Latest News
18/09/2025
Joao Moreira Set For Shock Hong Kong Return As Fownes Reveals Stable Jockey Plans
The Hong Kong riding ranks are set for a major shake-up should Jockey Club officials give the green light to Caspar Fownes’ plans to bring Joao Moreira in as his retained rider for two months.
Michael Cox
18/09/2025
Kentucky Derby On Radar For Japan’s Keeneland Graduate Magna Victor
A sensational newcomer victory at Hanshin could see Mitsumasa Nakauchida’s Maxfield colt return to Kentucky next year.
Idol Horse
18/09/2025
Mirco Demuro’s California Reboot: “People Ask Why I Left Japan”
The Italian’s time at Del Mar this summer has been refreshing despite the tough task of developing support, but whether he will return full-time to Japan is a question that remains open.
David Morgan
18/09/2025
Hollie Doyle’s ‘Tough Decision’ Puts Hong Kong On Top This Winter
After three years riding on short winter licences in Japan the British jockey has opted to test herself in the Hong Kong racing cauldron.
David Morgan
Sankei Sho To Sha Tin?
The Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin is still three months away but the countdown begins this weekend at Nakayama in Tokyo’s eastern suburbs when the G2 Sankei Sho All Comers Stakes should give a pointer or two.
Regaleira is the big draw and last year’s G1 Arima Kinen heroine may well remain at home and attempt a repeat win in that end-of-year grand prix. But trainer Tetsuya Kimura told Idol Horse in the spring that he wanted to “show her to the racing fans all over the world,” so after opting out of a G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe campaign, Hong Kong might yet be the stage on which to do that.
Either way, the All Comers is a good starting point. In recent years, the 2200m race has been a marker for Japanese assaults on the G1 Hong Kong Cup and the G1 Hong Kong Vase. In fact, three of the last four winners all turned up at the International Races, with some solid results.
Looking back to 2021, Win Marilyn won the All Comers and the following year she bagged the Hong Kong Vase. Geraldina, the 2022 winner, used the All Comers two years running to kick off her autumn season and went on to be sixth in the Cup and fourth in the Vase at Sha Tin. Rousham Park won the 2023 All Comers, was eighth in the Hong Kong Cup, and 11 months later placed second in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf.
But the beaten horses are also a pointer: Zeffiro was third in that 2023 All Comers and placed second in the Vase at Sha Tin two runs later. And in 2019 Win Bright returned from a summer break following his G1 QEII Cup win at Sha Tin with ninth-place in the All Comers, only to score again at Sha Tin in the Hong Kong Cup.
Regaleira is the expected favourite but fellow four-year-olds Cosmo Kuranda and Hohelied were deemed worthy to contest Classic races last year, while Yoho Lake is Group 1-placed. They’re the types that could find themselves Sha Tin-bound off a good run.
Meanwhile, in Europe last weekend Japan’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe raiding party saw hopes bolstered and one bubble burst. Trainer Yoshito Yahagi’s Shin Emperor struggled in the G1 Irish Champion Stakes and will shift his sights to the Japan Cup, but following the lead of Alohi Alii’s Deauville win in mid-August and Byzantine Dream’s G2 Prix Foy victory, star three-year-old Croix Du Nord stepped up with a narrow score in the G3 Prix du Prince d’Orange.
Croix Du Nord is Japan’s number one contender and his G1 Tokyo Yushun form will be on show in the Japan Racing Association (JRA)’s other Sunday feature, the G2 Kobe Shimbun Hai at Hanshin.
The race is a lead-up to Japan’s St Leger, the G1 Kikuka Sho, and it features the well-regarded colts Shohei, Eri King and Giovanni, third, fifth and eighth behind Croix Du Nord in the Derby. Eri King was an unbeaten juvenile for trainer Mitsumasa Nakauchida and powerhouse owner Susumu Fujita and ran on eye-catchingly from a long way back in the Derby.
The list of past winners includes the Triple Crown heroes Contrail and the great Deep Impact. The latter famously contested the Arc at Longchamp, as did other Kobe Shimbun Hai winners Orfevre, Gold Ship, Rey De Oro and Satono Diamond, while others competed well in Europe and Dubai.
With that kind of background, it’s fair to expect this weekend’s protagonists will have some big wins and exciting international exploits still ahead of them.
American Mares Down Under
Saturday’s G1 Underwood Stakes at Caulfield is often an important step race towards two of Australia’s spring majors, the G1 Caulfield Cup and the G1 Melbourne Cup, and sure enough, this weekend’s race features last year’s Melbourne Cup hero Knight’s Choice, as well as the Underwood winner and Caulfield Cup second from last season, Buckaroo.
As is the way in high-class Australian contests of a mile and further, there are a few overseas imports in there, the likes of Sir Delius and Middle Earth from Europe, but it’s the presence of two top-class North American mares that catches the eye, the well-travelled Moira and Anisette.
Last November the two were up against each other in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf: Canada’s darling Moira won, while the Californian three-time Group 1 winner Anisette was a disappointing ninth. After that they were sold – Moira for US$4.3 million, Anisette for US$1.8 million – and both now find themselves in the colours of big-spending Yulong, racing out of Chris Waller’s super stable.
Moira was a close second last time at Moonee Valley, but Anisette – who started her career in Britain – hasn’t shown a lot in two starts Down Under. This race could be key to determining if either or both push on to those spring majors or up stumps and head to the paddocks as part of Yulong’s huge broodmare band.
This Week In Racing History
A minor aside to Britain and France’s declaration of war on Germany following the September 1, 1939 invasion of Poland was the cancellation of that year’s final classic of the season in Britain, the St Leger. It was a cruel quirk of fate that there was a Triple Crown candidate that year, Blue Peter, winner of the 2,000 Guineas and Derby – as well as the Eclipse Stakes that summer – but with no St Leger and the horrors afoot, it was announced on September 16 that Lord Roseberry’s colt would retire to stud.
That same day in 1978 brought a rare clash in the Marlboro Cup at Belmont Park. It was the first time in history that two North American Triple Crown winners met in a race. Seattle Slew had won the Triple Crown in 1977 and the four-year-old faced the year younger Triple Crown winner of 1978, Affirmed. Seattle Slew won by three lengths.
There was a world first at Willow’s Park, Victoria, British Columbia on September 21, 1940. The Canadian track was the scene of the first triple deadheat photo finish.
Racing Photo Of The Week
The light plays a trick as Kamunyak prepares to go out for the G1 Roses Stakes.
Date
14 September, 2025
Photographer
@dk_horse1412
Location
Hanshin
More from @dk_horse1412
The light plays a trick as Kamunyak prepares to go out for the G1 Roses Stakes.
Kamunyak returned to action for the first time since her Classic win in the G1 Yushun Himba in May and did not disappoint with a length and a half victory. That came on the same weekend that two other Classic winners also returned victorious after summer breaks, G1 Satsuki Sho hero Museum Mile in the G2 St Lite Kinen and G1 Tokyo Yushun winner Croix Du Nord in the G3 Prix du Prince d’Orange.
Idol Horse Reads Of The Week
Ciaron Maher will look to Middle Earth, Smokin Romans and Zardozi to bring home the victory in this weekend’s G1 Underwood Stakes. Earlier this year Adam Pengilly visited the trainer at his state of the art training complex in New South Wales’s southern highlands.
Alexis Badel knows all about the ups and downs of being a jockey in Hong Kong so the Frenchman is enjoying every moment of his good start to the current campaign, off the back of a refreshing short licence in Japan this past summer.
Shuhei Uwabo spoke to NAR trainer Mamoru Tanaka, recalling the challenges he encountered taking Kochi racecourse’s Triple Crown winner Yumeno Honoo out of his provincial comfort zone on a pioneering adventure to race overseas at Seoul racecourse in Korea last April.
The Hong Kong jockey roster will have an exciting look come November with the news that James McDonald, Maxime Guyon and Hollie Doyle will all be arriving on short licences that month and four-time champion Joao Moreira is seeking to apply for a stable jockey licence to ride for Caspar Fownes. Doyle spoke to David Morgan between races at Catterick about why she chose Hong Kong this time over a return to Japan.
Global Blackbook
It looks like Forever Young’s owner Susumu Fujita might have another exciting dirt track runner on his hands after Wayny Su made an impressive debut in a Newcomers race at Hanshin last weekend.
The Mitsumasa Nakauchida-trained colt travelled strongly, so much so that jockey Yuga Kawada had a double handful turning in and still had to take a tug entering the straight when already in the lead before letting his mount roll on with it. The son of Into Mischief, a US$1 million Keeneland September purchase last year, strode easily to a seven-length win.
WAYNY SU… if he does this again in a few weeks, I’d put him on your Saudi/UAE Derby and perhaps even @BreedersCup Juv radars. Big debut for Susumu Fujita’s $1m son of @spendthriftfarm’s Into Mischief and Saratoga stakes winner Cariba. #ウェイニースー pic.twitter.com/eLxrk99wyV
— Michael Adolphson (@AdolphsonRacing) September 16, 2025
The colt returned at odds of 1.7, with confidence no doubt bolstered by the fact Nakauchida recently signed for Wayny Su’s Gun Runner half-brother at this year’s Keeneland September Sale, at a cost of US$950,000.
Wayny Su follows another Nakauchida-trained colt as a Global Blackbooker, the impressive Magna Victor, and there seems to be hot competition among the stable’s juveniles as another Keeneland graduate Matenro Da Vinci scored an easy win a couple of weeks ago.
World Racing Calendar: What’s Coming Up
🇯🇵 Sprinters Stakes
28 September
G1 Sprinters Stakes (IHFA-rated equal 89th)
Satono Reve will attempt to win the Sprinters Stakes under Joao Moreira and cement his standing as Japan’s top sprinter. Moreira is in town on a two-week licence and started off with six wins over the three-day holiday weekend, including a win in the G3 Challenge Cup. Satono Reve was second for Moreira at Royal Ascot in June and in Hong Kong in April, but started the year with a win in the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen and will attempt to become the first horse since Fine Needle in 2018 to win both of Japan’s Group 1 sprints in the same term. He is set to face Hong Kong challenger Lucky Sweynesse, as well as the first three home in the G2 Centaur Stakes Kangchenjunga, Mama Cocha and Toshin Macau.
🇩🇪 Preis von Europa
28 September
G1 Preis von Europa (IHFA-rated equal 75th)
You have to go back to the 1960s to find a three-time winner of the Preis von Europa, and that was the Soviet champion Anilin who nailed the hat-trick with wins in 1965, 1966 and 1967. Godolphin’s tough globetrotter Rebel’s Romance will attempt to match that for trainer Charlie Appleby but he could well be up against the recent G1 Grosser Preis von Baden winner Goliath.
🇫🇷 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Day
5 October
G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (IHFA-rated equal 5th), G1 Prix de la Foret (rated equal 98th)
Japan is still chasing a first Arc win and confidence has been boosted with the lead-up wins of Croix Du Nord, Byzantine Dream and Aloh Alii in what looks like an open year, with there being no standout champion in Europe. Mares have a good record in recent years though, and last year’s second Aventure showed she’s in fine form with victory in the G1 Prix Vermeille last time. But it’s not all about the Arc, the day has six Group 1 contests in all, including the Prix de la Foret over seven furlongs.
🇦🇺 Might And Power Day
11 October
G1 Might And Power Stakes
The G1 Might And Power on the first day of Caulfield’s Spring Carnival is a prime stepping stone into the G1 Cox Plate and it could feature Yulong’s star four-year-old filly Treasurethe Moment who missed the Makybe Diva Stakes due to mild colic. The day also features the G1 Caulfield Guineas for three-year-olds and the G1 Toorak Handicap over a mile.
🇬🇧 Dewhurst Stakes Day
11 October
G1 Dewhurst Stakes
The G1 Vincent O’Brien National Stakes at the Curragh last weekend saw the unbeaten English colt Zavateri maintain that record, edging the G2 Coventry Stakes hero Gstaad by a head. That duel sets up the possibility of an enthralling rematch over seven furlongs at Newmarket in Britain’s premier juvenile contest, the G1 Dewhurst Stakes. The Dewhurst meeting will also feature three Group 3 races and the historic Cesarewitch Handicap, which dates back to 1839. ∎
