Day: November 2, 2026

KOREA RACING REPORT: OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 1: MUSKET DAY LANDS GRAND PRIX TRIAL / SONG KYEONG-YUN RIDES SIX WINNERS / EUNSEONG YEONGUNG SCORES FOR THE FIRST TIME IN FOUR YEARS

THE GRAND PRIX STAKES IS JUST OVER A MONTH AWAY AND AFTER BUSAN HELD ITS FINAL LEAD-UP RACE A WEEK AGO, IT WAS SEOUL’S TURN THIS SUNDAY and MUSKET DAY (Musket Man) franked his distance credentials by winning race 7 (2300M Class 1) in fine style under Ruan Maia.

Sent off as the 2.7 favourite in a field of ten seeking to get their rating up in order to gain entrance to the final Group 1 of the season, Musket Day was always close to the pace and took things up on the home turn before stretching away to win by seven-lengths over G Motion and East West. It should be just about enough to get him into the big race on December 6th.

Ruan Maia would go on to ride a double as he guided US-bred juvenile MIGHTY HUNKY (Happy Saver) to a seven-length maiden victory in race 7 (1400M Class 4). The colt had been beaten by the likes of Samjeong Chef and Hope K in previous starts and looks like a prospect going forward.

Kozzi Asano leads the Seoul Jockey Premiership, and he steered 47.9 outsider GUNJU MINSU (Peace Rules) to an unlikely victory in race 3 (1200M Class 6). The three-year-old had only beaten one horse home in his two previous outings, beaten by a combined margin of thirty-lengths but made a mockery of that to score by six-lengths from the front. Odds-on favourite Mighty Champ could only manage 3rd.

Asano would later complete a double as DIANA (Power Blade) returned from over five-months out to win race 10 (1200M Class 3). The Tony Castanheira-trained five-year-old shook off odds-on favourite Every Time to record a four-length win. The Sun Bulsajo, seeking a fourth consecutive victory, was one of the first beaten.

Sunday’s opening two races were for juvenile maidens. Debut-maker WINNER RISING (Mr. Crow) led from gate to wire to take out race 1 (1000M Class 6) while 15.6 chance BAEKSAN RACE (Race Day) got his maiden win at the third time of asking in race 2 (1400M Class 6). Song Jae-chul and Lim Da-bin were the winning jockeys.

Trainer Luigi Riccardi and jockey Jeong Jeong-hee teamed up successfully on Saturday and they did so again on Sunday in race 4 (1300M Class 5) as odds-on favourite SURPRISE (Colors Flying) obliged in facile fashion. He now has two wins in four starts in a career which had a ten-month interruption up until his return this October.

Jockey Jeong promptly completed a race-to-race double as BLAZING ENGINE (Triple Nine) got the best of a wide-open race 5 (1400M Class 5), scoring by a neck over Glory Joy in what was yet another huge price trifecta on a very challenging weekend for punters.

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Winner Clear Win Kookje Shinmun As Roshe Falls Short

Winner Clear made his Group level breakthrough at Busan on Friday afternoon as Roshe came unstuck and saw his unbeaten record end in the Kookje Shinmun Cup (1400M G3).

Winner Clear sees off Silver Rain (Pic: KRA)

Having won his first six races by a combined margin of forty-six-lengths and racing for the first time since his ten-length romp in June’s G3 Owners’ Cup, Roshe was sent off as the 1.1 favourite for what was forecast by most observers to be a simple Friday afternoon stroll.

It turned into anything but, as drawn wide, Roshe was uncharacteristically hustled up early by jockey Jang Chu-yeol to sit four-wide of the early leaders. The three-year-old US-import briefly saw the front at the top of the straight, but instead of pulling away, he did quite the opposite and ended a flat-footed 4th, a length and a half behind the winner.

That left 140/1 chance Silver Rain and 50/1 shot Maengnyong out in front and seemingly about to contest an unlikely quinella, only for Seo Seung-un to thread Winner Clear through the middle of them to take victory by a neck on the line.

A three-time winner at Listed level, twice as a Juvenile and once in the KRA Yeongnam Sprint as a three-year-old, Winner Clear (by Klimt) was scoring for the first time at Group level. Earlier this year he ran 2nd in both the G3 Busan Ilbo Sprint and G2 SROA Chairman’s Sprint, both over 1200M.

“(Winner Clear) can get a long way back and when that happens you need a bit of luck not to be stuck behind horses” winning jockey Seo Seung-un told KRBC. “Today he started very well, and I checked right away where 15 (Roshe) was and watched him all the way. Today everything lined up perfectly.”

Trainer Baik Kwang-yeol was quizzed on Winner Clear’s future plans after his charge won the only age and sex open Group race on the calendar over 1400M: “I see him as being capable at middle distance, even up to a mile so we will try and find some big races for him next year. First tough, we’ve entered him in the KRA Cup Sprint and will probably race there – he’s finished 2nd to Vincero Cavallo a couple of times so it would be nice to beat him.”

A new race on the Group calendar, the KRA Cup Sprint (1200M KOR-G3) will be run at Busan on Friday November 27th. There are currently thirty-four entries including Winner Clear and the aforementioned Vincero Cavallo. Roshe does not hold an entry but one at a later stage would perhaps make sense.

As for Roshe, jockey Jang Chu-youl put the defeat down as one of those things:

“I had high expectations because he is such a good horse” Jang Chu-youl told KRBC. “I had intended to settle back a bit but there were so few openings I had no choice but to go up the outside, then at the end, maybe as it had been a while since (he last ran), he was just a bit dull in the straight” Jang added. “The beaten margin wasn’t big, and I know he can do better in future.”