By Sean Trivass
Things are just not the same here and in a way, you have to experience it to take it all on board. The day before the big race, owner John Stewart (Goliath) put on what he thought would be a mini marketing stunt – tweeting out that he would be turning up in front of a Godzilla statue to hand out a baseball cap or two to racing fans.
A larger-than-life character who seems to have the sport’s wellbeing at heart, this turned out to be a massive miscalculation. Crowds approaching the 1000 mark were queuing around the corner for an hour before he turned up, and when he did, the police moved him and his followers on to a hotel so they didn’t block the footpath!
To put that in to perspective, more racing fans turned out on a bitterly cold morning to meet an owner in the hope of a baseball cap or a selfie than turn out at some of our mid-week meetings when there is actual racing to enjoy – perhaps someone representing British racing needs to pop over to see if they can buy some of the magic dust that seems to engage fans over here, and that we appear to be missing?
Anyway, on to raceday itself and I was lucky enough to not need to sleep out overnight to get a decent viewpoint, so I wandered into the track at about the 9.30am mark, passing queues of punters at local bookmakers awaiting opening time as out coach rolled past, and looking forward to making my usual comparisons between racing jurisdictions.
Entry costs between 800 yen (£4) for basic entry and 1200 yen (£6) for a reserved seat (of course they also have hospitality options but I am talking average racegoer here) which we can instantly see is great value compared to what we pay in the UK – and lets not forget, this is for the biggest race of the year.
Race cards are given away free here (RCA – any chance in the UK, what do you reckon?), and as I walked around outside, I was taken by the amount of open spaces where racegoers could wander and relax before searching for some winners.
Add in a Beginners’ Seminar which I think was on the hour every hour (and very popular) and a large children’s play area infield including a miniature bullet train, and you get the feeling that not only are punters welcomed – they are positively nurtured and encouraged but not in an “empty your wallet” kind of way, with a long term racing fan the clear objective.
You may be spotting a bit of a pattern here (Japan racing is better than British racing because… fill in the blanks), with my next stop a personal favourite – the food courts. I am a born capitalist albeit it a poor one, and I do understand everyone has to make a profit – but that fails to explain some if not all of the differences.
The variety here has to be seen to be believed, from noodles to (unidentified) meat on a stick, burgers, fried chicken, ramen, bento boxes, popcorn, beer and soft drinks – and nothing I could see for much more than a fiver.
Free tea machines (not for me, but FREE for goodness sake) are everywhere in the betting halls where you have the choice of personal service or using the many machines to place your bet, and more importantly, there was a really happy vibe to the whole day.
Walking around feeling like a foreigner (well, I am one), who did I run into but a crowd from Wetherbys on a Japanese racing tour.
Although they had been lucky enough to race elsewhere, they were (almost) as excited as me come race day, despite trying (perhaps successfully) to talk me into some of their future trips (who knew they had jump racing in Italy – not me until this afternoon) and adding South America to my wish list.
On to the afternoon’s racing, and contrary to popular belief I do feel British and European racing is the best – I just worry if we sit back on our laurels that position may not last forever.
Our horses are some of the best (to be tested later) and so are our jockeys, who kindly decided to prove that statement for me.
We did have a stamina (and wallet) sapping 12 race card to deal with, but with winners ridden by William Buick (2) Christophe Lemaire (2) Tom Marquand, Ryan Moore, and Cristian Demuro , it was looking pretty good for the big one.
Frank Angst from Bloodhorse backed five winners in a row and could hardly believe his own luck (nice bloke so no begrudging a yen of it from me), but even he seemed less than convinced that his pick (Goliath) would win the big one!
3.40pm and race time was almost upon us, and a chance to watch racing history being made in the 2024 Japan Cup. With Ryan Moore on Auguste Rodin, Christophe Soumillon on Goliath, Cristian Demuro on Justin Palace, Christophe Lemaire on Cervinia, Rene Piechulek on Fantastic Moon, and William Buick on Durezza, we knew we had a pretty good chance of having something else to cheer as a “European” – so fingers crossed one last time.
How the race unfolded:
Those who backed Auguste Rodin sort of knew their fate before the start with more sweat on him than I have seen before (and it was not a warm afternoon) and sadly he failed to live up to expectations coming home in eighth, while fellow Europeans Goliath (sixth) and Fantastic Moon (11th ) ran well enough but without ever really threatening to bother the judge, though only they will know for certain whether a pretty pedestrian early pace affected their performance – or not.
What we do know is that even my old eyes could see 55-year-old jockey and Japanese hero Yutaka Take swinging away on Do Deuce who could be called the winner a good half a mile out, and you don’t get to say that at this level very often. It really did look a matter of push the button and off he went, but like many things racing, it didn’t end up quite that way.
Yes he did win (and even more amazingly, Yes I did tip him), but not by six lengths or more as I would have guessed as they hit the furlong pole, possibly idling a little in front before scoring by a very comfortable neck from Shin Emperor and Durezza who dead-heated for second, then Cervinia and Justin Palace for a locals clean sweep of the first five home, and Goliath for France the best of our challengers.
All in all one of the greatest races I have seen with fantastic and genuine fans – vindicating the Japanese view that they aren’t a million miles adrift of the racing superpowers, leaving a Derby winner and a King George winner in their wake.
Lastly, and I have never written this before in a long career, we had a retirement ceremony for Auguste Rodin which, by definition, was a bit of a damp squib for me at least.
To be fair, a good percentage of the huge crowd did hang around to watch as Aidan O’Brien and all the connections who had flown in went through what must have been a torturous experience as I assume they had expected far better from their star four-year-old.
The Magnier boys, Aidan O’Brien, and Ryan Moore spoke eloquently to their legion of fans while August Rodin paraded behind them, extolling his virtues and reminding everyone he is a son of Deep Impact, not quite adding a zero to his value at stud, but reminding the Japanese of his bloodline and ability just days before he retires to the breeding sheds, while the rest of us sit back and spend the winter trying to work out who wins the Derby in 2025 instead.
