In the nine full seasons Hiroyasu Tanaka has been a trainer, he has already outstripped the 12 seasons he rode as a Japan Racing Association (JRA) jockey. That’s not to say he didn’t achieve much in his race-riding days – the G1 Queen Elizabeth Cup win on his record says he did more than most – but he was one of those jockeys who started with bright promise yet never quite took off, destined ultimately to fizzle out.
By age 32, he had shifted tack. Out went the riding boots, the body protector, the weekend lockdowns, the pressure of scratching around for rides; in came the trainer’s planning, the grasp of logistics, man-management, horse management, the pressure of finding owners, keeping them happy, keeping their horses healthy, and ensuring they win.
Tanaka wasn’t altogether bad at race-riding, but he’s pretty good at being a trainer: managing about 100 horses in and out of training through his 22 assigned boxes at Miho training centre. He earned 129 wins as a rider, with a best tally of 44 in his second season; he has 232 as a trainer, with a best of 46 two years ago, but at a rate of consistency and quality he never had in the saddle.
He’s evolved from journeyman jockey into a trainer travelling to the top, and as 2026 begins to find its feet, Tanaka has two horses that he hopes might continue his journey towards being an established Group 1 force at home and abroad.
Alohi Alii is on his second overseas mission: last August the chestnut colt won the G2 Prix Guillaume D’Ornano at Deauville France, then was expected to run a mighty race in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on that annually famous first Sunday in October but didn’t.
Satono Voyage has won three in a row including the Cattleya Stakes last time, the race Forever Young won en route to Saudi Derby victory – which Tanaka’s charge is aiming to copy – and all else he has accomplished on his way to greatness.
They’re both here in Saudi Arabia, at Riyadh’s King Abdulaziz Racecourse in the middle of February. Where they will be at come October or November, no one can say, but Tanaka has an idea of where he wants to be.
“It is our dream to win the Arc,” Tanaka told Idol Horse as he stood in the baking mid-morning sun outside the Riyadh weighing room and media centre.
Riyadh is a city with an important history currently in the midst of expansion and 21st century emergence as the skyline rises and billboard-hogging developments advertise mind-blowing numbers. It feels similar to Dubai during its “biggest” and “best” phase, bubbling with projects some of which might come to full fruition, some that might be scaled back, and those that likely won’t happen at all if the economic winds shift too far.
A fitting venue then for Tanaka as he sits on the cusp of advancement in this latest phase of his career. He has already proven plenty as a trainer, even at age 40. He trained Godolphin’s Lemon Pop to win the G1 February Stakes and two G1 Champions Cups; Rousham Park and Lebensstil have earned their Group 2 stripes; headstrong Narukami won the NAR’s Japan Dirt Classic last October, and another rising dirt track star Mikki Fight has bagged top honours in JRA/NAR cross-over features, notably the JBC Classic – the G1 Dubai World Cup could be next.
But the four-year-old Alohi Alii – six runs to date – and the three-year-old Satono Voyage – four runs – hold within their raw, progressing profiles the excitement of what might yet be.
Alohi Alii will contest the G1 Neom Turf Cup, taking on compatriot and last year’s winner Shin Emperor among others. The colt looked smooth as he cantered on the dirt, then breezed down the turf straight on Wednesday morning, his ears flicking back and forth, his stride confident as he eased down.
“The horse has a strong ego,” Tanaka said. “Not to the point that he doesn’t listen to anybody, but his character is a horse with a big ego.”
This year, more furnished than last, he will get the chance to prove he has the talent and application to match. Last autumn, when he beat only one home, 16th in the soft ground Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris, things didn’t come together and the colt wasn’t quite yet where he needs to be.
“This horse carried the dreams of the owner and for me,” Tanaka said. “But the transportation to France did not go well, so we learned from that and this time the travel here has been very smooth. We learned from our experience in France, and I hope this will add to our experience for the next time we go to France.
“It’s been a few months since the France experience, he’s now a four-year-old, so I feel he’s better than he was.”
If the Arc is Alohi Alii’s long range target, Tanaka was being coy about where Satono Voyage might end up. He knows well that many a horse with potential has not made it through to fulfillment. But Forever Young – the horse every half-decent young dirt track runner out of Japan will have to face comparisons with from now on – took the G2 UAE Derby after his Saudi Derby win and then went on to that agonising third in the G1 Kentucky Derby.
Tanaka observed that Satono Voyage’s “breathing was good this morning” and he was “pleased” with the Into Mischief colt’s exercise on the dirt track
“The original plan is to go back to Japan,” rather than to Dubai, Tanaka said. “He’s still maturing and the UAE Derby is a longer trip. We carefully extended the trip for him and we educated him in each race, and again, with international travel we don’t want to ask too much of him. We need to be careful.”
But as to the Kentucky Derby option, he was not committing to nor dismissing the possibility.
“He’s not a straightforward horse, mentally, but he’s handling it beyond my expectations, so this expands my options in the future,” Tanaka continued. “I can’t be certain about the Kentucky Derby at this point. He’s not mentally or physically matured yet, so this trip could have been difficult for him: it hasn’t been, so far, but going to the Kentucky Derby from here would be a huge ask for him.
“Hopefully, as I saw him this morning, how he’s handling things, there is that kind of option to go to other races on the international stage.”
The Saudi excursion will tell Tanaka much. It will determine which direction his emerging stable stars will take in their careers, and it will in turn shape how his season progresses.
‘If’ is a word that most often rings hollow, but within racing’s innumerable ‘ifs’, a few must always come good. So, if Alohi Alii and Satono Voyage do emerge as Group 1 stars, then Tanaka, too, will take another step in his development as a relatively young trainer with the world’s Group 1 races in his sights. ∎
