Further proof that Japan is world racing’s rampant new superpower could come with a historic first Royal Ascot success on Wednesday.
Last year’s Japanese Derby hero Shahryar tackles Royal Ascot’s first ever £1 million race, the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, in a potential sign of what’s to come at the famous old meeting.
None of the previous eight Japanese runners made the frame at British racing’s showpiece.
But if that was then the now at elite international level is increasingly about the power of Japan’s top horses.
Shahryar was one of five winners from that country on World Cup night in Meydan in March. It came on the back of a famous double at the Breeders’ Cup in November. In 2019 Japanese horses won a record eight Group 1 races overseas.
If Striking The Gold, Japan’s first European top-flight victor in France in 1998, felt like something of a novelty at the time, then the depth of quality in their racing has got underlined again and again since then on the international stage.
A prized success in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe remains frustrating elusive but it is surely only a matter of time for a jurisdiction that generated over $23 billion in revenue last year and which possesses perhaps the most enviable racing structure of all.
The sport’s popularity in Japan means victory for Shahryar in a historic race first run in 1862 will be hugely significant.
“We really want to win at Royal Ascot with a Japanese horse. It’s always been a dream. Many people think the Arc is the pinnacle but I think the best sire-making races are in the UK,” said Hiroyasu Matsumoto, manager to Shahryar’s breeders, Northern Farm.
With a Derby and a Sheema Classic under his belt, as well as being a son of the prepotent Deep Impact, Shahryar’s lucrative stud career is already assured so much of this tilt at history is about prestige more than prizemoney.
Ranged against him are a trio of Group 1 winners that include Joseph O’Brien’s State Of Rest although it is the one non-topflight winner, Bay Bridge, who tops the betting.
He appears to be a classic late improving type of the sort Sir Michael Stoute specialises in and his Sandown warm-up was impressive enough to earn him top-rating in what is a disappointingly low turnout.
The strike-rate of Japan’s top international raiders generally, combined with Shahryar’s own profile, including a love of rattling fast ground, makes a convincing counter case for a landmark moment come 3.45.
Aidan O’Brien’s Mother Earth drops to Group 2 company for the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes where she will sport first-time cheek-pieces.
Headgear can have a significant impact and getting a 5lb swing from her old rival Saffron Beach is another plus although Mother Earth will have to step considerably on a lack-lustre effort last time in the Lockinge.
O’Brien runs Anchorage as he pursues an eighth win in the Group 2 Queens Vase where first-time cheek-pieces could also be a plus for the Godolphin second-string, Hafit.
O’Brien and his son Donnacha each have runners in the Windsor Castle Stakes and both horses are proven winners.
In contrast Michael O’Callaghan’s Mehmar has yet to win in three starts. However, he has kept running into talented rivals and that experience may now provide a significant advantage at a decent price in a big field of juveniles.
