; my real target was the Breeders’ Cup Classic,” Yahagi said.
Forever Young will be joined in the Classic starting gate by Derma Sotogake and Ushba Tesoro. Those horses finished second and fifth, respectively, in last year’s Classic.
“The Breeders’ Cup Classic is one of the most important races in the U.S. and in racing,” Yahagi said. “If we won that, it would be a big achievement and would be great for us.”
Trainer Daisuke Takayanagi brought two horses to this year’s Breeders’ Cup – T O Saint Denis for the Dirt Mile and Ten Happy Rose for the Mile. He said it was the success that Yahagi had here in 2021 that inspired him and his fellow Japanese trainers to target the Breeders’ Cup.
In May, T O Saint Denis ran a terrific second in the Alysheba Stakes at odds of 27-1 at Churchill Downs.
“His performance was very, very good. He suited the American tracks very well at that time,” Takayanagi said through an interpreter. “I think the weather and surroundings should suit him well here.”
And if the Japanese horses do well here this year, expect them to be back perhaps in greater numbers in 2025, when the event is again held at Del Mar.
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