EVENING NEWS
Carrot Club has just announced that Mistoffelees has been booked to run in the fifth race at Tokyo on the 27th of this month - a 1600m turf race, with Yutaka Yoshida already secured as the jockey. Having had the race booked for the 14th cancelled, this new date presents a bit of a problem - a straight choice between going to see Mistoffelees make his debut, or watching the underdogs in another Dressage competition. Life's never easy, is it...?
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
NAKAYAMA RACE TRACK
The latest Dunhill brochure just dropped into the letterbox, with a feature on Sam Waley-Cohen - the English amateur jump jockey who has shown that he can mix life as a businessman (he owns a chain of dental establishments) and a top horseman. Indeed, he's won all sorts of major races in National Hunt meetings, often riding his father's horses.
But as we pass the 2500 visitor mark for the blog, the figure being pushed along nicely by a strong Russian contingent within the last few hours, today we'll talk about my local JRA track, as opposed to the closest NAR one, and that happens to be Nakayama, which is also situated in Funabashi City, Chiba. In fact, the Funabashi NAR facility and Nakayama JRA one are situated only about four miles (6km) away from each other.
Unlike Funabashi, though, where dirt is the only option, the main attraction at Nakayama is the pair of turf courses, augmented by a dirt course, and one of the most demanding steeplechase courses in the country. The turf track closest to the grandstands is notorious for its long rise from the final bend to the finishing line - a true test of a horse's stamina, as well as the jockey's skill in timing the sprint for the line.
Looking back, we can trace the history of Nakayama back to 1907, with the foundation of the Matsudo Keiba Club. However, this was taken over as a military training school, and a new track was duly built closer to the sea. Unfortunately, the huge earthquake and ensuing tsunami of 1923 wiped it out just as the finishing touches were being applied. The project was revived, though, albeit at Nakayama this time, and the first races were held at the new course in 1928.
With the clouds of war darkening the skies, Nakayama looked more like a vegetable patch than a racecourse in the mid-1940s, but racing resumed in 1947, and the JRA took over the administration of the track in 1954. New stands went up in the bubble era, helping give this beautifully-presented track a fresh image for its weekend visitors. It plays host to probably the biggest race of the year - the Arima Kinen, in which fans can choose the field.
The latest Dunhill brochure just dropped into the letterbox, with a feature on Sam Waley-Cohen - the English amateur jump jockey who has shown that he can mix life as a businessman (he owns a chain of dental establishments) and a top horseman. Indeed, he's won all sorts of major races in National Hunt meetings, often riding his father's horses.
But as we pass the 2500 visitor mark for the blog, the figure being pushed along nicely by a strong Russian contingent within the last few hours, today we'll talk about my local JRA track, as opposed to the closest NAR one, and that happens to be Nakayama, which is also situated in Funabashi City, Chiba. In fact, the Funabashi NAR facility and Nakayama JRA one are situated only about four miles (6km) away from each other.
Looking back, we can trace the history of Nakayama back to 1907, with the foundation of the Matsudo Keiba Club. However, this was taken over as a military training school, and a new track was duly built closer to the sea. Unfortunately, the huge earthquake and ensuing tsunami of 1923 wiped it out just as the finishing touches were being applied. The project was revived, though, albeit at Nakayama this time, and the first races were held at the new course in 1928.
With the clouds of war darkening the skies, Nakayama looked more like a vegetable patch than a racecourse in the mid-1940s, but racing resumed in 1947, and the JRA took over the administration of the track in 1954. New stands went up in the bubble era, helping give this beautifully-presented track a fresh image for its weekend visitors. It plays host to probably the biggest race of the year - the Arima Kinen, in which fans can choose the field.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
FUNABASHI RACE TRACK
With our occasional racehorse profiles, jockey profiles, trainer profiles, and so on, we may as well take a look at some of the tracks, too - both the JRA and NAR facilities. My local racecourse is Funabashi - an NAR-run facility with weekday racing on a pair of dirt tracks. As this is the closest to my home, and the one I visit the most, this is where we'll start...
The original track was based at Kashiwa in 1928, hence the big Kashiwa Kinen race, but following the war, plans were put in place to build a new track at Funabashi, with a motorcycle racing facility contained within.
Funabashi track duly opened its gates for the first time in August 1950, with Kashiwa closing down in 1952. In November 1953, Nihon TV made a live broadcast of the meeting held on the 27th - the first ever NAR meeting to be televised.
Yomiuri Land took over the running of the site in 1968, and still administer it to this day. Also in 1968, the motorcycle racing side of the business was separated from the horse racing, moving to its own dedicated circuit situated closer to the port.
The major earthquake that hit Japan in 2011 stopped racing for a little while, as the water table rose causing flooding. Indeed, the land is quite boggy on the inside of the Funabashi Keiba track, which explains why there's a natural lake off to the right as one looks from the grandstands. It also explains why my request for a greyhound track may never go through - it would cost a fortune to prepare the land!
There are no less than 37 racing stables based at Funabashi, along with 32 full-time jockeys listed for 2012. If you can read Japanese, the link for the Funabashi Keiba website can be found to the right-hand side of the page, as well as another link for the track's official blog.
With our occasional racehorse profiles, jockey profiles, trainer profiles, and so on, we may as well take a look at some of the tracks, too - both the JRA and NAR facilities. My local racecourse is Funabashi - an NAR-run facility with weekday racing on a pair of dirt tracks. As this is the closest to my home, and the one I visit the most, this is where we'll start...
The original track was based at Kashiwa in 1928, hence the big Kashiwa Kinen race, but following the war, plans were put in place to build a new track at Funabashi, with a motorcycle racing facility contained within.Funabashi track duly opened its gates for the first time in August 1950, with Kashiwa closing down in 1952. In November 1953, Nihon TV made a live broadcast of the meeting held on the 27th - the first ever NAR meeting to be televised.
Yomiuri Land took over the running of the site in 1968, and still administer it to this day. Also in 1968, the motorcycle racing side of the business was separated from the horse racing, moving to its own dedicated circuit situated closer to the port.
The major earthquake that hit Japan in 2011 stopped racing for a little while, as the water table rose causing flooding. Indeed, the land is quite boggy on the inside of the Funabashi Keiba track, which explains why there's a natural lake off to the right as one looks from the grandstands. It also explains why my request for a greyhound track may never go through - it would cost a fortune to prepare the land!There are no less than 37 racing stables based at Funabashi, along with 32 full-time jockeys listed for 2012. If you can read Japanese, the link for the Funabashi Keiba website can be found to the right-hand side of the page, as well as another link for the track's official blog.
Sunday, October 14, 2012
LADY JOCKEYS IN JAPAN
With Sophie wanting to be a jockey - despite advice against it from a jockey friend! - I couldn't help wondering how many ladies there were racing in Japan (in both JRA and NAR circles), as this is hardly England or America, where the idea of a lady jockey is a lot less novel. Indeed, I remember when Princess Anne won her first race way back in 1986 - she was far from the first to fight the men head-on in Britain, and many ladies have followed in her footsteps since, to the point where we now have female G1 race winners in the UK. And in the States, professional lady jockeys have been around since the late-1960s.
As it happens, there's just one lady registered as a JRA jockey at the moment - Yukiko Masuzawa, or Yukiko Makihara as she was known before she was married. Attached to the Kikuzawa Stable, she has won 34 races so far. Notwithstanding, there are quite a few ladies currently riding at NAR tracks, although none in the Minami-Kanto region, which is probably why my image of Japanese racing being a man-only world exists.
The Nagoya-based Akane Yamamoto (pictured here) caught my attention straight away - she has a fine racing record (a remarkable 270 wins in NAR), recently having completed a successful spell riding in Korea and Malaysia, in addition to a couple of years in New Zealand before that. One thing's for sure, the 29-year old can certainly add another fan to her collection. Ganbatte, Akane!
Meanwhile, Minori Sasaki and Rui Shimomura ride in Hokkaido (with Maya Takegahara in the specialist Ban-ei Tockachi arena), Mai Beppu and Mika Morii are based at Kochi, and Chiaki Iwanaga and Sachika Oyama (a promising youngster featured on TV a bit back when she was making her debut) hail from the Saga track.
Names from the not-so-distant past, when the ladies-only 'LJS' series existed in Japan, include Mayumi Minagawa, Yumiko Gobo, Maki Hirayama, Hitomi Miyashita, Noriko Ikemoto, and Rena Nishihara (ex-JRA). It's not easy to get a jockey licence whether you're a man, woman, or somewhere in-between for that matter, but these ladies have proved that with a bit of hard work you can get one, and compete. Thanks to these trailblazers, Sophie has every chance...
With Sophie wanting to be a jockey - despite advice against it from a jockey friend! - I couldn't help wondering how many ladies there were racing in Japan (in both JRA and NAR circles), as this is hardly England or America, where the idea of a lady jockey is a lot less novel. Indeed, I remember when Princess Anne won her first race way back in 1986 - she was far from the first to fight the men head-on in Britain, and many ladies have followed in her footsteps since, to the point where we now have female G1 race winners in the UK. And in the States, professional lady jockeys have been around since the late-1960s.
As it happens, there's just one lady registered as a JRA jockey at the moment - Yukiko Masuzawa, or Yukiko Makihara as she was known before she was married. Attached to the Kikuzawa Stable, she has won 34 races so far. Notwithstanding, there are quite a few ladies currently riding at NAR tracks, although none in the Minami-Kanto region, which is probably why my image of Japanese racing being a man-only world exists.
The Nagoya-based Akane Yamamoto (pictured here) caught my attention straight away - she has a fine racing record (a remarkable 270 wins in NAR), recently having completed a successful spell riding in Korea and Malaysia, in addition to a couple of years in New Zealand before that. One thing's for sure, the 29-year old can certainly add another fan to her collection. Ganbatte, Akane!Meanwhile, Minori Sasaki and Rui Shimomura ride in Hokkaido (with Maya Takegahara in the specialist Ban-ei Tockachi arena), Mai Beppu and Mika Morii are based at Kochi, and Chiaki Iwanaga and Sachika Oyama (a promising youngster featured on TV a bit back when she was making her debut) hail from the Saga track.
Names from the not-so-distant past, when the ladies-only 'LJS' series existed in Japan, include Mayumi Minagawa, Yumiko Gobo, Maki Hirayama, Hitomi Miyashita, Noriko Ikemoto, and Rena Nishihara (ex-JRA). It's not easy to get a jockey licence whether you're a man, woman, or somewhere in-between for that matter, but these ladies have proved that with a bit of hard work you can get one, and compete. Thanks to these trailblazers, Sophie has every chance...
PAINTINGS & SCULPTURES
All of the paintings and sculptures I have in stock are now listed in five 'stock-list' entries within the Art Pages section to the lower right-hand side of this page. Having redone yesterday's attempt, it now looks half-decent, albeit very basic on the detail front. If anything interests you, don't be afraid to drop me an E-mail via the address in my Profile.
PS. High-fives all-round! The visitor counter has suddenly come back to life, albeit minus the 30 or so hits made earlier today. Also worth checking the Links if you haven't done it for a while, as quite a few new ones have been added recently...
All of the paintings and sculptures I have in stock are now listed in five 'stock-list' entries within the Art Pages section to the lower right-hand side of this page. Having redone yesterday's attempt, it now looks half-decent, albeit very basic on the detail front. If anything interests you, don't be afraid to drop me an E-mail via the address in my Profile.
PS. High-fives all-round! The visitor counter has suddenly come back to life, albeit minus the 30 or so hits made earlier today. Also worth checking the Links if you haven't done it for a while, as quite a few new ones have been added recently...
GREMLINS
Having struggled to get one stock-list completed in the Art Pages section last night (the software seems to play up constantly in this area), and even then not really to a point where I'm happy with it, as I can't edit (or rather I can't save what has been edited), I find this morning that the visitor counter has thrown a wobbly, resetting to zero and thus wiping nearly 2300 hits off the tally. This is why I'm an analogue guy!
Also spotted a beauty of a typo - for foal, I'd typed in foul on a couple of occasions in the racehorse profiles. That's what a lack of sleep does for you! In fact, the thought crossed my mind to check in the middle of the night, so I was obviously aware of the mistake subconsciously. Sorry about that, but the correction has now been made. Hopefully, no more foul-ups. And please excuse the pun...
The other bit of news is that I've decided to put a fleeting idea I had of using one of the other Tokoro horses for Louis' competition campaign for a while out of my head. It's a horse that I love (firmly on the cookie roster), and one I've secretly wanted to own for a while, but it all comes back to something I said earlier. Good friends are the hardest things on Earth to find, and I'm not going to abandon Jaguar - he's a different animal because he trusts me as his friend, and Louis and Sophie as his family and training partners. I'm not going to destroy that for an extra few points in the arena. The underdogs will remain underdogs, and we work with the team and tools we have. Period.
Having struggled to get one stock-list completed in the Art Pages section last night (the software seems to play up constantly in this area), and even then not really to a point where I'm happy with it, as I can't edit (or rather I can't save what has been edited), I find this morning that the visitor counter has thrown a wobbly, resetting to zero and thus wiping nearly 2300 hits off the tally. This is why I'm an analogue guy!
Also spotted a beauty of a typo - for foal, I'd typed in foul on a couple of occasions in the racehorse profiles. That's what a lack of sleep does for you! In fact, the thought crossed my mind to check in the middle of the night, so I was obviously aware of the mistake subconsciously. Sorry about that, but the correction has now been made. Hopefully, no more foul-ups. And please excuse the pun...
The other bit of news is that I've decided to put a fleeting idea I had of using one of the other Tokoro horses for Louis' competition campaign for a while out of my head. It's a horse that I love (firmly on the cookie roster), and one I've secretly wanted to own for a while, but it all comes back to something I said earlier. Good friends are the hardest things on Earth to find, and I'm not going to abandon Jaguar - he's a different animal because he trusts me as his friend, and Louis and Sophie as his family and training partners. I'm not going to destroy that for an extra few points in the arena. The underdogs will remain underdogs, and we work with the team and tools we have. Period.
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LAZY SUNDAY Today has been spent framing up a few prints, as well as pricing up new stock items, and watching Louis and Sophie riding Jaguar. Plus, of course, feeding apple-flavoured cookies to the favourites at Tokoro - at the end of the day, it's nice to feel wanted!
Three Jacqueline Stanhope prints done by the afternoon, and they all look superb. Russian Rhythm you saw earlier, but with its black frame and mount it looks even more impressive, while a New Approach portrait and old school Pivotal painting make up the numbers for the day - cream mounts surrounded by a classic dark wood frame on the latter pair. As soon as the new mounts (or mats) arrive, I can get on with some more. It's time consuming, but the results are worth it.I'm going to create a stock list within the art pages in a little while, so if you want to see something at the Tokoro shop at Funabashi Keiba track, you can let me know which day you will be there (you can use the E-mail facility in my profile), and I'll make sure it's packed up. Another option is a COD delivery within Japan via one of the carrier services...
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