Raiders of the Arc: Japan hopes to put an end to the elusive 50-year-old Quest in Paris

“If You live in Japan and you open a sports newspaper, “says Kanichi Kusano, until recently that of the Japan Racing Association [JRA] Representative in London: “Three major sports are coming up. One is baseball, one is Sumo Wrestling and the other is horse races. We are always exposed to racing and thoroughbreds are beautiful animals, and there is drama and romance and a challenge for the bow because we have been trying to win for more than 50 years.

For thousands of Japanese racing fans that will make the 12,000-mile tour to Paris, and millions that are expected to coordinate home in the early hours of Monday morning, it is that time of the year again. Since Speed ​​Symboli, the first Japanese trained runner in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, finished 11th in 1969, tried another 32 and did not succeed in winning in Europe’s most valuable and prestigious racing, and three Meer-byzantine dream, Ali-Alii and Croix du Nord afternoon.

As an example of perseverance in the light of painful and often bitter experience, there is little to match it in international sport. Fans of the men’s football team are allowed to grab for about 59 years of pain, but the national team has at least a world cup win on the board. In the past 30 years, the Japanese Race industry has grown into statistics, including gambling sales and prize money, the richest and most successful in the world. Everything it must show for the trillions of yen and millions of air mowers that have been invested in the country’s attempt to win an arc, however, is a series of ever -growing disappointments.

El Condor Pasa, the fourth archer of Japan, finished half a length behind Montjeu in 1999 after he had led to the last steps. The excellent deep impact, which attracted tens of thousands of Japanese fans to the Bois de Boulogne, was less than a length behind the winner in the third in 2006 (although subsequently disqualified for forbidden medication).

The non -annulated Nakayama Festa was only a head behind staff in 2010. And above all, there was Orfevre, who took a furlong in a clear lead in 2012, but ran at the front and was chased by Solemia in the shadow of the post.

Bad soil and bad luck, with the draw and in the race both played a role in the 0-out-33 record of Japan in the arch, because runners were used to lightning fast in Japan on the deep soil that generally prevails in Longchamp at the beginning of October. Kusano, however, thinks that it is also part of a learning process. “If you are an owner and you win a Japanese derby,” he says, “they will normally think:” We may be able to win an arc, “but sometimes this is not the case because it looks the same, but it is a totally different game.

“The Japanese turf is really flat and the Japanese horses are trained to become a Formula 1 car, but in Europe you need an SUV, because the surface looks green and flexible, but if you walk on it, it is completely different. And that is why the Japanese connections have studied a lot to bring horses on a smooth ground and may have an element of SUV.

“I think Japanese horses are becoming more capable [of winning]Because all three horses [in this year’s race] have run away and won in their pre-competence [prep race]. “

It is certainly striking that the three Japanese challengers have all described this year as a typical French preparation: an extensive Midsummer -break and then a run in a test. It is not the largest team that Japan fed in an arch-four runners in 2022 were spread over the also a rans from 11 to 19th-but it has an unusual feeling of power in depth. So perhaps this is finally the year in which the traveling fans are rewarded for their tireless dedication to their horse heroes.

“In short, gambling is forbidden in Japan and there are only four officially approved gambling sports, one of which is horse races,” says Kusano.

‘But the JRA [which has overall control of racing, breeding and betting] has done the image very well by changing the image from purely a gambling sport to a more diverse sport that everyone can enjoy, and binding people to race in a different way than other countries.

“From the aspect of a Japanese fan, when we stand out star horses in line, people will of course travel, to participate in the drama and the challenge. We have won in Hong Kong and the Central East and most places with similar surfaces for racing, and this is the profession that we wanted to take a long time.”