“Pride And Pressure”: Japan Has The Numbers, Sakai Needs To Deliver
Champion jockeys are congregating at Meydan and Ryusei Sakai must build on Saudi victories if he is to convince that he’s reached their level, while Japan’s horses bolster yet another international event.
“Pride And Pressure”: Japan Has The Numbers, Sakai Needs To Deliver
Champion jockeys are congregating at Meydan and Ryusei Sakai must build on Saudi victories if he is to convince that he’s reached their level, while Japan’s horses bolster yet another international event.
3 April, 2025
CHRISTOPHE LEMAIRE was far from the Meydan crowd when the sun poked its glowing peach face above Dubai’s dusty eastern horizon. Japan’s storied champion jockey was on the vast, empty grandstand frontage speaking one-to-one with a journalist when he waved and called out a greeting.
“How are you?” he added, then said he would be back the next morning and looked forward to catching up.
Lemaire wasn’t the only high-profile jockey on track three days out from the Dubai World Cup meeting, and the likes of John Velazquez, Frankie Dettori and Christophe Soumillon will show up soon enough, too. The brilliant Sydney champion James McDonald was about, as was the man Yoshito Yahagi has given exceptional opportunities to evolve into a top rider, Ryusei Sakai.
It’s five weeks since their epic clash in the Saudi Cup when McDonald kicked clear on Romantic Warrior only for Forever Young to respond like a champion to give Sakai an overdue offshore Group 1 major after ‘the one that got away’, last year’s G1 Kentucky Derby.
But in Dubai, the closest the two horses will come is a possible passing at trackwork: Forever Young is the lofty standout in what looks an otherwise sub-par G1 Dubai World Cup – devoid of a big-time American star or a single Godolphin runner – while Romantic Warrior will head to the G1 Dubai Turf to face again Japan’s best filly, Liberty Island.
Japanese horses have filled out the races – making up about 23 per cent of the thoroughbreds on the card – and given the meeting the depth of quality it requires to hold its well-earned status as an annual nexus of high-class runners from north, south, east and west.
That said, there’s talk around Meydan that the meeting’s big head-to-head will come in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen between the Dubai-trained speedster Tuz and American challenger Straight No Chaser. Yet there’s a sense from the Liberty Island camp that Romantic Warrior won’t have things his own way against a horse rejuvenated from last year’s injury and emboldened by her second to Danny Shum’s stable standout in December’s G1 Hong Kong Cup.
Either way, Romantic Warrior and Forever Young, probably the best in the world right now on turf and dirt, respectively, are the horses hogging the spotlight and that puts the glare on their riders, too, more so the still partially-proven Sakai.
Sakai rode Forever Young in his work on Tuesday morning, as did McDonald on Romantic Warrior. On Wednesday Romantic Warrior had an easy canter under his work rider, while Forever Young walked in the quarantine area.
That left the aging 2023 Dubai World Cup winner Ushba Tesoro and his opposing stablemate Wilson Tesoro, the mount of Yuga Kawada, to catch the eye, along with two of Lemaire’s mounts Brede Weg and Cervinia, and the latter’s G1 Dubai Sheema Classic rival Durezza.
Yahagi and Sakai were the main draw at the official press conference, though: standing room only. Mrs Yahagi found a seat, but not until after she had removed Mr Yahagi’s narrow-brimmed straw hat – black band and red brim – and mopped his head with a handkerchief.
Yahagi was in good humour. “I feel like I’m going to be crushed by pressure,” he laughed and then put down any notions that Forever Young might have had too hard a race in Riyadh.
“A lot of media (people) have told me negative comments like he might be still tired or he won’t perform well after a tough race like that, but in my opinion, Forever Young has improved yet again to another level because of that race. That’s what I felt looking at his body yesterday.”
Sakai, red and maroon baseball cap shading his pale, mostly deadpan visage, was the playful butt of Yahagi’s humourous chiding.
“The once bad jockey has improved to be much better,” the trainer said. Scattered laughter from the floor.
Sakai, 27, joined in with some self-deprecation that parroted his master: “I am a bad jockey, so I feel like I’m going to be crushed by pressure,” he said. More laughter from the floor.
The comments carried mirth, and perhaps some back-handed bite towards the media, but also truth. Forever Young’s only defeats in 10 starts came in last year’s G1 Kentucky Derby and the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, and in both instances, Sakai’s still-developing tactical experience at the elite international level was found just short when pitched in against the very best; and it was a similar story with his G1 Dubai Sheema Classic mount, Shin Emperor, in last year’s G1 Irish Champion Stakes.
He went some way to remedying that with his victories in Riyadh aboard Forever Young and Shin Emperor.
“I have both pride and pressure,” Sakai told the press conference when asked about riding two such talented horses, and alluded to the reality that Yahagi has put huge trust in him, to develop him, rather than put up a proven champion rider with big-race polish.
“Firstly, I really appreciate that I can ride these two horses, but also, I think I have to get convincing results. Last year I could not win any Group 1 races overseas aboard them, so this year I want to win all the races.”
But Yahagi was gracious enough to pull any blame towards himself: “If the trainer knew better about training, I think (Forever Young) would still be undefeated today. Both of his losses came from the U.S. and from those losses we have learned the most.”
Sakai remained aloof as he left the gathering, sticking tightly to his group and deflecting interest from the print media.
Not long after, at the late-morning barrier draw, Liberty Island’s partner Kawada, a decorated senior rider with ‘champion jockey’ on his record, like Lemaire and McDonald, was happy to stop and relay that he was pleased with Wilson Tesoro’s World Cup draw, gate three. He sat alongside his 13-year-old son Ginji, a pony racing champion no less, as Liberty Island drew five of 11 in the Dubai Turf, with Romantic Warrior drawn nine.
“As a jockey, I have faced Romantic Warrior multiple times, but I think the most important thing for Liberty Island is that she is able to run her own race,” Kawada told Idol Horse. “I would like to go into this race in such a way that she can run comfortably, with rhythm, and then she can get the best possible result.”
Across the card, it is noticeable that Godolphin, the operation headed by the man behind the whole event, Sheikh Mohammed, has only five runners in the eight thoroughbred races and three of those are in the G2 Dubai Gold Cup. The ‘Boys in Blue’ do have the top-class Rebel’s Romance in the Dubai Sheema Classic and Nation’s Pride in the Dubai Turf, but its representation feels a far cry from days past when the event was a key focus around which the year turned.
Godolphin does not even have a runner in the World Cup itself – a race it has won nine times – for the third year in a row. The balance of power continues to tip towards Japan, a country which bucks a damaging general trend by racing its best horses into their fourth and fifth years, ensuring depth and quality of competition at home and abroad, and enthusiastic interest among the sport’s fans.
Numbers are no guarantee of success, though. That was proven at last year’s Breeders’ Cup when Japan’s big team drew a blank, but the expectation is that Japan will be celebrating something on Saturday night. The ratings and the betting market indicate it should be Forever Young – at least – and both Yahagi and his developing ‘apprentice’ Sakai know it ∎
