{"id":126898,"date":"2025-09-10T05:43:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-10T05:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/126898\/"},"modified":"2025-09-10T05:43:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T05:43:10","slug":"star-japanese-rider-warms-up-for-champions-festival-with-two-rides-in-cork-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/126898\/","title":{"rendered":"Star Japanese rider warms up for Champions Festival with two rides in Cork \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

British racing\u2019s unprecedented \u201cstrike\u201d action on Wednesday ensures extra eyes will be on Cork\u2019s relatively mundane fixture, where star Japanese jockey Ryusei Sakai warms up for the weekend\u2019s Irish Champions Festival<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The 28-year-old rider, who won the world\u2019s most valuable race, the $20 million Saudi Cup in February, is back for another crack at Saturday\u2019s Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown<\/a> on Shin Emperor.<\/p>\n

The partnership finished a close third to Economics in last year\u2019s \u20ac1.25 million race, which is the highlight of this weekend\u2019s showpiece action. After Tuesday\u2019s acceptance stage, Shin Emperor is one of 12 left in the Champion Stakes where he\u2019s set to take on Aidan O\u2019Brien<\/a>\u2019s favourite Delacroix.<\/p>\n

The Japanese colt has been training at the Curragh since arriving back in Ireland and Sakai teamed up with him on Tuesday morning.<\/p>\n

The jockey said: \u201cHe is a more mature and stronger horse now than last year, more experienced too. He looks great, very healthy and seems to have settled well into his new environment on the Curragh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also learned a lot from the race at Leopardstown last year and I hope that experience can help us in the big race. He\u2019s a straightforward horse. He led and won in Saudi Arabia earlier this year, or you can wait with him like we did here a year ago, so I think we will have options.\u201d <\/p>\n

Shin Emperor was initially installed a 4\/1 second favourite by Powers, who cut Delacroix to odds-on for the race. <\/p>\n

\"RyuseiRyusei Sakai after riding Forever Young to victory in the Saudi Cup earlier this year in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Photograph: Francois Nel\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

The stakes will be much lower in Cork, where Sakai has two rides including on Eichan San in a mile maiden. Ireland\u2019s top riding talent, including Colin Keane and Dylan Browne McMonagle, will also be there as Cork has the Anglo-Irish racing stage to itself.<\/p>\n

Unlike anticipation of the glamour of this weekend\u2019s action in Ireland, where over \u20ac5 million in prizemoney is up for grabs, British racing is primed to protest against the \u201cexistential threat\u201d posed by proposed harmonisation of betting duty rates there. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Aidan O\u2019Brien horses fail to fire in Arc Trials at Longchamp as Byzantine Dream boosts Japanese hopesOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Voluntarily calling off four meetings mightn\u2019t strictly meet criteria for strike, but it is reflective of cross-channel worry ahead of the British government\u2019s November budget. Some of the sport\u2019s great and good, hardly stereotypical strikers, will attend a protest event in Westminster. <\/p>\n

Boiled down, it revolves around a threat to racing\u2019s finances if government harmonises tax-take on all wagering. Such a move would mean ignoring any distinction between games of betting skill and games of betting chance, such as online casino slots.<\/p>\n

If it happens, the cost to British racing is predicted to be \u00a3330 million (\u20ac380 million) over five years. It could also cost thousands of jobs and impact significantly on prizemoney levels in Britain.<\/p>\n

\"AidanAidan O\u2019Brien at his yard alongside Mark Crehan and Delacroix, who is primed for the Champion Stakes. Photograph: Morgan Treacy\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Calls for solidarity by calling off Cork got short shrift from the authorities here, but the protest underlines an anxious cross-channel atmosphere ahead of Thursday\u2019s start to Doncaster\u2019s St Leger festival. <\/p>\n

With Longchamp\u2019s Arc Trials fixture moved forward, the weekend international spotlight will be firmly on the Champions Festival.<\/p>\n

The power of O\u2019Brien\u2019s Ballydoyle team is underlined by over 50 entries over the two days. They include the star three-year-olds Lambourn and Scandinavia, who have been left in Sunday\u2019s Curragh feature, the \u20ac500,000 Comer Group Irish St Leger. That\u2019s despite topping the betting for Doncaster\u2019s Leger the day before. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Survival is the only metric for success at some of Ireland\u2019s struggling racetracksOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien also has prime older contenders for the Irish Leger in Illinois and Jan Brueghel. A handful of Ballydoyle juveniles are each entered for the two big two-year-old contests, the Moyglare Stud Stakes and the Goffs National Stakes.<\/p>\n

There will be major international Group One interest at the Curragh, too, as the star Australian sprinter Asfoora remains on track for the Bar One Flying Five. Successful in York\u2019s Nunthorpe last month, her trainer Henry Dwyer is hopeful ground conditions don\u2019t get testing.<\/p>\n

\"OisinOisin Murphy riding Asfoora (right) to win the Nunthorpe Stakes at York last month. Photograph: Alan Crowhurst\/Getty Images <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just hope the ground can remain on the good side,\u201d he said. \u201cShe will be okay on good-to-soft, but we can\u2019t do much about the surface. She is in top shape and will travel over (from England) on Friday. We are really looking forward to racing her in Ireland.\u201d <\/p>\n

Oisin Murphy will again ride the mare and Dwyer added: \u201cAsfoora came out of winning the Nunthorpe at York very well. I would say she is at or very near her peak now. I can\u2019t be there with her at present, I am back in Australia, but my team have been with her all the way and they feel she has improved since York.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first Group One of the weekend will be the Coolmore Matron Stakes at Leopardstown, into which AMO Racing\u2019s Cathedral has been supplemented. The Coronation Stakes winner Cercene is among the 13 entries too.<\/p>\n

Royal Champion and Anmaat are the two British-based hopefuls left in the Champion Stakes. Chris Hayes rides Anmaat in place of Jim Crowley, who is recovering from a broken leg sustained in a fall at York on Sunday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"British racing\u2019s unprecedented \u201cstrike\u201d action on Wednesday ensures extra eyes will be on Cork\u2019s relatively mundane fixture, where…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":126899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[8029,3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-126898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-horse-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=126898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/126898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/126899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=126898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=126898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=126898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}