Japanese pair chase another slice of Australian racing glory

For Japanese jockey Yuga Kawada, Saturday’s Caulfield Cup ends a 12-year wait to return to Australia; for apprentice Ryusei Sakai, it will be a reward for 12 months in the school of hard knocks down under.

The riders might not be well known to punters but they will attempt to give Japan another major race success on the world stage come Saturday's Caulfield Cup.

The reason they are here is Chestnut Coat's trainer Yoshito Yahagi and his love of Australian racing.

“Mr Yahagi has wanted to bring the right horse out here for a while,” Melbourne Racing Club’s Josh Rodder expained. “But it helped that we found a place for his apprentice Ryusei in Melbourne and then Adelaide. It opened the door for him to bring Chestnut Coat."

Yahagi spend time under Bart Cummings in his formative years and has wanted to win the most traditional races in Australia.

Chestnut Coat is a $15 Caulfield Cup hope and is building into the best form of his career. He has only just made his way into group company at home, being a runner-up in a group 2 over 2500m before running fifth in the Tenno Sho, which is Japan’s Melbourne Cup equivalent.

He gives Kawada, a 13-time group 1 winner in Japan, a chance to make his mark on the spring carnival he fell in love with as an apprentice in 2006 when he watched the Japanese raiders Delta Blues and Pop Rock quinella the Melbourne Cup.

“I came out here on holidays to watch Delta Blues and Pop Rock in the Melbourne Cup 12 years ago. I was riding Pop Rock in Japan but broke my arm, so couldn’t ride him here,” Kawada said through an interpreter. “I was sitting in the stands watching, and wanted to be out there.

“I didn’t know about handicap group 1 racing, but I have wanted to come back to ride in these races and this was my chance.”

Kawada has won group 1s on Gentildonna and Maurice and has recently teamed with Godolphin’s Fine Needle for two group 1 wins, including the Sprinters’ Stakes. He is consistently near the top of the jockeys premiership in Japan.

He believes Chestnut Coat could give him his first international group 1, if not in the Caulfield Cup then maybe in the Melbourne Cup.

“I haven’t been on Chestnut Coat in a race before, but I have ridden against him many times,” he said. “He comes from off the pace and is a very strong horse. I would think he suits the racing here. I was happy to get the ride and come here.”

Yahagi has brought a five-year-old which is reaching the top of his game to Australia. In two of his four wins, his apprentice Sakai was in the saddle.

Yahagi knew from his time in Australia that it was the right place for Sakai to develop as a rider.

“Because [Yahagi] spent time here he knew that apprentices have to work hard out here and he knew that would be good for his apprentice. It is a lot different to Japan, where apprentices have a good living,” Rodder said. “He wanted him to do it a bit tough.

“Ryusei couldn’t speak English when he arrived but he worked hard at it, and his riding, and he gets a reward with Sole Impact running in the Caulfield Cup.”

Sakai has had 200 rides in Australia for 18 winners and now ranks Port Augusta alongside Kyoto and Sapporo as his most successful tracks.

He has been with Ryan Balfour in Adelaide but heads to America and Hong Kong to continue his education after he rides Sole Impact.

“It is good to get a ride in a Caulfield Cup, it is a big race,” Sakai said. “I have learned a lot out here about it.

“I got to ride Sole Impact [on Monday] and he is good stayer.”

Sole Impact is a seven-year-old prepared by Hirofumi Toda but owned in similar interests to Chestnut Coat and they wanted a Japanese rider. He has been placed in group 2 and group 3 races in the past year in his homeland but is a $41 outsider in the Caulfield Cup.

“I get to finish my time here in the big races,” said Sakai, wearing a specially made Cups jacket that celebrated the last Japanese Caulfield Cup winner, Admire Rakti, from 2104.

“He can run a good race, like Admire Rakti.”

Article courtesy of Fairfax Digital and The Brisbane Times