THIS was a very good year for rugby union in Japan. The heroics of the Brave Blossoms beating the Springboks in their opening match of the tournament was one of the highlights of a memorable Rugby World Cup.

Japan’s national team followed up with further wins in the pool stages against the USA and Samoa and the Land of the Rising Sun is already excited about hosting the next Rugby World Cup in 2019.

However, it was not a good year for Japanese racing. Not quite an annus horribilis but a very disappointing year nevertheless, especially on the world stage.

The following are 12 things that went wrong for Japanese racing and breeding in 2015:

  • 1. The year started very badly with the announcement in early January that the Japan Racing Horse Association (JRHA) would no longer accept foreign-owned foals into Japan’s flagship bloodstock sale. It was a clumsy kneejerk reaction to a problem encountered last year with a foreign stallion master in relation to a foal-share deal. The decision resulted in significant negative publicity for Japan in the international press.
  • 2. In early March, popular jockey Hiroki Goto committed suicide. The 40-year-old, who had more than 1,500 JRA wins to his name, had been struggling to recover from a racetrack fall. He had ridden five Group 1 winners including Erin Court who won the Oaks.
  • 3. Christophe Lemaire, who had just received a full-time JRA jockey licence, was a good friend of the above mentioned Goto and on hearing of the untimely death of his friend tweeted his condolences and a picture of the two in happier times. However, he was in jockey lockup at the time just before racing commenced and should not have been using his phone. The JRA punished him by suspending him for a month.
  • 4. Japan shipped a strong team of seven horses including five previous Group 1 winners to Dubai World Cup Day but left empty handed. One And Only, who finished third in the Dubai Sheema Classic, was best of the Japanese.
  • 5. Without question, Duramente was the best horse seen in Japan this year. He was sensational in the Group 1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) and won the first colts’ classic of the year in the second fastest time in the race’s 75-year history. He followed up by winning the Derby in a new record time in what was simply a sensational performance. However, a training accident in a spelling farm after the Derby resulted in fractures to both forelimbs and he has been off the track since.
  • 6. King Kamehameha is an exceptional stallion and is the sire of Duramente mentioned above. He is also the sire of Let’s Go Donki, winner earlier in the spring of the Group 1 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas). Indeed, he was champion sire in Japan in 2010 and 2011 and has been runner-up to Deep Impact every year since. However, despite him being only 14-years-old, he is experiencing fertility problems and has only a small number of mares in foal this year.
  • 7. In 2014 Sheikh Fahad Al Thani sold a Frankel filly foal at the JHRA Select Foal sale for Yen 96,000,000 (€725,000). The burgeoning Qatar-based operation also bought bloodstock to the combined value of ¥870,000,000 (€6,350,000) and indeed were last year’s leading buyers. However, they dramatically cancelled their planned participation at this year’s renewal in protest at the edict issued earlier in the year by the JRHA which required all foals in the sale to be Japanese-owned.
  • 8. There was no Japanese runner in this year’s Arc, the first time in many years, which emphasised the absence of a fit world-class 12-furlong horse in the Land of the Rising Sun.
  • 9. The Japan Bloodhorse Breeders Association (JBBA) purchased Empire Maker in 2010 after he had spent seven years at stud in Kentucky. However, the ink was hardly dry on the contract when Acoma became another Group 1 winner for the son of Unbridled. And she was soon followed by Royal Delta, Bodemeister, Grace Hall, In Lingerie and Emollient, many of whom scored multiple times at the highest level. When additionally he became the grandsire of American Pharoah, the winner of this year’s American Triple Crown, there was a clamour for his repatriation and the JBBA capitulated and regrettably decided to “sell the family jewels’’. Empire Maker will stand next year at Gainesway in The Bluegrass for a fee of US$100,000.
  • 10. It is nine years since Delta Blues became the first to win the Melbourne Cup for Japan. There were high expectations that Fame Game would do it again for Japan this year and indeed he started as the favourite in the 24-runner field. However, he finished a disappointing 13th.
  • 11. The Japan Cup Dirt never achieved the cache of its sister race the Japan Cup which is of course run on turf. In an effort to rebrand it and in the hope of attracting more foreign runners it was shortened to nine furlongs and moved to Chukyo racecourse which races left-handed and it was therefore hoped that more American horses could be enticed to travel for the €1,500,000 prize. However, this year, only Gun Pit from Hong Kong made the journey.
  • 12. Currently racehorses imported to Japan are subject to a ¥3,400,000 (€25,000) tariff irrespective of the value of the horse. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a recently agreed treaty among Pacific-rim countries including the USA, Japan, Canada and Australia designed to liberalise trade and abolish tariffs. Nevertheless, Japan successfully argued that its breeding industry still needs significant protection and the tariff, (if indeed the agreement is ratified by member states), will remain at least partially in place for a further 16 years. This is despite Japan having the top two rated horses in the world last year (Just A Way and Epiphaneia) and Japanese trained or bred horses winning more than 36 Group 1 races outside Japan in the last two decades.