A devastating kick in the early part of the home straight saw Roshe escape his rivals and establish himself as a serious force in Korean racing as the three-year-old was an eased down ten-length winner of the Owners’ Cup (1600M KOR-G3) at Busan Racecourse on Sunday afternoon.

Entering the race sporting a perfect five-from-five, the Song Sang-hyeon-trained three-year-old was sent off as the prohibitive 1.3 favourite, but the youngest horse in the race made that feel generous as after settling midfield under jockey Jang Chu-youl, he motored away from the field between the two and one furlong poles, putting the race to bed as a contest.

Such was the dominance of Roshe, it scarcely mattered who was behind him although the results pages will show that Best Race was 2^nd and the veteran Star Matta was 3^rd. True, neither they nor the thirteen others who made up the numbers here, could be considered truly elite opposition, but Roshe has made his statement.

Not that trainer Song Sang-hyeon was getting excited, agreeing with the former point rather than the latter. Song is just coming up to one year as a licensed trainer and with this his stable’s fourteenth winner, Roshe now accounts for six of them: “Roshe is a young horse, he was a bit exhausted after the journey (from Seoul). Yes, he won overwhelmingly but if you look at the race, compared to previous Owners’ Cups, it’s not exactly a strong field, is it?”

“So, if this guy (Roshe) wants to deal with truly outstanding horses in future, we have to get better in all aspects of training and get everything right. We’ll probably give him a rest for a couple of months now and then plan his future. Maybe he runs once or twice again this year.”

Owner Park Jae-yong, standing alongside the trainer added: “There are lots of horses that are good at two or three but don’t really make it in the same form to four or five-years-old, if they run at all. I see too many get injured before they can fulfil their potential, so we are going to take it slow. I thought long and hard before entering him in this Owners’ Cup because it wasn’t originally part of the plan. The real competition for him starts at four, let’s not push him too hard at three.”

Disappointing words perhaps for those who in the immediate aftermath of the race were debating whether Roshe would best suit a Korea Cup or Korea Sprint starting gate in September.

“When I saw his odds, I felt a bit of pressure” winning jockey Jang Chu-youl told KRBC. “But he is such a good horse, I thought let’s just get on with it.” As for tactics: “I didn’t really want to go to the lead as I thought the pace would be hot so I was happy to settle where we did, but the horse has such a good stride and just wants to run so I let him go and was able to ease him down at the end. It felt really good.”

Roshe is an American-bred three-year old by Rogueish and out of Hillary D (by Bellamy Road. He was a $10,000 purchase by K.O.I.D at the 2025 OBS Spring Sale and arrived in Korea two months later. He wasn’t straightforward though and there were plenty of setbacks before he debuted in October with a two-and-a-half length score over fellow imported maidens.

Prior to Sunday, his biggest win came over fellow three-year-olds in the Listed Sports Seoul over 1400M in March. He is yet to tackle further than a mile, but on the Owners’ Cup evidence, that should be well within his capabilities.

The calm words today from Roshe’s trainer contrast with what he said after that Sports Seoul victory when he commented that he could target emulating the achievement of Clean One in winning the Grand Prix at age three. There are no Stakes races for the next couple of weeks but Clean One himself should be action when they do resume with the KRA Cup Classic (2000M KOR-G2) at Seoul on Sunday July 26^th, the main lead up race for September’s International Korea Cup.