On Track And Off, Christophe Lemaire Is Redefining Horse Racing’s Boundaries
Christophe Lemaire’s influence extends beyond the racecourse. Riding a wave of Group 1 success, Japan’s champion will make his return to Happy Valley’s International Jockeys’ Championship as both a force on the track and an innovator off it.
On Track And Off, Christophe Lemaire Is Redefining Horse Racing’s Boundaries
Christophe Lemaire’s influence extends beyond the racecourse. Riding a wave of Group 1 success, Japan’s champion will make his return to Happy Valley’s International Jockeys’ Championship as both a force on the track and an innovator off it.
13 November, 2025CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE’S run of success in Japan this autumn has plenty of ‘wow’ about it. It’s not unusual for the Frenchman to hit his straps late in the year, finding the extra propulsion needed to claim the leading jockey title he has won in seven of the last eight seasons, but this time he’s really rattling along and Japan’s enthusiastic horse racing fans are hooked in for the ride.
Since October 19, Lemaire has won three successive Japan Racing Association (JRA) Group 1 races – plus the Jpn1 JBC Classic – and is aiming to make it four in a row this weekend, all while putting together a 46 percent winning strike rate for the period, which has carried him to the top of the jockey standings.
His relentless roll through what he terms a “cycle of positivity” has extended off the track, too: Lemaire is passionate about spreading the horse racing word and a new racing-themed café and boutique in downtown Kyoto is his latest enterprise designed to promote the sport beyond its bubble.
It should be unsurprising then that Japan’s champion jockey has been called up for the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s (HKJC) International Jockeys’ Championship (IJC) at Happy Valley on the second Wednesday in December. Then again, the invitation is the first he has received since 2018: a seemingly strange omission on the one hand, yet on the other, Lemaire can understand why.
“It’s been a few years now that I didn’t get the call, even though I won the leading jockey title in Japan,” he tells Idol Horse. “But as a foreigner riding in Japan, I understand it’s not easy to call a foreigner to represent Japan or any other country.
“I didn’t get frustrated about that; I don’t have any anger about not being invited for so long. This year they gave me the call and I’m very proud to represent Japan where I’ve been living for 10 years and riding winners on Japanese horses all around the world.
“Japan is my second country,” he continues. “I’m a Frenchman but Japan is as big as France in my heart so representing Japan in Hong Kong in such a good line-up of jockeys, it’s very exciting for me.”
This December’s IJC has a particularly strong cast of competitors: Zac Purton, James McDonald and Joao Moreira will be there, as well as Rachel King, Hollie Doyle, William Buick, Umberto Rispoli, and Mickael Barzalona, with Ryan Moore keen to get in on the act if he recovers from his fractured femur.
Lemaire shared the IJC title in 2009 – a three-way tie with Moore and Johnny Murtagh – has taken second and third-place cheques as well, and is keen to experience the uniqueness of Happy Valley again.
“I have to say that riding in Happy Valley is already a big excitement because the place is so iconic, so different than other places around the world: riding at night in the middle of the buildings on a course that is tricky and small and very special; it’s a (rare) kind of a moment,” he says.
“The Hong Kong jockeys might say riding every week on the same racecourse is a habit, but for us coming from abroad it’s a very special place. The lights, the atmosphere: even this tricky track, which is fair. It is an amazing track actually, the jockey really has to show his skills and this brings you some extra energy.”
Lemaire’s energy as he heads into another JRA Group 1 assignment this weekend on the talented but winless-this-season filly Stellenbosch in the Queen Elizabeth II Cup is nothing but positive. That cycle again.
“Recently the horses I’m riding are very fit and well, they perform very well, so as a jockey when you have a few winners in a row you get much more confident and when you ride with confidence you win races and when you win races you get confident, so it’s this very positive cycle,” he says.
“I just have to put them in the best position to win the race and the horses respond very well. I haven’t changed anything in my way of riding: when you’re riding with confidence you take the right decision at the right moment. I think this is most important for a jockey – other than riding good horses – it’s to ride with confidence and this is what is happening now.
“Of course, there’s a lot of expectations on me (from the fans) because I won the last three Group 1s, but it makes no difference if the horse is not in good condition. I didn’t do anything special or something magical, I just ride them my way and the horses are responding.”
Lemaire is doing something special with his Kyoto café and boutique, though. The Frenchman has a genuine desire to promote horse racing and spread the sport’s appeal. He launched his CL “Street Jockey” clothing brand in 2022 and up until recently had looked to online sales, department stores and his own pop-up stores to get his clothing out there.
Such is his profile in his adopted home that he had his friend, Japan’s great horse racing icon, Yutaka Take, cut the ribbon at the official opening of his new boutique and café on November 5. The French Consulate was represented as was the president of the French and Japanese trade and industry group, and a representative of Kyoto City.
He also had with him the factory staff and the people who have built the project.
“This was very important for me to have these people around me for the opening,” he says. “We made this with my team, just to promote horse racing in a different way. It is a very new and unique concept and it is 100% dedicated to horse racing – except the gambling side. It’s a place where people, horse racing fans and newcomers, can enjoy the horse racing and racecourse atmosphere. They can really enjoy their passion for racing and the newcomers can discover a new world that sometimes seems to be very closed and very hard to reach.”
The café boutique – CL Fashion & Cafe – has different themed areas: the café where patrons can watch live racing at the weekend, or racing documentaries during the week; the paddock zone, which has the same cushioned flooring as seen on the race track, and where some of Lemaire’s trophies are displayed; the winners’ circle area; and the jockeys’ room section.
“I display some of my riding stuff in the jockeys’ room area, breeches, body protector, helmet, goggles, whips, jockeys silks and saddles, and different kinds of girths,” he explains. “From what I heard, the fans really love this area because they can go a little bit backstage.”
“People think that horse racing is all about gambling – of course it’s important – but it’s also a sport where you can tell stories about the horses and the people.
“It’s kind of like writing a book on horse racing, telling the story, that’s what I want, to promote the sport,” he continues. “I want to make people happy to watch horse racing and remember: like thinking about horses like Sea The Stars, Winx, Zenyatta or Equinox; you want to remember these horses and be able to say ‘I was there when he won the Japan Cup or Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, I was there when she won the Breeders’ Cup Classic.’”
Lemaire’s own story is evolving, year by year, into sporting legend. Another Group 1 win this weekend – fourth in a row, on an out of form filly – would only enhance that legend and at the same time throw a spotlight on the personal brand he is eager to use to more broadly promote the sport he is so passionate about. An IJC triumph wouldn’t do any harm either. ∎
