Blessings on you, little man,
King of jockeys in Japan,
You could handle any pace
That’s how Forever Young won the race.
… Hail the ride of Ryusei Sakai, winning Breeders’ Cup Classic jockey.
“A good rider can hear a horse speak to him. A great rider can hear him whisper.”— Anonymous
Together, they have forged the kind of bond between horse and rider that spells greatness. The horse, Forever Young, and his rider have come out of starting gates in Japan, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, and the United States 13 times — placing in all 13 races and winning 10.
And on Saturday, when they turned for home in Del Mar, California, it was business as usual. Sakai knew that Fierceness, who had stalked him most of the way, was bottled up in traffic behind him. He did not move aside to accommodate him. This is horse racing. If you’re looking for friendship on the racetrack, go out and buy a dog.
Instead, Sakai leaned forward and spoke to his horse — not with words, but with a cluck, a whistle, or whatever subtle method of communication they had developed since forming their partnership. It was enough.
Nobody — not Fierceness, who tried to the end, nor Sierra Leone, who had beaten him in the Kentucky Derby a year ago — was going to catch them. In that Derby, Sierra Leone and Forever Young had battled down the stretch.
Sakai had not forgotten the bump the winner dealt him.
“We had a very fierce battle. It was a very hard race. I really wanted to win,” he said earlier in the week. “So I want revenge from that race this week.”
He got it. The second-place horse in the Classic was Sierra Leone.
Meanwhile, the 4-year-old Forever Young became the first Japanese-bred and -trained horse to win the Classic. After the dust settled, one thing became clear: The Forever Young team is the advance guard of a new and exciting breeding industry that has captured Japan by the jugular and will not fade away.
The horse is owned by Susumu Fujita, founder and president of the Japanese multimedia company CyberAgent, Inc.
When asked at a post-race interview what he planned next, he replied:
“I’m stunned by the possibilities. I have been a horse owner for only five years, and what we did today amazes me. I want to come back here (to America) and go back to Saudi Arabia with horses and make a lot of money in their races.”
The trainer, Yoshito Yahagi — a phenomenally successful international trainer who also trained the first two Japanese Breeders’ Cup winners in 2021 — was asked if he planned to come back next year. He smiled and said just one word: “Yes.”
But his smile, after seeing what the three horses he brought here accomplished, revealed the future. Nothing could keep him away from returning to where the money is — the U.S. and the Middle East. Forever Young was born and bred in Japan — and that’s yet another reason racehorses are about to become a brand new Japanese commodity.
Nobody will speak of it, but there was a time when a colt named Ferdinand got a brilliant ride in the Kentucky Derby from jockey Bill Shoemaker, his last Derby victory. Ferdinand was retired to stud in 1989 at Claiborne Farm near Paris, Kentucky, where he was foaled. He achieved little success as a stallion and was sold to a Japanese breeding group that desperately wanted to establish a major stud.
Ferdinand spent six breeding seasons on the northern island of Hokkaido but was bred to just 10 mares in his final year there. He was then sold to a Japanese horse dealer named Yoshikazu Watanabe, and then he disappeared from sight forever. Japan was one of the few countries that sold horse meat for human consumption, and while it was never confirmed, many assume that’s how he was ultimately disposed of. It is the cruelest fate ever to meet an American equine champion.
Today, breeding horses is a red-hot, legitimate Japanese industry. Equine excellence is here to stay, and Forever Young and his team are symbols of national pride.
Sadly, nobody mentions Ferdinand anymore.
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
AloJapan.com