AN INSIGHT INTO THE JAPANESE HORSE RACING INDUSTRY

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HORSE RACING IN JAPAN

This 2007 documentary, produced by ABC Australia, takes a look at the emergence of Japan as a “Horse Racing Superpower”. The video includes interviews with Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida and Melbourne Cup winning trainer Katsuhiko Sumii as well as footage of Japan’s National Training Centre, Northern Farm, the Japan Cup, the Japan Racing Association and Shadai Stallion Station.

Readers of this journal will be well versed in Summerhill’s Japan connection with the recent addition of Admire Main to our stallion ranks, Africa’s first son of Sunday Silence.

ASIAN RACING CONFERENCE - Maximizing Racing Value

Equine Veterinary Science Session
(Photo : Asian Racing Conference)

Wednesday at the 32nd Asian Racing Conference stimultated varied and thorough discussions on how to maximize the value of racing.

Dr. Isamu Takizawa, the Japan Racing Association’s Presidential Counselor for Foreign Affairs, set the tone for the third plenary session with the opening remarks, in which he stressed the need for racing to reach out to a wider audience.

“We must pay attention to domestic and international audiences in order to appeal to a wider client base,” Dr. Isamu Takizawa said. “The answers are pretty simple: when we look at the pinnacle event of other sports such as the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup and the Masters in golf. They are genuinely international competitions, and simply and easy to understand. Indeed, our aim is to build thoroughbred racing into a popular sport that is loved and watched by people around the world.”

The nine presenters - among them trainer and former star jockey Michael Roberts - agreed that regardless of issue, the 22 member nations of the Asian Racing Federation would have to work hand in hand if the sport were to reach another height of popularity.

William Nader, Executive Director of The Hong Kong Jockey Club, pointed out that the ARF needs an ambassador to carry racing around the continent and to the rest of the world like the other sports that have been successful.

“It is interesting, however, that we choose the word Challenge to describe a series of races like the Global Sprint and the Asian Mile format, because these series to come with unique challenges - the biggest of which are related to travel,” William Nader said.

“Participation is a key driver in any major sport where the major stars like Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, Lewis Hamilton and others routinely travel as part of building interest and awareness in their own identity and the identity of their respective sport.”

Improving the overall quality of the product is another aspect that must be addressed, and Horse Racing Ireland’s Chief Executive Brian Kavanagh suggested the hugely successful Irish way would be one way of doing it.

“We aim to stage a high quality and competitive race program in Ireland, underpinned by attractive prize money and progressive elimination of opportunities for lower quality horses,” Brian Kavanagh said.

“This is born out of necessity given the number of horses in our country and to encourage owners to reinvest and upgrade the quality of their stock. This leads to much frustration on the part of owners and trainers, but following initial resistance, there has been general acceptance for the principle of less racing, more emphasis on quality and a high minimum prize money level.”

Dominic Beirne, Director of Intelligent Wagering Solutions, said a worldwide standardized ratings, rankings and language must accompany the globalization of racing, and the ARF, given its representation of half the international racing community, is in an excellent position to kickstart the process.

“The ARF is well placed therefore to instigate a ratings and rankings information service on half the world’s racehorses, which should lead to the inclusion of the Americas and Europe, resulting in a Global Free Handicap,” said Dominic Beirne. “There will naturally be opposition to the idea of creating a Global Free Handicap, yet all decent ideas present significant challenges. The globalization of racing demands the standardization of ratings, rankings and language.”

The topic of medication and drugs was also addressed. Dr. Brian Stewart, The Hong Kong Jockey Club’s Head of Veterinary Regulation and International Liaison, equine medication ought to be harmonized internationally, to create a level playing field as well as welfare and safety.

“It seems very logical to pursue harmonization of medication testing sensitivity, but this is a controversial topic and there are inevitably heated discussions about the subject when analysts, veterinarians, horsemen and racing administrators discuss the subject,” Dr. Brian Stewart said.

“The ARF racing authorities are in a position to lead the world in achieving some consistency of medication policy and harmonization of the sensitivity of testing for therapeutic medications and should grasp the opportunity to do so.”

James Murdoch QC, Barrister-at-Law, echoed Stewart while calling for a racing program completely free of drugs.

“The solution may lie in adopting an International Anti-horse Doping Rule,” said James Murdoch. “Will it be difficult to achieve? Yes. Will it assist in securing the future of racing? Yes.”

Also speaking were Nigel Gray, Head of Handicapping and Race Planning of The HKJC; Bart Sinclair, Turf Editor of The Courier Mail; Dr. Ed Houghton, Chair of the Advisory Council on Prohibited Substances of the IFHA; and Tsunekazu Takeda, President of the Japan Olympic Committee.

Tokyo welcomes the World at 32nd ARC

Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges presents “New Strategies for new Global Challenges”
(Photo : Asian Racing Conference)

The 32^nd Asian Racing Conference in Tokyo officially got underway with a lavish Opening Ceremony providing the fireworks on Monday evening.

The conference has returned to Japan in style after a 23-year absence, with the ceremony spearheading what should be four days packed with debate and deliberation during six plenary sessions and three selective sessions that will further galvanize thoroughbred racing in Asia - and the rest of the world.

The ARC has grown leaps and bounds, with a delegation of 850 from 33 countries and regions taking part in the highly anticipated meetings this week.

The ceremony was highlighted by a bit of ancient Japanese theatre, a flag-bearing procession of the 22 member nations of the Asian Racing Federation - which spread its wings to two new members earlier on Monday to the Saigon Racing Club from Vietnam and the Jockey Club of Russia - and a speech from the honourable Shigeru Ishiba, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries which oversees the Japan Racing Association.

For daily reports, audio and photos visit :
www.arctokyo2008.com

Striding into the future

There are all number of theories as to the secret of racing  success . Adding to the vault of knowledge is Japanese ‘stride research’ that was unveiled today at the Asian Racing Conference:

The success of Deep Impact, an unremarkable-looking racehorse, is down to his incredible stride, extensive scientific data revealed.
 
Dr Hiroko Aida, from the Japan Racing Association, displayed the running form of Deep Impact in the veterinary science workshop at the 31st Asian Racing Conference in Dubai.
 
A host of measurements were taken from high-speed video data of the Kikuka Syo (Japanese St Leger) at a rate of 250 frames per second.
 
Sophisticated analysis has revealed that the champion racehorse’s ratio of overlap time to stride duration was 8.5 per cent, compared to that of an average horse, which is 17.1 per cent.
 
It was postulated that this characteristic, which is also common to the great American horse Secretariat, may be an essential feature of superior horses.
 
Aida said that such video analysis could in the future identify the “next Deep Impact” before he hits the sale ring.

The Superpowers debate

The competition between Darley Stud organisation and Irish-based Coolmore has become the defining element in Thoroughbred breeding, one that opens up opportunities for smaller breeders, delegates to the 31st Asian Racing Conference were told today in Dubai.

Mick Goss, owner of Summerhill Stud in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa, told attendees at a workshop on breeding that the competition between what he called the Thoroughbred world’s “two superpowers” has radically changed the business within the past 20 years and that the rest of breeders “have got to adapt or we’ve got to die.”

As the first stud owner to work with the Maktoum Family in standing shuttle stallions in the Southern Hemisphere 18 years ago, and for someone who also enjoyed a long working relationship with Coolmore, Goss can assess both sides with clarity.

In the initial stages, Coolmore relied on its deep pool containing some of the world’s most successful sires and a marketing push, while Darley focused on obtaining farm properties around the world before beginning to populate them with young horses.

About two years ago, he said the competition became more intense when Darley began to offer breeders a variety of subsidies, discounted fees and other enticements. At around the same time, Darley began to eschew patronising offspring of Coolmore stallions in sale rings, and both initiatives swayed commercial markets around the globe.

 “It was only a matter of time before these two titans took the gloves off and changed our world forever,” Goss noted.

The competition obviously gives mare owners more options, including being able to delay payments and cut costs. Small studs also can find a niche if they are agile and supply personalised customer service that breeders appreciate, Goss said.

During the same workshop, Oliver Tait, general manager of Darley Australia, challenged conference delegates to consider ways to stem a tide of breeding and racing mostly for speed, which he defined as the emphasis on races of less than a mile in distance and two-year-old racing.

This trend is detrimental to the Thoroughbred breed if it is detrimental to the sport of racing, he contended, adding that racing depends on “brave, sound horses” who compete over longer distances and for several seasons to “give it gravitas as a sport.

“By focusing on speed, we’re moving away from horses that can possibly fulfill that criteria,” Tait said. “We need more horses that are heroes; we need more Makybe Divas and more Deep Impacts.”

Racing administrators have perhaps the best opportunity to take the lead in reversing the speed trend and reshaping the breed by offering prize-money in more stamina-oriented races that will encourage owners and breeders to develop horses for those events, he suggested.

In other discussion at the workshop:

·        Satish Iyer, registrar of the stud book of India, reported following a meeting of the Asian Stud Book Conference that a majority of members are turning to microchipping as the best way to identify Thoroughbreds “and this is surely a step in the right direction.”

·        Microchips will be mandatory for all Japanese-bred racehorses beginning with this year’s foal crop, Dr. Atsushi Kikuta of the Japan Racing Association said. Michael Ford, keeper of the Australian Stud Book, said that Australia, which began requiring the chips in 2003, might turn to mandating bio-thermo chips, which show a horse’s temperature when read and which will be used in Japan. Other data also could eventually be included in the chips, which are implanted in horses’ necks.

Source: Emirates Racing Authority Media Release