Month: January 2015

Weekend Preview

It’s Magic Dancer vs Gumpo Sky in the feature contest of another busy weekend of racing in Korea

Magic Dancer and Joe Fujii go in Busan's Sunday feature

Magic Dancer and Joe Fujii go in Busan’s Sunday feature

Fields are a little on the short-side at Busan on Friday but there is still plenty of betting interest (click here for full race by race preview) and it could be another good day for the foreign connection with Joe Fujii and Masa Tanaka both on fancied mounts while trainer Peter Wolsley sends out the banker of the day in the shape of Lucky Gangja in race 5.

On Sunday on the south coast, Joe Fujii will partner Magic Dancer as top weight in the feature handicap, taking on one of last year’s top three-year-olds in the shape of Gumpo Sky.

There are competitive cards too at Seoul on both Saturday and Sunday with the capital’s only class 1 event of the weekend being Sunday’s finale.

It’s set to be a reaonably mild weekend, so come racing!

Click here for full racecards from the KRA but here’s what’s happening when and where:

Friday January 9
Busan Racecourse: 11 races from 11:40 to 18:00
Jeju Racecourse: 9 races from 13:20 to 17:20

Saturday January 10
Seoul Racecourse: 12 races from 10:50 to 18:00
Jeju Racecourse: 9 races from 12:20 to 17:10

Sunday January 11
Seoul Racecourse: 11 races from 10:50 to 18:00
Busan Racecourse: 6 races from 12:45 to 17:00

2014 Review: Jockey & Trainer Titles
Moon Se Young - seen here being greeted by the female members of the weighing room after his 1000th winner, dominated Seoul

Moon Se Young – seen here being greeted by the female members of the weighing room after his 1000th winner, dominated Seoul

Once again, Moon Se Young was unstoppable. During the year he became only the second Korean jockey to reach 1000 career winners and finished the season with 61 more winners than his closest rival. That was Ikuyasu Kurakane and it was the Japanese jockey’s hard work on far less glamorous rides that saw him, despite Moon’s numbers, being awarded “Jockey of the Year” honours.

Seoul Jockey Championship 2014
1. Moon Se Young – 162 (27.1% win ratio)
2. Ikuyasu Kurakane – 101 (14.9%)
3. Seo Seung Un – 93 (15.1%)
4. Ham Wan Sik – 72 (20.6%)
5. Choi Bum Hyun – 56 (14.4%)
6. Yoo Seung Wan – 47 (9.1%)
7. Lee Chan Ho – 47 (13.5%)
8. Park Tae Jong – 40 (10.1%
9. Jang Chu Youl – 35 (8.0%)
10. Park Eul Woon – 35 (12.4%

At Busan, You Hyun Myung just missed out on 100 winners for the season but comfortably took the title. He did have some fortune with former champion Jo Sung Gon spending the first three months of the year in Macau and Joe Fujii missing five months through injury.

Busan Jockey Championship 2014
1. You Hyun Myung – 99 (20.2% win ratio)
2. Kim Yong Geun – 91 (20.1%)
3. Choi Si Dae – 78 (17.8%)
4. Jo Sung Gon – 75 (20.3%)
5. Kim Dong Young – 55 (12.4%)
6. Song Keong Yun – 34 (7.7%)
7. Kanichiro Fujii – 33 (12.2%)
8. Masakazu Tanaka – 29 (8.8%)
9. Lee Hee Cheon – 27 (14.6%)
10. Kim Hyun Joong – 25 (7.9%)

The Seoul Trainers’ title is nothing to get especially excited about but someone has to win it and that someone was Kim Ho. Special mention goes to Lee Shin Young who continues to make strides, finishing in 8th this year with 35 winners.

Seoul Trainer Championship 2014
1. Kim Ho – 50 (12.6% win ratio)
2. Bae Dae Sun – 43 (10.5%)
3. An Byung Ki – 41 (12.3%)
4. Kim Hyo Seob – 40 (15.9%)
5. Ji Yong Cheol – 39 (12.2%)

Kim Young kwan (right) manages to maintain his figure despite having to eat a cake after every Stakes winner. He trains a lot of Stakes winners. (Pic: Ross Holburt)

Kim Young kwan (right) manages to maintain his figure despite having to eat a cake after every Stakes winner. He trains a lot of Stakes winners. (Pic: Ross Holburt)

Down at Busan the competition is stronger mainly due to the presence of two men. The Kim Young Kwan factory continues to churn out winner after winner and hoover up the cream of each year’s horses. 2014 was an exceptional year too for Peter Wolsley, who finished 2nd with a superior strike-rate to Kim and in the process scored his first Triple Crown race win with Never Seen Before in the Minister’s Cup at Seoul.

Busan Trainer Championship 2014
1. Kim Young Kwan – 96 (23.7% win ratio)
2. Peter Wolsley – 65 (25.5%)
3. Baik Kwang Yeol – 48 (10.8%)
4. Kim Jae Sub – 47 (15.4%)
5. Min Jang Gi – 45 (13.1%)

* 2014 was also notable for the retirement of one of Seoul’s most successful jockeys, Cho Kyoung Ho, at the age of 38. The winner of two President’s Cups on Myeongmun Gamun and the Grand Prix Stakes and Busan Metropolitan on Tough Win, Cho did not announce in advance of his final ride that he would be retiring.

Afterwards, he posted a message online citing the pain from a shoulder injury suffered years earlier as having become too great to continue riding. He will be missed.

Also in jockey news, there will be a change in tracks for Oh Kyoung Hoan. It is unusual for Korean jockeys to switch between racecourses and while numerous jockeys relocated to Busan upon the track’s opening in 2005, it has been almost unheard of since. Nevertheless, Oh, who has been riding at Seoul for nearly 15 years, officially relocated to Busan on January 1.

2014 Review: Menifee Dominates Leading Sire Ranks Again

For the third consecutive year, Menifee was Leading Sire in Korea in 2014. This time it was by a record margin as his son Gyeongbudaero completed a late season President’s Cup and Grand Prix Stakes to take his sire’s earnings to nearly double that of next best, Forest Camp.

Menifee is Leading Sire once again (Pic: Malsarang)

Menifee is Leading Sire once again (Pic: Malsarang)

The table was very similar to last year’s with the only new entrant to the top ten being Peace Rules in 9th, who saw a remarkable 21% of all his starters win. He replaced Japanese sire Ingrandire, who dropped down to 17th after his best horse, Jigeum I Sungan, was retired at the end of 2013.

Leading General Sire in Korea 2014
Name – Earnings in 1000KRW – (Runners/Winner/Starts/Wins) Win% – Chief Earner

1. Menifee (USA) – 8,265,181 – (145/79/901/146) 16.2% – Gyeongbudaero
2. Forest Camp (USA) – 4,700,535 – (147/53/926/83) 9.0% – Magic Dancer
3. Vicar (USA) – 4,428,950 – (102/47/697/78) 11.6% – Gumpo Sky
4. Creek Cat (USA) – 3,301,666 – (124/44/675/78) 11.6% – Jungang Cheonhae
5. Pico Central (BRZ) – 3,098,159 – (113/39/641/61) 9.5% – Road To Prince
6. Volponi (USA) – 3,065,538 – (111/32/728/52) 7.1% – Cheongnyong Bisang
7. Didyme (USA) – 3,062,492 – (90/33/554/59) 10.6% – Hangangui Gijeok
8. Ecton Park (USA) – 3,044,083 – (85/37/516/63) 12.2% – Never Seen Before
9. Peace Rules (USA) – 2,924,780 – (67/35/365/78) 21.4% – Geumbit Hwanhui
10. Exploit (USA) – 2,843,528 – (107/36/711/51) 7.2% – Impetus
11. One Cool Cat (USA) 12. Yankee Victor (USA) 13. Ft.Stockton (USA) 14. Hawk Wing (USA) 15. Revere (IRE) 16. Capital Spending (USA) 17. Ingrandire (JPN) 18. Duality (USA) 19. Henny Hughes* (USA) 20. The Groom Is Red (USA)
* Very popular these days with Korean importers, Henny Hughes is the only non-Korea based sire to make the top 20

There is likely to be a shake-up next year though. While Menifee, as leading sire of two-year olds as well, is likely to keep his crown for a fourth year, top sires Creek Cat, Didyme and Pico Central have all passed away in the past two years and will gradually drop off the list.

Meanwhile Colors Flying has made an immediate impact with his first crop of two-year-olds hitting the track in 2014.

Leading Sire of Two-Year-Olds in Korea 2014
Name – Earnings in 1000KRW – (Runners/Winner/Starts/Wins) Win% – Chief Earner

1. Menifee (USA) – 920,575 – (38/22/123/32) 26.0% – Summit Myeongun
2. Colors Flying (USA) – 698,904 – (32/9/89/15) 16.9% – Doraon Hyeonpyo
3. Creek Cat (USA) – 567,884 – (34/11/108/19) 17.6% – Dream Queen
4. Forest Camp (USA) – 441,882 – (30/11/80/17) 21.3% – Yesuri Myeongun
5. Didyme (USA) – 363,080 – (25/5/78/10) 12.8% – Yuseong Fighting

Looking further into the future, Hansen covered 83 mares in his first season standing in Korea while 2014’s big money purchase, Tiz Wonderful, arrived on Jeju Island in November.

Sadly some stallions are no longer with us. Here is a list of foreign born sires who passed away in Korea this year:

Commendable (USA) [Gone West] (see obituary here)
Revere (IRE) (Dancing Brave] (Obituary to follow in January)
Al Naba (USA) [Mr. Prospector]
Field Asuka (USA) [Forty Niner]
Enlisted (USA) [Our Emblem]
Big Swing (USA) [Dixieland Band]
Happy Jazz Band (USA) [Dixieland Band]
Turbulent Storm (USA) [Storm Creek]

Tough Win Rolls Back The Years At Seoul

Tough Win returned to the racecourse for the first time since last September and more importantly he returned to the Winner’s Circle for the first time since July 2013 with a vintage come from behind performance under the lights at Seoul Racecourse today.

Tough Win in the paddock prior to his racing return this afternoon

Tough Win in the paddock prior to his racing return this afternoon

Wrapping up the bumper 15-race card, Tough Win (Yonaguska) was sent off as top weight and fourth in the betting for his first race as an 8-year-old and with a new jockey in the shape of Lee Chan Ho in the saddle.

Lee took Tough Win right to the back of the field as the exited the gates for the 1900M class 1 handicap, settling a full ten lengths behind the rest as they went into the first corner.

The well-fancied Bichui Wangja was showing the way for most of the race and Lee gently brought Tough Win back in touch as they went through the back-straight and began the turn for home.

Going wide, Lee and Tough Win still had ten horses to pass in the home straight but they picked them off but by the furlong pole, the race was as good as over, Tough Win cruising home by 2-lengths ahead of the rather unfortunately named favourite Unbeatable.

One of the stars of the past decade, Tough Win won the Busan Metropolitan and KRA Cup Classic in 2010 before beating Mister Park and Smarty Moonhak in a memorable 2011 edition of the Grand Prix. He would repeat his Metropolitan win in 2013 and today’s victory was his 23rd from 36 career stars.

The handicapper may punish him for this but it was worth it.

Motion Blur: Tough Win gets ahead in the final furlong

Motion Blur: Tough Win gets ahead in the final furlong

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Wolsley & Fujii Make In-Form Start To 2015

The foreign contingent at Busan made a good start to 2015 with Aussie trainer Peter Wolsley saddling two winners and Japanese jockey Joe Fujii riding two at the first race meeting of the year in Korea.

It was Wolsley who got on the board first, sending out highly thought of colt Macheon Bolt (Old Fashioned) to break his maiden at the second attempt by a full 12-lengths in race 2 under stable jockey Lee Hee Cheon.

Fujii quickly followed by getting his first winner of 2015 when hot-favourite Wonderful Star (Northern Afleet) cruised to race 4. His next was from a more unlikely source though as he guided 66/1 chance Cheonji Hero (Volponi) to a surprise win in race 8.

Wolsley’s double also came from an unlikely source as Goliath Marine (Volponi), up in class following a very good win just two weeks ago, beat off the challenge of Jungang Haeju in the final furlong to take a 12/1 victory.

Masa Tanaka had a more mixed day. After partnering Best Myeongun to an extremely creditable 2nd place in race 10, he was then thrown from favourite Dowon Gyeolui in the gate prior to race 12, an event that in his absence saw US import Owen’s Fortune (J Be K) land his 4th consecutive win. Despite the fall, Tanaka was able to complete his later riding engagements.

Fujii and Tanaka will be back at Busan on Sunday. Today though the attention shifts to Seoul with a bumper 15-race card.

Weekend Race Times

It’s a New Year and a new racing season gets underway in Korea today. We’ll be bringing you the full calendar for 2015 soon but in the meantime, there is plenty to keep us occupied at Seoul and Busan on this chilly first weekend.

It's ben a short close-season

It’s ben a short close-season

Jeju takes the weekend off so there are huge cards at Busan on Friday and Seoul on Saturday before both tracks run their regular Sunday programs.

The traditional New Year’s Commemorative race will be race 8 at Seoul on Saturday:

Friday January 2
Busan Racecourse: 14 races from 11:40 to 18:00 (races 4-14 will be simulcast to the Singapore Turf Club).

Saturday January 3
Seoul Racecourse: 15 races from 10:50 to 18:00

Sunday January 4
Seoul Racecourse: 11 races from 10:50 to 18:00
Busan Racecourse: 5 races from 12:45 to 16:30