Japan Cup: JRA hope to entice more British challengers

The Japanese Racing Association (JRA) is hoping to attract a greater international challenge for the Japan Cup at Tokyo Racecourse on 27th November, with a host of incentives on offer for overseas challengers aimed at the prestigious mile-and-a-half contest.

The JRA’s Dr Kanichi Kusano revealed on Racing TV's Luck On Sunday programme that all travel costs for potential British challengers would be paid for in addition to £85,000 being paid to the connections of any international participant for the big Group One prize, for which nominations close on Tuesday 4th October.

European-trained horses enjoyed a golden spell around the turn of the century with Lando, Pilsudski, Singspiel and Falbrav all successful but none have struck since Alkaased in 2005. French-trained Grand Glory fared best of three challengers in 2021 when finishing fifth, ahead of Aidan O’Brien’s Japan (eighth) and Broome (eleventh).

In response to the suggestion that the success of Japanese horses on the world stage in recent years was deterring potential overseas challengers, Kusano said:"It’s very fortunate to have Japanese horses winning but we have been aiming to have this result from 20 or 30 years ago. If you have good quality horses they will win high quality races.

“We have succeeded in improving the quality of Japanese racing so it is getting more difficult for international horses to win Japanese races.

“We also have more to do in promoting Japanese racing and besides the Japan Cup, all the Graded races are open to internationals, and I don’t think we’ve done enough to promote that aspect.”

Kusano told Luck on Sunday feedback had revealed that the quarantine facilities had proved to be a deterrent for visitors and that the JRA had responded by building a new facility at Tokyo Racecourse.

“We have a new quarantine facility at Tokyo Racecourse which is inside the course, so if a horse flies into Japan the horse can have the quarantine and the high-quality training (facilities) at the track they’re actually running on on the race day,” he revealed.

“It’s a new facility and less stress for the horses which makes it easier for trainers and owners to target the Japan Cup. We would like to have more international runners.”

Japanese racing is highly centralised with the JRA able to keep control of the revenues and even regulating how many horses are in training with each trainer, with Kusano explaining how that business model enabled the industry to strengthen.

“We are lucky to control the betting, which means we can use all the money that comes back into the industry so owners and breeders can maintain their wealth to purchase another bloodline which will increase the quality of Japanese racing. The business model plus the long-term targeting has led to this kind of result.

“Betting turnover is close to £20 billion pounds per year so we can control that money to split into the breeding side and the winning purses. So as long as we control the betting, we can control what is happening in the industry and we can secure what’s happening in the industry and that’s the business model which we have which I think is something very unique.

“You have to have a certain amount of money to secure the industry. If you just increase the number of races and your horse numbers are decreasing it’s a mis-match so that’s something which must be taken into account. Our business model is the racing is for the breeding, it is not vice versa, if you don’t mistake that principle you’re on the right track.

“Breeding is the most important part in racing. Racing is a stage as to whether that breeding is good or bad. Maybe the racing is making a lot of money but if you don’t feed that money to the breeding, the pyramid of the racing industry will collapse. So we should always take care of the breeders otherwise that will not come back to racing with good horses which will not attract people from all over the world.

“We always talk with the breeders about how we can build a better stage for the industry, so we always take into account what the breeders say. Everything is linked to the breeding.”