Japan is pouring tons of money into everything from breeding to training to racing, with a shift toward dirt track racers in the last decade after grass was the focus for so long. After a near-miss with Forever Young in 2024, the investment could soon pay off in the form of a Kentucky Derby winner, with Danon Bourbon and homebred Wonder Dean the country’s hopes in the race this year.
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“We are getting closer,” racing director Hiroshi Ando told The Associated Press outside the Japanese horse stable on Thursday. “For Japan, I think we can change the history of Japanese racing again, like we did with Forever Young in the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Our ambition is the Kentucky Derby right now, if possible.”
The ambition for the longest time has been the Arc de Triomphe on grass in Paris, because Japan’s racing roots are in grass. The Japan Cup was launched by the Japan Racing Association in 1981 to promote the sport and generate more domestic interest in it, and it has become the richest grass race in the world with a purse of $8.2 million.
“We try to learn a lot of things from the techniques and a lot of things from foreign countries, not only from the United States, but also from European countries,” said Tom Hashimoto, director general of the JRA Representative Office in New York. “It wasn’t developed in a short period, (but) we did it. It was step by step and we learned from other countries, and now we are very fortunate to have so many good thoroughbreds.”
That history of quality Thoroughbreds there dates back to the early ’90s, when 1989 Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sunday Silence attracted little breeding interest in the U.S. and was exported to Japan to be a stud. He was Japan’s leading sire for 13 consecutive years between 1995 and 2008, and his ancestors have won races around the world.
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Interest in conventional dirt racing was sparked a bit after that, when Victoire Pisa captured Japan’s first Dubai World Cup championship in 2011. American Pharoah, who won the Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes in 2015 to end a 37-year Triple Crown drought, is in Japan breeding through July.
“Obviously, he also produced a lot of good horses in Japan, which is why the Japanese love American Pharoah babies,” Ando said. “I’m really interested to see how their offspring perform because we have a lot of good Japanese mares.”
While the outcome of his time in Japan won’t be evident for a few years, the country is producing strong horses on a regular basis, and has come a long way since his debut Ski Captain finished 14th in 1995. Master Fencer in 2019 and Derma Sotogake in 2023 were sixth each, and Forever Young was very close in third two years ago when Mystik Dan beat Sierra Leone by a nose.
Post time just before 7 p.m. at Churchill Downs makes the Kentucky Derby the first Sunday morning event in May in Japan, and all the horses coming out of there racing are making fans take notice.
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“In recent years, Japanese racers understand the Kentucky Derby,” Ando said. “Even the public now knows about the Kentucky Derby, which is great for betting and great for the industry.”
Ando just wants to continue experiencing the Derby, which he called the best atmosphere in racing and addictive. The ability to have a Japanese presence almost annually is certainly no coincidence, given how intentional Japanese stakeholders have been in reaching the elite level of the sport.
“The important thing is, how does the money fund the horse racing industry as a whole?” Hashimoto said. “Not just racing: breeding, training, training, training and racing and getting back to breeding. We have to invest the money in all aspects of horse racing.”
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AP Horse Racing: https://apnews.com/hub/horse-racing