For followers of worldwide racing the sight of Yoshito Yahagi and his inimitable sartorial model is just not new, given he has already made off with a number of the greatest prizes within the UAE, Hong Kong, and Australia.
However the significance of his double strike on the Breeders’ Cup Nov. 6 with Loves Only You and Marche Lorraine should not be lost on anyone.
No horse in Japan had ever won a Breeders’ Cup race before Saturday. Now there are two title holders in the same barn at the Japan Racing Association’s Ritto training center.
Loves Only You wins the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf
Loves Only You came into the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) with excellent international credentials, having finished a close third to Mishriff and Chrono Genesis in the Longines Dubai Sheema Classic (G1) before going on to win the FWD Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1) in Hong Kong, a venue Yahagi is targeting with the 2019 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks, G1) winner next month.
The belief has lengthy been that Japan’s extra internationally-minded trainers would make their greatest mark in turf races—that’s the place the best-bred horses are concentrated—and the Breeders’ Cup falls proper in the midst of the height home season when it comes to grade 1 races and astronomical prize cash.
For Marche Lorraine to beat the American fillies and mares on filth within the Longines Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) beneath an impressed Oisin Murphy was vindication not only for Yahagi’s daring world method but in addition the Breeders’ Cup and U.S. Triple Crown’s pursuit of runners by Japan-based agent Kate Hunter.
Murphy has been a long-time ally of Yahagi, each throughout winter stints in Japan and on the large worldwide conferences.
He mentioned: “I attempted to disregard her odds and simply give her each likelihood within the run and hopefully she may end off. And to be sincere, we had been clearly a hostage to fortune, I sat out the again, and so they went fairly fast. So we wanted them to do this, nevertheless it was a superb efficiency.”
Marche Lorraine fees late to win the Breeders’ Cup Distaff
For Yahagi, being first to interrupt sure limitations is nothing new, having educated Lys Gracieux to become the first Japanese winner of Australia’s Ladbrokes Cox Plate (G1) in 2019, three years after Real Steel and Ryan Moore landed the Dubai Turf Sponsored by DP World (G1) at Meydan.
Instantly recognizable thanks to his taste of broad-brimmed hats—the Breeders’ Cup version was, naturally, purple—Yahagi’s reasoning may provide a blueprint for future challenges in the U.S.
“Traveling with two fillies from Japan wasn’t the ideal plan, but Marche Lorraine was a good partner for Loves Only You,” explained Yahagi. “And Marche Lorraine had three victories over turf in Japan and I thought that for horses to be competitive on the dirt in the U.S., they need to have some sort of speed, which means like winning turf races in Japan.”
Yahagi has yet to seriously train his sights on Europe, though his ambition was evident at an early stage, given he sent Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby, G1) winner Deep Brillante to Ascot for the 2012 Betfair King George VI and Elizabeth Stakes (G1) in his very next start.
More recently, Entscheiden finished third to FanDuel Breeders’ Cup Mile Presented by PDJF (G1T) winner Space Blues in the Qatar Prix de la Foret (G1) last month, a run all the more notable as his presence in France was primarily as a travel companion and training partner for Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) challenger Deep Bond , who like Entscheiden is owned by the Maeda family.
John Gosden very famously predicted that the future of racing lay to the east of Europe in Asia, and there was further evidence of that maxim in the Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) victory of Knicks Go in the colors of the Korea Racing Authority.
Thirty years ago ambitious Japanese owners in the mold of Gary Tanaka bought into European and U.S. racing. Their successors now have a domestic scene to match either of those ‘old world’ powers.
Thanks to the brilliance of Knicks Go, the ambitions of South Korea to become a major power in world racing took another step forward on Saturday.
