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Three Jeju Jockeys & One KRA Official Arrested In Ongoing Corruption In Sport Investigation

Three jockeys and one racing official were arrested on Tuesday as part of the ongoing investigation into corruption in Korean Sport. All three jockeys had been riding in Pony races on Jeju Island.

The Prosecution alleges that the jockeys (who despite having earlier been banned and named by the KRA can, due to the Proseuction action, no longer be identified) accepted money, jewellery and “high-performance cars” from an organised crime syndicate in deals brokered by a “Kim” in exchange for providing inside information and, on occasion, slowing down horses in races.

The KRA official, a 37 year-old male identified only by his family name of “Jeong” was arrested for allegedly assisting the three.

Over the past year, professional football, baseball, volleyball and motor-boat racing have all been found to be in the grip of organised gambling rings manipulating results. Racing, with its explicit gambling component, has long suffered these scandals.

In football, the allegedly fixed results occurred mainly in the “Rush & Cash Cup”, a midweek tournament contested mainly by K-League teams’ Reserve teams, away from the scrutiny of television cameras and involving players not making very much money.

Similarly, the Pony racing on Jeju Island is conducted for much smaller prize-money than thoroughbred racing on the mainland and legal gambling handle is low and as a result, there is the possibilty for manipulations to go unnoticed.

Having said that, one high-profile Seoul jockey has been suspended for the past six months pending investigation into his conduct.

Racing in Korea has extremely strict rules with regards to inside information – to the extent that this blog is extremely careful when communicating with jockeys, trainers and officials – let alone in terms of fixing races. One or two jockeys get struck-off each year for offences that in other jurisdictions would receive a far more lenient punishment.

Given that the well-supported and Chaebol backed K-League was under the threat of closure earlier this year, the latest revelations are something that racing, already considered a pariah sport by many in Korea, can ill-afford.

* The story made the main nightly SBS TV News, complete with library footage from the track that is at least a decade old: http://lbshaka.tistory.com/997

Menifee Colt Fetches Top Price at Jeju Spring Sale

The Jeju Spring Two-Year-old sale was held on the southern island last week and it was a colt by Menifee that fetched the highest price of 160 Million won (US$150,000).

The Jeju Sales are the nation's biggest

A total of 44 lots were sold during the two-day sale – 19 less than last year – with 26 of those headed for racing at Seoul and 18 to Busan.

The vast majority of those unsold will be raced by their breeding farms.

While the total number sold was down, the average sale price was up by almost 13 Million Won to 56 Million won ($50,000).

Menifee accounted for 3 of the top 5 most expensive purchases including the top 2; the as yet unnamed colt out of the US bred broodmare Delicias [Deputy Minister – Greyciousness (Miswaki)] who went for the top price and another colt out of Sorority Jazz [Dixieland Band – Miss Charity Ball (Talc)] called Fantastic Jazz who fetched 130 Million Won. Sorority Jazz is the dam of 2008 Korean Derby winner Ebony Storm.

The only other Stallion who featured frequently above the median sale price was Forest Camp. His top lot was a colt out of Straight Cash [Straight Man – Mystery Clearance (Mystery Storm)]* who went for 100 Million Won.

Previous top lots at the Jeju spring sale have gone on to success. Champion Belt (Exploit), the most expensive purchase in 2010 was fourth in the Korean Derby and has two wins to his name, while Dream Tower (Forest Camp), who fetched the most a year ago, will run in the KRA Cup Mile, the first leg of the Korean Triple Crown, at Busan on April 8.

* Straight Cash was a $16,000 purchase from OBS April sale in 2005 and went on to become a double-Stakes winner in Korea, taking victory in the 2005 JRA Trophy and the 2006 Segye Ilbo Cup. A reader left a note on this site earlier this year looking for information on her, having found her dam, Mystery Clearance “in bad shape” at a horse rescue in the USA.

Mystery Clearance was never a racehorse, just a broodmare and the new owner was told she had only ever been used as a surrogate dam. She was taken out of the Rescue and apparently she is now being ridden. The horse racing world is small.

Creek Cat, Former Leading Sire in Korea, Dies Aged 15

Creek Cat [Storm Cat-Vivano (Island Whirl)], Leading Sire in Korea in 2010 and fourth on the list in 2011, has died. The fifteen year old stallion suffered a sudden heart-attack at Evergreen Farm on Jeju Island on March 12.

Creek Cat - 1997-2002 (Pic: KRA)

Unraced but well-bred, Creek Cat was sold from Kentucky to Korea for an undisclosed fee as a three-year old in 2000.

Joining the then-newly established Korean breeding program, he would go on to become an extraordinarily consistent producer of quality racehorses for the next ten years.

He sired a Korean Derby winner, Cheonnyeon Daero, who in 2010, helped him to the top of the Leading Sire list for the first and to date, only time. Other notable gets include the multiple Stakes winner Yeonseung Daero and 2010 Champion filly Love Cat.

Creek Cat is well represented on this year’s Triple Crown trail, with his colt Viva Cat one of the most highly rated three-year olds on the peninsula.

These days, as Korean buyers can import big names such as Vicar, Menifee, Forest Camp, One Cool Cat and Officer seemingly at will, there are fewer opportunities for untested sires in Korea. However, with the KRA eager to see a successful Korean born stallion, it is possible that Creek Cat’s line may live on. While a number of his fillies have become broodmares, Cheonnyeon Daero entered Stud this year.

Whatever happens, Creek Cat has had a major influence on horse racing in Korea over the past decade. He will be missed.

Cheonnyeon Daero wins the 2010 Korean Derby (Pic: Ross Holburt)

Japanese Jockey Narazaki Kosuke To Debut At Busan

It was Sho Ueno at Seoul last week, this week it is the turn of another Japanese jockey to make his Korean debut.

Narazaki Kosuke

Narazaki Kosuke will have his first rides at Busan this Friday as he fills the foreign jockey slot recently vacated by his countryman Eiki Nishimura.

Kosuke – as he will be known in Korea – is 30 years old and has career figures of 848 wins from 7484 rides since debuting in 1999.

An NAR (rather than the more prestigious JRA) jockey, he has most recently been based at Fukuyama Racecourse in Hiroshima.

Kosuke only has two rides on his first weekend although one is for Busan’s leading trainer, Kim Young Kwan, which is a good sign. The other is for Kim Jae Sub who is one of the biggest supporters of foreign riders at the track.

Two other foreign jockeys have also been granted temporary licenses at Busan. More on that next week.

h/t @LBshaka

Sho Time – Japanese Jockey Ueno Has a Tough Task Ahead

Over the weekend, Sho Ueno became the latest Japanese jockey to debut at Seoul Race Park, replacing Mai Beppu who left the track at the end of February. He has a tough task ahead of him.

Sho Ueno at Seoul

Nevertheless, the young JRA rider made an encouraging start. With just four rides across the weekend, all unfancied, he ended up with two third-place finishes and another fifth with only one being out of the prize-money.

The foreign jockeys are now the only ones who are considered “freelance”. All others are attached to trainers.

Under the jurisdiction of the Jockey Union, it used to be the case that jockeys who were retained by a trainer could only take five race rides per week but would get a salary for trackwork. Freelancers could ride as many as they wanted but would have no guaranteed salary.

The best jockeys went freelance and on average, earned three to four times that of retained jockeys. The very top ones even more.

Now all jockeys are retained by a trainer with a limit for everyone of 14 rides over a weekend. Of course, the best jockeys still get all the best rides – Moon Se Young is with Ha Jae Heung and Ch Kyoung Ho back with his old boss Shin Woo Chul.

The new system makes is, however, likely making it even harder for the foreign jockeys to get rides. When each trainer has two or three jockeys retained, they need a very good reason to employ someone else. Not a problem for Moon Se Young who gets plenty from many trainers, but not so easy for the foreigners.

And the figures don’t lie. Makoto Noda has won 8 times since arriving last June while Toshi Inoue has just 1 victory to show from his three months so far – and that was on his first day. They are poor returns but both, just like Beppu and Hiro Hamada before them, seem more than capable in the saddle but only get opportunitites to ride horses in contention for the minor placings at best.

On the surface, the success last year of Nathan Stanley and Akane Yamamoto at Busan would appear to undermine this theory. In reality, however, while both were officially the only freelancers at the track, in reality the pair acted as stable jockeys to Peter Wolsley and Kim Young Kwan in all but name. It’s unlikely a visitor to Seoul will get similar opportunities any time soon.

With Cho Kyoung Ho sidelined since January, Moon Se Young has dominated the early part of the Seoul season. The breakthrough of the year is Seo Seung Un, still a first year apprentice but fourth in the standings:

2012 Seoul Jockey Championship (Up to March 12)

1. Moon Se Young – 33
2. Oh Kyoung Hoan – 16
3. Park Tae Jong – 14
4. Seo Seung Un – 12
5. Jo In Kwen – 11

Akane is Famous!

Japanese Racing TV has produced a feature on jockey Akane Yamamoto as she comes to the end of her first year riding at Busan.

It’s all in Japanese but well worth a look both for the quintessentially Japanese graphics at the beginning and also for the trackwork shots of Busan:

*h/t @uk_maniax

Before coming to Korea, Kyoto-native Yamamoto had a spell riding in New Zealand.

In Korea for being the current jockey of Mister Park, who last year set a Korean record of 17 consecutive wins. She has won twice on him and rode him to second-place behind Tough Win and ahead of Smarty Moonhak in last year’s Grand Prix Stakes at Seoul Racecourse.

Her total record in Korea to date is 34 wins from her total 217 rides.

Bye, Mai – Japanese Jockey Change at Seoul

Mai Beppu’s time riding in Korea has come to an end. The Japanese jockey has held a license at Seoul Race Park for a full year but will return to Japan at the end of February. She will be replaced by young JRA jockey Sho Ueno.

Yes!! I'm going home! - Mai Beppu

Beppu first rode in Korea in the “International Lady Jockey Invitational” – an event that mercifully for all sorts of reasons hasn’t been repeated – in Busan in 2009, finishing third in the race behind fellow Japanese Hitomi Miyashita who herself went on to spend a successful year riding full-time at Busan.

Beppu arrived in Seoul last March and, after getting injured on her first weekend went on to have a reasonably successful time at the track – at least by the usual standards of the thankless task that is being a foreign jockey riding at Seoul. She ended with 13 wins over the year, with a quinella strike rate of 9%. Like all other foreign jockeys at Seoul, while she did get plenty of rides (around 300 in total), their quality was lacking.

Always smiling, the 24 year-old Mai was popular with punters, trainers and other jockeys (some more than others) and will, with any luck, continue to have a successful career in future.

Mai’s replacement at Seoul is 26 year-old Sho Ueno. Based at tthe JRA’s Ritto Training Centre, Ueno debuted in 2004 but has only managed 38 winners from 1,236 rides in Japan. He joins Makoto Noda, who is coming to the end of his license and Toshihiko Inoue as the only foreign riders at Seoul.

Akane Yamamoto is currently the only foreign jockey at Busan although the suspended Nathan Stanley is still licensed. Sho Ueno is on an initial 4 month license starting March 1.

60/1 Deep Desire Gives Joe Murphy Unlikely First Winner Of 2012

A fortnight ago, it took a 50/1 winner to get Aussie Peter Wolsley off the mark for 2012. Today it was the turn of the only other foreign trainer in Korea, American Joe Murphy, to get his first of the year with an even longer priced victor as Deep Desire swooped late to land the feature race at Busan.

Sent off at odds of 64/1 and under jockey Lee Hee Cheon, Deep Desire hit the front deep inside the final furlong to take a half-length win from fellow outsider Money Tree while early leader Tough Tiger battled on for third.

Deep Desire (Jump Start) is a five-year old gelding who, at one stage during his three-year-old season, looked to heading for the very top. Instead he has become a solid handicapper and today recorded his eighth win in twenty-eight lifetime starts. His last victory came in September last year – a success that was until today, his trainer’s most recent too.

The win is just Murphy’s eighth in his eighteen months in Korea and while it was, in terms of prize-money, the trainer’s biggest in Korea, it may be that the morale boost to his barn at getting off to a great start for the year ends up being worth far more than the money.

As an interesting footnote to the win, Deep Desire’s owner, Yoo Su Tae, has three horses stabled with Murphy as well as others elsewhere. Remarkably one of those others is second-placed Money Tree. One wonders if, in addition to the prize-money, the owner had a few won on the exacta which paid out at 2544/1.

Retiring Cheonnyeon Daero Honoured At Busan

Derby Winner Was Chief Rival To Dangdae Bulpae

Cheonnyeon Daero, winner of the 2010 Korean Derby, was honoured with a retirement ceremony at Busan Race Park this afternoon. Such a ceremony is a rare occurrence in Korea racing and an honour only afforded to Classic or multiple Stakes winners.

Cheonnyeon Daero wins the 2010 Derby (Pic: Ross Holburt)

While his Derby win was impressive, Cheonnyeon Daero [Creek Cat-Doneitmyway (Northern Flagship)] will perhaps be remembered more for what he nearly won – and his rivalry with the horse that usually beat him – rather than for what he did win. Of his 28 starts, he only won 7 times but finished second on a remarkable 14 occasions, including the President’s, Minister’s, and Ttukseom Cups, plus the KNN and the Owners’ Trophies, with Dangdae Bulpae the horse beating him in all but the latter.

Cheonnyeon Daero

The rivalry between Dangdae Bulpae and Cheonnyeon Daero has been one of Korean racing’s most enduring features over the past two years. They faced each other seven times, always in Stakes races with Dangdae Bulpae getting the better of his rival on five occasions.

However, when they started out as three-year olds it was different. Cheonnyeon Daero finished third in the KRA Cup Mile, the opening leg of the Triple Crown yet was still sent off as a 28/1 outsider behind favourite Money Car. We all know what happened next as Money Car got sucked into an early speed duel with the sprinter Seonbongbulpae and tired in the home straight, allowing Cheonnyeon Daero to catch and pass him in the final few strides. Dangdae Bulpae was back in third.

Nemesis: Dangdae Bulpae and Jo Sung Gon

Park Geum Man rode him that day and would go on to partner him in all but one of his seventeen subsequent starts. Australian trainer Peter Wolsley, who acted as Park’s mentor, told the Korea Times that even though it was for a different trainer, Park’s Derby win was his proudest moment in Korean racing.

By the time the third-leg of the Crown rolled around, the Minister’s Cup in October, the tables had turned. Dangdae Bulpae was the sixth length winner and Cheonnyeon Daero’s time in his shadow had begun.

After the Derby, Cheonnyeon Daero only won four more times but he was consistently placed, most often second. He actually crossed the line first in the Owners’ Trophy last September, only to be demoted to second. In a strange twist, the horse that Cheonnyeon Daero interfered with was the Peter Wolsley trained Khaosan. Khaosan’s promotion gave Park’s mentor his first Korean Stakes win.

Cheonnyeon Daero’s final race was the Grand Prix Stakes at Seoul in December, after the decision had already been made to retire him. For the first and only time in his career, he finished outside the money. He will be retired to Stud.

Cheonnyeon Daero’s Derby:

Top Sire Menifee Undergoes Surgery

The Korea Racing Authority (KRA) has announced that Menifee, one of the star Stallions of the Korean breeding program, underwent a two-hour operation on January 12 and had two stones removed from his urinary tract.

Menifee (KRA)

The sixteen-year old had been displaying symptoms of a Urinary Tract Infection since mid-December. According to the Korean Racing Journal, the KRA consulted with overseas specialists before deciding upon the surgery and flew in two Equine Vets from the USA to take part in the operation at the KRA Stud Farm on Jeju Island.

Initial signs are that the operation was successful and, smooth recovery permitting, Menifee is tentatively scheduled to begin covering mares in late April.

Menifee [Harlan-Anne Campbell (Storm Cat)] finished second in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 1999. A $3,000,000 purchase by the KRA in 2006, he finished second in the Leading Sire list in 2011, despite only having two crops of foals on the race track. His chief-earner, filly Useung Touch, won the Korean Oaks.