T O Elvis’s stunning win in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint on Saturday wasn’t enough for trainer Daisuke Takayanagi: the trainer came off a longhaul flight from Kentucky in buoyant form and on Tuesday at Kanazawa he nailed the Jpn1 JBC Ladies’ Classic at Japan’s own Breeders’ Cup.
The main event at the NAR’s (National Association of Racing) annual moveable feast, the Jpn1 JBC Classic, went to the Ryuji Okubo-trained Outrange, while former champion jockey Yuichi Fukunaga continued his early progress as a trainer with his Meisho Hachiro taking the Jpn1 JBC Sprint.
But it was Takayanagi, whose stock is at a career peak right now, that sealed a unique double at the U.S. Breeders’ Cup and the JBC (Japan Breeding Farms) Cup, with his winner Anzu Ame emphasising her trainer’s particular prowess with dirt track runners. The celebrations of Saturday at Keeneland and the long journey home had not knocked Takayanagi’s stride.
“I’m really happy we can achieve a win in both the Breeders’ Cup and the JBC races,” he said. “The schedule from the Breeders’ Cup to the JBC wasn’t too tight this year, and I was able to head back to Ritto this morning to watch some workouts. I just wanted to be back home before coming here.”
Anzu Ame’s win in fact gave Takanyanagi three feature race wins in four days, with Nix Luna landing the G3 Fantasy Stakes at Kyoto on Saturday.
“I don’t really think I did anything special for my horses to run well everywhere,” Takayanagi told Idol Horse. “I think it just happened to be that I’m blessed with so many good horses at the moment, and all of them had a run in a short period of time. I could never dream of anything like the spell I’m having right now. I do make some effort to choose the best races for my horses, thinking about where they can run to their full potential.”
A crowd of 11,422 packed Kanazawa for the NAR’s big autumn showcase – way up on the track’s daily average of about 1,800 – and they roared as jockey Yuga Kawada urged the late-blooming Anzu Ame to a fourth win in a row, taking the 1500m contest in 1:32.7.
“On the way to the gate, I felt the inside lane might be useful, so I took advantage of that during the race,” Kawada said. “The distance was an uncertainty for her, and I could feel there were some horses coming from behind, so I just prayed she could hang on.”
Kanazawa was the venue the only time the day’s headline race, the JBC Classic, was won by an NAR horse. That was Mutually in 2021, but there was no such upset this time as the Japan Racing Association’s (JRA) Outrange took the 2100m contest under Kohei Matsuyama.
Outrange had been consistent in high-class races without winning one – notably second behind Mikki Fight in the last two runnings of the Jpn1 Teio Sho – but the Okubo-trained six-year-old stormed four lengths clear to win the Classic in race record time (2:11.3).
“I think we will continue to race him on the biggest stages,” the trainer said. “Next year he will be seven years old, but I don’t think that will diminish his performance. We are looking forward to racing him in big races like this.
“He came really short in the previous top-level races a few times, and I’m just fortunate he can finally win a big one. I think the Tokyo Daishoten is our next target. He is a compact horse, so he won’t be bothered by small and tight tracks like Kanazawa, and I believe he can run well anywhere.”
Meanwhile, NAR superstar rider Hiroto Yoshihara was on the mark with the JRA’s Meisho Hachiro in the JBC Sprint, following up their win together last time in the Jpn1 Mile Championship Nambu Hai.
Yoshihara knows what it feels like to be at a Breeders’ Cup in the U.S., although his planned debut ride at the event last year failed to happen when Fee Blanche was ruled out by the vets.
“Last year, although I couldn’t actually ride, I got to feel what the original Breeders’ Cup was like,” he told Idol Horse. “I was so fortunate to be able to witness Forever Young winning the Classic, and I was blown away by the whole thing.
“JBC is our own Japanese version of the Breeders’ Cup, and holding three top-level races in the same day is nothing like any other. All the great horses, great jockeys and great trainers will come and compete here, racegoers are having great fun, and I have a lot of fun riding in those races.”
Trainer Fukunaga has a major JRA Group 1 fixed firmly in his sights now that he has two Jpn1 wins on his record thanks to Meisho Hachiro.
“After his last win in Nambu Hai, I said we would aim him at the February Stakes, and that’s still our main target as long as the horse comes back well,” he said.
Yosihara added that he believed the JBC Cup races and the strength of Japan’s horses in dirt races globally showed the health of Japanese dirt racing.
“I think the Japanese dirt racing scene has grown so big, that nowadays if you win a JBC race you may even receive attention from overseas or dream about going abroad,” he said.
“It’s really a great era for us, and the next thing I hope is we can win a JBC race with our own NAR horses and start to dream about the world.” ∎
