Japanese, If You Please

An indication of the current robust health of Japanese racing is that 20% of the field for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe were trained there.

They have never won the race but Titleholder, who has won over two miles and who started at 8/1, made a bold attempt to lead throughout. Possibly the ground or perhaps the shortness of the distance found him out. Once headed he was history.

Considered the best horse in Japan, he has never won on worse than good ground, maybe because (prior to this month) he has never raced on it.

The Japan Racing Association - like so much of the country - was built on the ashes of a ruined and humiliated nation. It was formed in 1954 with the jewel in its crown, since 1981, being the Japan Cup.

It is an invitational event. Sir Michael Stoute is the only foreign-based trainer to have won it twice. There have been four US-trained winners; Ireland’s Frank Dunne won in ‘83 and Clive Brittain did it for England in ‘86. In 2005, Luca Cumani took the prize with Alkaased. Other victories have gone to France, Germany, Australia, Italy and New Zealand.

Japan wants the best guests. To that end it is the most indulgent of hosts. Entered horses are treated like royalty from the moment they touch down at Tokyo International, being chauffeur-driven direct to a new, spacious, state-of-the-art quarantine facility situated in the centre of the Tokyo Racecourse. The stay is a minimum seven days.

The conditions are so good that many visiting horses might not want to go home. With two to a spacious barn, air-conditioning, vets and farriers on call, a grass picking area and remote monitoring, it is an equine Copacabana Palace.

The Japan Cup, run on turf over twelve furlongs with a maximum field of eighteen, is now on a par, financially if not reputationally, with the Breeders’ Cup and the Arc. The winner receives £2.5 million, but generous prize money is offered down to tenth place (£55,000).

In addition, all international runners receive £100,000 appearance money. But the Japanese have another way of enticing the world’s best.

Invitations to the Far East are automatically extended to the winners of twenty-four races from around the globe. In the UK this means the Derby, the Eclipse, the King George and one or two others; in Ireland, it’s the Derby and the Champion Stakes.

Those horses, if they compete in Japan, are offered bonuses. Appearance money is doubled irrespective of finishing position, but were one of those winners to win again in Tokyo the reward is a cool £3 million.

The boat, one might say, has been properly pushed out.

Alpinista, as the Arc winner, will be especially welcome in Japan, but there is another race, still to be run, that earns a ticket. Due off this weekend it is the Qipco British Champion Stakes. The current 1/3 favourite is you-know-who.

Might the owners of Baaeed, known to have vacillated in the recent past, be tempted to extend their autumn campaign to the last Sunday in November?

Might they go for a Japanese?