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Full Field For Juvenile Championship

Seoul Vs Busan in the Breeders’ Cup

A full field of fourteen will line-up at Seoul Race Park on Sunday afternoon for the Breeders’ Cup, Korea’s premier Juvenile race. Six visitors from Busan will face eight of the capital’s most promising young Korean bred horses over six and a half furlongs.

Sun Hero was the unfancied winner of last year's Breeders' Cup

Likely favourite is Cheoneun. She won her first three races before being beaten in the Gwacheon Mayor’s Cup – the top juvenile race restricted to Seoul horses – by another filly, Dolpung Jilju. Cheoneun faded very badly in the final furlong that day. Many will expect to see her turn it around tomorrow. As for Dolpung Jilju, she may have the worst Stud Book picture ever but she is certainly a talent and will have plenty of supporters.

For the colts, Dolpung Gangho and Jigeum I Sungan have the best of what are to date, limited records. It’s a lighter than usual challenge from Busan when compared with most events that bring runners from the two tracks together. Of those that have travelled, Peter Wolsley’s filly Nuriui Bit, second in the Gyeongnam News Cup, looks to have the best chance. Australian jockey Nathan Stanley is in town to ride her. Joining Stanley in Seoul is Japanese rider Eiki Nishimura, who has the mount of Black Dia.

Here’s a full run down of the runners and riders with pedigrees and race records:

Breeders’ Cup – Seoul Race Park – 1300M – November 27, 2011 – 16:35

1. Bukdaepung [Exploit-Half Fare (Half Term)] F (4/2/1/0) – Jun Duck Young (Seoul)
2. Sinchon Gongju [Pico Central-Bamboo Memory (Regal Remark) F (3/0/3/0) – Park Geum Man (Busan)
3. Cheoneun [Forest Camp-Naha (Silver Buck)] F ((4/3/1/0) – Park Tae Jong (Seoul)
4. Dolpung Gangho [Didyme-Ascend The Throne (Silver Charm)] C (2/1/1/0) – Choi Bum Hyun (Seoul)
5. Black Dia [Vicar-Blossom Again (Awesome Again)] F (4/2/1/0) – Eiki Nishimura (Busan)
6. Daedong Jeil [Commendable-Daecheon Yeowang (Concept Win)] C (4/1/2/1) – Moon Se Young (Seoul)
7. Sing A [Fortitude-Seollimwon (Wheaton)] F (5/1/2/1) – Choi Si Dae (Busan)
8. Nuriui Bit [Menifee-Altria (Maria’s Mon)] F ((2/1/1/0) – Nathan Stanley (Busan)
9. Dream Tower [Forest Camp-Hurricane Warning (Thunder Gulch)] C (4/2/0/0) – Kim Dong Young (Busan)
10. Dolpung Jilju [Didyme-Alder Gulch (Gulch)] F (4/3/0/1) – Cho Kyoung Ho (Seoul)
11. Mallu Homerun [Pico Central-Balada (Songandaprayer)] C (2/1/1/) – Park Byeong Yun (Seoul)
12. Jeongsaang Yechan [Menifee-Yong Gok (Loosen Up)] C (3/1/0/1) – Shin Hyoung Chul (Seoul)
13. Jigeum I Sungan [Ingrandire-Solmaru (Mujaazif)] C (5/1/3/1) – Kim Dong Chul (Seoul)
14. Good Time [Yehudi-A Little Poke (Pleasant Tap)] C (4/1/1/0) – Chae Gyu Jun (Busan)

* At Seoul Race Park today there was a shock in the feature race as 17/1 Jewang Tansaeng [Petionville-Awesome Joy (Awesome Again)] scored a five length win in what was a rare sprint feature race over seven furlongs. Running second was old favourite Bally Brae (Yarrow Brae), former Grand Prix winner and now nine years old.

Foreign Jockeys Dominate Friday At Busan

Akane Yamamoto & Nathan Stanley Score Five Between Them

It was a bad day for the local Jockey Union at Busan Race Park this afternoon as between them, two of the track’s foreign riders hoovered up five of the ten races on the card.

Nathan Stanley: Feature race winner today

Australian Nathan Stanley and Japanese Akane Yamamoto have established themselves as, political issues aside, two of the most sought-after riders at the track and today, on a chilly afternoon, they showed why. Yamamoto started things off, winning race 2 on young colt Predict (The Groom Is Red), who put in an impressive performance winning by seven lengths.

She followed up two races later on 16/1 shot Silver Tiger (Volponi), beating out Stanley on Sangseung Bulpae by a nose. Any punters playing the foreign jockey quinella angle got a 58/1 payout on that finish. Stanley had to wait until race 8 to get in the winner’s circle himself with a four-length win on New Zealand import Dangdae Champ (Falkirk).

The Australian had good reason to hold high hopes of scoring a late treble. Races 9 and 10 would see him partner first Ghost Whisper (Gotham City) and then Secret Whisper (Seas Of Secrets), both owned by Pegasus Stables and trained by Peter Wolsley and both set to be odds-on favourites.

Treble: Akane Yamamoto

It didn’t quite turn out as planned as Yamamoto, on second favourite Baramui Jeonsa (Menifee) pipped Stanley and Ghost Whisper to the line by a length to complete her treble. There were no such problems in the feature race, however, as Secret Whisper did the business, albeit only by a neck, to secure his sixth win from twelve starts. Yamamoto finished a very productive day in third place on filly Night Moves (Proud Accolade).

With their wins today, Stanley moves on to seventeen winners in Korea and Yamamoto twenty-three. While Yamamoto will have a number of opportunities to add to her tally at Busan on Sunday, Stanley will only have one chance in Seoul, where he travels to partner Peter Wolsley’s Nuriui Bit in Sunday’s Breeders’ Cup, Korea’s premier Juvenile race. He’ll join Busan’s third foreign jockey, Eiki Nishimura, who is already in the capital preparing for the race.

* Also of note today was the second win in two starts by two-year old colt Baekdu Daejangun (Didyme-Indeed My Dear (Alydeed). Baekdu Daejangun is the half-brother of double President’s Cup winner Dangdae Bulpae.

Korean Jockey Gets First Winner In USA

Seoul based apprentice jockey Jang Chu Yeol, currently in the United States for two months of training, rode his first American winner at Charles Town Racetrack in West Virginia last Sunday.

The young rider partnered the John McKee owned and trained Free Humor [Sharp Humor-Southerncomfortgal (Hermitage)] to victory in the tenth and final race of the day – an 8.5 furlong Claimer worth $11,400. Free Humor was the 4/1 fourth favourite in a field of ten.

Since heading to the States last month, Jang has had 17 rides at Charles Town, mostly for McKee, scoring 2 second places before getting his breakthrough win. At home in Seoul, he stands 11th in the 2011 Jockey Championship with 27 wins this year.

Race Chart

Four Way Battle For Leading Sire Going To Wire

Exploit, Vicar, Menifee, Creek Cat Excel in 2011

The protagonists themselves may not know it themselves but with four weekends of racing left this year, there is a terrific four-way tussle in pogress for the title of 2011’s Leading Sire.

Dongseo Jeongbeol - Vicar's Chief Earner

Just 90 Million Korean Won (about $85,000) separates current leader Exploit from last year’s winner Creek Cat who currently sits in fourth.

Sandwiched in between these established Korean producers are the new Studs on the block, Vicar and Menifee. The latter pair only have two crops of foals (plus a handful of earlier imports) representing them while their older rivals have plenty more but it’s still anybody’s race.

Cheonnyeon Daero - keeping Creek Cat in contention

The next big prize is the Group 3 Breeders’ Cup at Seoul Race Park this coming Sunday worth $150,000 to the winner. The race will decide Korea’s champion two-year old of the year and Menifee will be represented by highly rated filly Nuriui Bit, who is coming up from Busan, as well as possibly Seoul colt Jeongsang Yechan. Vicar too has a filly in contention in the shape of Black Dia.

Neither Exploit nor Creek Cat look likely to be getting the Breeders’ Cup winner while none of the four are likely to see success in the $400,000 Grand Prix Stakes a fortnight later. However, with even the least valuable race in Korea worth a minimum of $12,000 to the winner giving an edge to Exploit, this battle could go right down to the last day of the season on December 17.

2011 Leading General Sires as of November 23

1. Exploit (USA) – 3,029,361,000 KRW
2. Vicar (USA) – 3,002,931,000 KRW
3. Menifee (USA) – 2,991,321,000 KRW
4. Creek Cat (USA) – 2,939,103,000

With Forest Camp an impressive leader of the First Crop sire race and with Ecton Park set to come on stream next year and Officer a year later, the next few years look very exciting indeed.

Sharp Humor Set To Stand In Korea

The Korea Racing Auhority (KRA) has been shopping for stallions again and this time has returned from the USA with young sire Sharp Humor in tow. The eight-year old had been standing for WinStar Farm in Kentucky.

As a racehorse, Sharp Humor [Distorted Humor-Bellona (Hansel)] ran ten times picking up four wins, three of them in Stakes races. He ran second to Barbaro in the 2006 Florida Derby but fractured a knee in the Kentucky Derby a month later. He only ran once more and was retired at the end of his three-year old season.

In his short Stud career to date, Sharp Humor has sired sixty-eight winners, including five at Stakes level, and already has a colt and a filly currently running in Korea. The colt, Baekhomujeok [Sharp Humor-Lip Gloss (Lit De Justice)] won the JRA Trophy at Seoul Race Park in May this year and currently has four wins from a total of twelve starts

The KRA has been increasing its stallion numbers recently as it seeks to boost its domestic breeding industry as well as prepare for the opening of the nation’s third thoroughbred racecourse at Yeongcheon in 2014. Recent purchases have included Delago Brom from Australia and Officer and Whywhywhy from the US.

On arrival in Korea, Sharp Humor will initially stand alongside Menifee and Vicar at the KRA’s Jeju Stud Farm

Twenty Years After Establishing Breeding Program, Korea Begins Exporting Racehorses

It’s been a long time coming but last week, the Korea Racing Authority (KRA) announced the export of two racehorses to Malaysia. The colts, by Vicar and Exploit (with another to follow by Commendable) are the first Korean bred horses to be sold overseas for racing.

The export marks an important milestone for the Korean breeding industry which began in earnest in 1991. Before that, the vast majority of racehorses were imported from the Southern hemisphere or bred locally from a small number of mainly Japanese sires. Now, in addition to those mentioned above, Korea is also home to the likes of Menifee, Forest Camp, Pico Central and Officer while boasting state of the art Stud Farms both in Jeolla Province and on Jeju Island and many more private farms around the country.

With prize-money so high in Korea and with strict limits on the amounts Korean buyers can pay to import a racehorse bought at an overseas sale – $20,000 for colts and $40,000 for fillies – there is not a lot of incentive to sell a promising horse overseas, regardless of whether there is a market for it or not. However, the KRA have always made clear (at least in words if not actions) that their aim is to internationalize the Korean racing industry.

Moreover, if they can create a viable export industry, it is hoped that racing’s image will improve at home. The Korean casinos are (with one exception) only open to foreigners and regularly boast about how much money they generate from overseas. Korean racing is gambled on exclusively by Koreans and therefore is seen as a social problem in many quarters – not by the government, who greatly enjoy the revenues and not by the many social and agricultural initiatives that racing funds – but it still has a bad image.

There is nothing guaranteed to boost the industry in the eyes of Korean public opinion more than having a Korean product that foreigners want to buy.

The target is for fifty horses to be exported annually by 2020. This includes not only racehorses but also potential stallions and broodmares in foal. Initially the target markets are to be the Philippines and Macau, however, long-term no secret is made of the fact that the target is China.

No doubt it will have plenty of competition, but if and when – and in whichever form – betting on racing is legalized there, given its geographical proximity, the KRA plans to become a major supplier of reasonably priced thoroughbreds. It also stands ready to sell its highly developed racing IT infrastructure and other services.

Whether any of this will happen is open to question, although the wining and dining of potential foreign buyers is already taking place. The KRA often talks big on Internationalization but finds itself unable to follow through. Many stakeholders do extremely well out of Korean racing being essentially a closed-shop, both in and out. Nevertheless, this is a milestone of which those involved in bringing it about, will no doubt be proud.

All To Do For Dangdae Bulpae In President’s Cup

Cheonnyeon Daero, Useung Touch, Dongseo Jeongbeol Seeking To Dethrone Defending Champion

While thousands of miles away the Breeders’ Cup is occupying much of the racing world this weekend, Korea plays host to its most valuable race of the year in the shape of the President’s Cup at Seoul Racecourse Park this Sunday.

Returning: Dangdae Bulpae & Jo Sung Gon in the 2010 President's Cup Winner's Circle

While it may not be the most prestigious – the Grand Prix Stakes taking that accolade – the President’s Cup is the biggest race of the year for Korean-bred horses. This is because it is the race in which this year’s Classic winners generally face their elders for the first time.

As it is, we have just two out of four Classic winners from this year – Useung Touch and Dongseo Jeongbeol – and just one from last year, Derby winner Cheonnyeon Daero. However, with last year’s winner Dangdae Bulpae and the evergreen Yeonseung Daero making the trip up from Busan, we are guaranteed a fascinating renewal on Sunday afternoon.

Here’s a rundown of the runners with age/sex/weight to be carried (race records) and jockeys:

President’s Cup (KOR GI) – Seoul Race Park – 2000M – November 6, 2011 – 16:35

1. Dangdae Bulpae [Biwa Shinseiki-Indeed My Dear (Alydeed)] 4 C 58Kg (19/12/1/1) – Jo Sung Gon (Busan)
The defending Champion, he loves running at Seoul losing only once in the Grand Prix last year. At 2000 metres, one would think this was his for the taking. However, his last two starts at Busan have ended in two ignominious sixth places; getting into a suicidal early speed duel with Tough Win in the Metropolitan Stakes and sinking without trace in the Owners’ Trophy. He will need to be back to his best if he is to have a chance.

2. Love Cat [Creek Cat-Love Cue (Curia Regis)] 5 M 56Kg (26/10/2/4) – Moon Jung Kyun (Seoul)
Coming back from a five month lay-off and she was in very indifferent form before that. Her last win was in the Gyeonggi Governor’s Cup a year ago. Something sensational would have had to have happened to her during her break if she is to have a chance here. It seems unlikely.

3. Yeonseung Daero [Creek Cat-Sensationalkris (Cryptoclearance)] 5 H 58Kg (36/15/7/5) – Choi Si Dae (Busan)
Stablemate of Cheonnyeon Daero, a top performer whose win rate would be much higher were it not for the fact that his Sportsman connections never take the safe option and always run him against foreign opposition rather than cherry-pick handicaps against inferior domestic horses. Got his reward in winning the Busan Metropolitan over Dongbanui Gangja in the summer. His career has been a joy to follow and as always, he’ll be there or thereabouts.

4. Dongseo Jeongbeol [Vicar-Rendezvous Bay (Wonderloaf)] 3 C 56Kg (11/7/1/0) – Chae Gyu Jun (Busan)
One of two of this year’s Classic winners taking part, the Minister’s Cup champion makes a quick return to Seoul. Dangdae Bulpae scored a Minister’s and President’s Cup double last year and Dongseo Jeongbeol looks perfectly capable of doing the same. However, despite it being over the same distance, he will be up against much tougher opposition on Sunday.

5. Cheot Insang [Psychobabble-Soma (Far Out East)] 5 G 56Kg (27/6/3/4) – Ji Ha Ju (Seoul)
Picked up a useful Class 1 win last month to gain his entry here but really should be outclassed in this company.

6. High Point [Silent Warrior-Fran’s Express (Expressman)] 5 H 58Kg (24/7/2/6) – Cho Kyoung Ho (Seoul)
Interesting one. He won the SBS Cup in August but was narrowly defeated by Race Terror on his only run since. At five, he’s in the best form of his career and could be one to look out for. Arguably Seoul’s best chance.

7. Money Teukgeup [Ft. Stockton-Headwork (Silveyville)] 5 H 58Kg (29/6/4/4) – Park Tae Jong (Seoul)
He hasn’t won since June 2010 and he’ll not win this.

8. Useung Touch [Menifee-Jenny Tudor (Gulch)] 3 F 54Kg (10/5/3/1) – Kim Dong Young (Busan)
The outstanding filly of 2011, she’s the Oaks winner and second in the Derby and Minister’s Cup and a genuine contender for Horse Of The Year. Can she win this? Yes, she can, but it’s a big ask. Either way she will be contesting the finish.

9. Suseong TX [Concept Win-Oktong-I (Kyoei Blossom)] 6 H 58Kg (27/7/5/4) – Moon Se Young (Seoul)
Seoul’s Champion Jockey-elect is unlikely to be winning this. Suseong TX only has one win to his name this year and it seems he has been entered to compete for the minor – but still financially lucrative – placings.

10. Cheonnyeon Daero [Creek Cat-Doneitmyway (Northern Flagship) 4 C 58Kg (26/7/13/3) – Park Geum Man (Busan)
The 2010 Korean Derby winner will be retired at the end of this season. This is likely to be his penultimate race (so long as connections accept his inevitable Grand Prix invitation). A supremely talented horse who has a very bad case of second-itis – even when he wins, he finishes second – but this could be his time. He should be favourite.

11. Khaosan [Sunday Well-Mogaung (Jade Hunter)] 6 G 58Kg (31/7/7/7) – Nathan Stanley (Busan)
The foreign interest. Aussie trainer Peter Wolsley finally got his first Stakes winner with Khaosan when Cheonnyeon Daero was disqualified in the Owners’ Cup. It was the correct decision as without the interference, the six-year old would have won. A late developer, Khaosan is a tough horse and he may well find the Seoul course, on which he is racing for the first time, to be to his liking. With Nathan Stanley on board, he is worth an outside bet.

12. Race Terror [Duality-Starship Adventure (Dare And Go)] 4 C 58Kg (22/5/5/4) – Choi Bum Hyun (Seoul)
Coming into form at the right time with his first Class 1 win at the end of September, he will need to improve a lot to win here.

13. Blooming [Future Quest-Fox Dance (Foxtrail)] 5 H 58Kg (17/7/3/0) – Oh Kyoung Hoan (Seoul)
Very much a dark-horse here, the relatively lightly raced Blooming does have qualities to recommend him. He has two recent wins over similar distances and has every chance of being competitive. If he apears on the board at long odds, he may well be worth an outside punt.

14. Real Victor [Biwa Shinseiki-Hyunmo (Real Quiet)] 4 C 58Kg (21/5/9/0) – Jo In Kwen (Seoul)
That he has only failed to money twice in twenty-one starts means that Rea Victorr must get sime respect. There are better horses than him in the race but there’s every chance of him playing a big role in the finish.

Jeju Link Means Korea Backing Game On Dude In Breeders’ Cup Classic

Star’s Dam Now Based On Jeju Island As Part Of Korean Breeding Program

It will be breakfast time in Korea on Sunday, President’s Cup day, when thousands of miles away at Churchill Downs, the Breeders’ Cup Classic comes under orders. However, plenty of Korean racing fans will be on the internet scouring for streams to watch the big race and the vast majority of them will be supporting Game On Dude.

Worldly Pleasure - given the typically unflattering Korean StudBook treatment

This isn’t because they’ll have had a bet on the horse who is currently sixth favourite – for the most part they won’t have as there is no legal means of doing so here – but more to do with the fact that the four year old’s dam, Worldly Pleasure, currently resides at Nokwon Farm on Jeju Island.

As a racehorse, Worldly Pleasure [Devil His Due-Fast Pleasure (Fast Play)] was a decent filly on the American cicrcuit. From 2003 to 2005, she won 8 out of 38 starts mostly running at tracks such as Laurel, Delaware Park, Pimlico and Tampa Bay Downs. On retirement, she gave birth to a colt by Smart Strike in 2006 called Wild Spirit and then in 2007 to another colt this time by Awesome Again. This colt (who would be gelded) would be Game On Dude.

In late 2009, with Game On Dude still a two-year old, Worldly Pleasure was sent through the sales ring at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale and was bought by Korean interests for $15,000 and a month later, on Christmas Eve, she arrived in Korea for her new life at Nokwon Farm.

The Korean racing media has jumped on the Game On Dude bandwagon

At the time, Worldly Pleasure was in foal to Macho Uno and she gave birth to a colt on February 8, 2010. He is scheduled to reach the racetrack in just under a year. Perhaps fittingly – and maybe presciently – her first mating in Korea was with Volponi, himself a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner in 2002, and a filly was born early this year. For 2011, Nokwon Farm sent Worldly Pleasure to their own stallion, the little known Japanese import Admire Don [Timber County-Vega (Tony Bin)].

Of course, there’s no guarantee that any of these foals will even make the racetrack let alone be a shadow of their illustrious half-brother but either way, a win for Game On Dude this weekend, however unlikely it may be, will be a real shot in the arm to a Korean breeding industry which has made great strides in recent years in the quality of imported stallions and is looking to do the same with broodmares.

With the Cup Classic over breakfast and then the domestic President’s Cup in the afternoon, Sunday is set to be a big day for Korean racing.

Worldly Pleasure’s Korean StudBook Entry

Melbourne Cup – TV Coverage In Korea

Tuesday November 1 sees one of the biggest races of the year and as usual, the Melbourne Cup is available for Korean viewers on the Australia Network. Coverage starts at 11am Korean Time and runs through until 1:30pm. The big race is at 1pm. The Australia Network is available on most Digital Cable and Satellite packages.

For those without Digital Cable, the Australia Network can be viewed from within Korea free of charge on the English language website of the Donga-Ilbo Newspaper. Click Here to go straight to the feed.

Should make for a better than usual Tuesday morning.

Japanese Jockey Eiki Nishimura Returns To Busan

Japanese jockey Eiki Nishimura is coming back to Busan this weekend on a short-term license after nearly two years away from Korean racing. The 36 year old is best remembered in Korea for winning the KRA Cup Mile – the first leg of the Korean Triple Crown – on the champion filly Sangseung Ilro in 2009.

More of the same? Eiki Nishimura wins the KRA Cup Mile on Sangseung Ilro (Pic: KRA)

In all, Eiki rode 48 winners from 392 rides in his first spell at Busan. He started slowly but made his breakthrough as the regular rider of Sangseung Ilro culminating in her Cup Mile win in April 2009. However, he was mysteriously jocked off the filly for her successful run in the Korean Derby the following month.

Although no-one went record about it (apart from Eiki himself on his Japanese blog at the time), the feeling was that local riders at Busan had been angry about a foreign jockey winning the track’s biggest race of the year. The Jockey Union at Seoul who at the time opposed any foreign involvement in Korean racing were determined this would not happen in the Derby and pressure was applied.

Eiki persevered although he found his opportunities limited before he returned to his home track of Arao in late 2009. An affable and friendly character, he invited Korean jockey Park Jae Ho across to Japan to gain some experience.

Things at Busan are a little different now. After the shockingly bad treatment another Japanese rider, Hitomi Miyahshita received at the hands of the Jockey Union in the aftermath of Park Jin Hee’s death in early 2010, the locals have had another dose of Toshio Uchida winning races and recently of Akane Yamamoto and Australian Nathan Stanley winning Stakes races. As younger Korean jockeys come through, the foreign riders are gradually becoming more accepted and Eiki’s most welcome return is at exactly the right time.

Nishimura has nine rides at Busan across this weekend starting in race 1 on Friday when he’ll be riding for American trainer Joe Murphy. Nathan Stanley has twelve rides on Friday and Sunday most for Peter Wolsley. Akane Yamamoto sits out this week to serve a two-day suspension.