Fans of Japan’s regional NAR (National Association of Racing) circuit will get to cheer on one of their own for the first time at the Breeders’ Cup next month with the trail-blazing Terunobu Fujita preparing to ship Fee Blanche from his Oi stables to the Del Mar backstretch.
The NAR is Japan’s second tier of racing, which takes place during the week on a regional level, almost exclusively on sandy dirt track ovals, whereas the national JRA (Japan Racing Association) with its weekend fixtures is the elite level known around the world.
Fujita gained rare international recognition in April 2023 when he took another NAR galloper, Mandarin Hero, to Santa Anita and almost caused an almighty upset when his colt was beaten only a head to be second in the G1 Santa Anita Derby.
With that Southern California experience and a subsequent G1 Kentucky Derby attempt under his belt, Fujita has been tasked by Fee Blanche’s owner, the Northern Farm-affiliated Carrot Farm racing club, to take up the Breeders’ Cup challenge.
“This time I’ll be in California before the horse arrives and I have to pick her up and I’ll be together with her all the time while she’s there,” Fujita told Idol Horse.
“Last time (with Mandarin Hero) many people helped us, but this time we’ll be doing a lot by ourselves.”
Carrot Farm also owned the Yoshito Yahagi-trained Marche Lorraine, the second Japanese-trained Breeders’ Cup winner and first on dirt when successful in the 2022 G1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff. That mare also competed in and won NAR feature races.
The owner announced Fee Blanche’s Breeders’ Cup participation Thursday, two days after the five-year-old grey mare had placed fourth in the JPN2 Ladies Prelude over 1800m at her home track, a race open to JRA runners and won by Beyond The Valley, a filly deemed good enough to contest the G1 Victoria Mile at Tokyo in May.
Despite defeat, Fee Blanche showed enough to seal her plane ride to the G1 Breeders’ Cup Filly And Mare Sprint over a distance her trainer said will be much more suitable than Tuesday night’s assignment.
“She is going for the Filly & Mare Sprint over 1400m,” Fujita confirmed. “She is better running in seven or eight-furlong races. The limit, the longest distance for her I think is one mile, so the nine-furlong race was too long for her.”
Fee Blanche has won twice at 1800m, but those wins came in the early months of her three-year-old season when she was trained in the JRA system by Yoichi Kuroiwa, best known as the trainer of Ascoli Piceno.
Since moving to Fujita’s Oi base late last year she has won three of five starts, her wins coming at a mile in the SIII Tokyo Cinderella Mile and SIII Shirasagi Sho, and at 1400m in the JPN3 Sparking Lady Cup.
And in the Ladies Prelude she raced like the drop back in trip would certainly suit as she rolled powerfully into the lead at the top of the straight only to run out of steam half way through the home run.
“The jockey said if it was a one-mile race he could push from the top of the stretch and run strong to the wire, but because it was a nine-furlong race the stretch was too long for her and she stopped in the stretch,” Fujita said.
Fee Blanche’s jockey is Hiroto Yoshihara and Fujita confirmed the rising 42-year-old, who he described as “the number one jockey in Japan” will be in the saddle at Del Mar.
Yoshihara has experience riding in Australia, South Korea and in Dubai where he rode the Hideyuki Mori-trained Agnes Jedi to sixth place in the 2006 G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen. ∎
