Ruby in Japan

[Old Vic]

Some achievement by Walsh and Mullins to win the Nakayama Grand Jump today ...biggest prize in Japanese jumps racing about £430k to the winner http://www.fatjockey.com/news-blogs/...013-Result-264

Ruby had a bit in his examiner column about it last month...


RUBY WALSH: Japan trip an education

Saturday, March 30, 2013
By Ruby Walsh

I must start this week by telling you about my first ever trip to Japan last weekend.
As you probably know, I went to ride Blackstairmountain for Willie Mullins at a racecourse called Nakayama, which is about a 45 minute drive from Tokyo.

I flew Dublin-Heathrow-Tokyo and it was some experience. The race was on Saturday and I arrived at the track to exercise Blackstairmountain at 6.00 on Friday morning.

Now that was about 10.00 at night here at home, so I hadn’t overly adjusted to the new time zone.

Anyway, the race was a real education, with Blackstairmountain only managing to finish ninth of the 12 finishers.

It was so different to what we are used to that I’d say Sprinter Sacre would definitely get beaten at the first time of asking at Nakayama.

We started from stalls and I had a bad draw in 12. We went like the hammers of hell throughout, on ground I would describe as green tarmac.

The fences were soft and jumping through them, rather than over, was the right way to do things.

But Blackstairmountain wasn’t used to that and lost ground at the second and third obstacles.

It was sheer speed from start to finish and was a bit like riding over seven furlongs at Laytown.

The facilities at the track were spectacular. I’ve been to Sha Tin and they were certainly up to that standard.

As I told you here two weeks ago, we were removed from public view from the night before the races, in a jockeys’ lock down. This was all to do with integrity.

Basically, that was a hotel and, while I didn’t count the number of jockeys involved, I’d say there were 60 of us. I’d hate to have been paying for it.

Blackstairmountain is still in Japan, supervised by Emmet Mullins, and runs in a £600,000 to the winner race there in a couple of weeks.

If I survive the Aintree Grand National next Saturday, then I’ll be returning to Tokyo a few days later to ride the horse again.

[Yeehaa]

Mitsuki Kaneko getting called names in Japan

[mayo]

Great ride from Ruby...did anyone back it?




Mullins admitted he has had the Nakayama race in his sights for some time.

He said: "I had the Nakayama Grand Jump in consideration back around 10 years ago. I had two good jumpers, Florida Pearl and Alexander Banquet-big winners back home-that were invited.

"But when I came out to check out on the conditions here, I decided it wouldn't suit both horses and withdrew the entry.

"I thought it would suit what we call a "summer horse" and it took me a few years to find a horse good enough.

"I had my doubts after Blackstairmountain's performance in the Pegasus but Ruby Walsh, the jockey, was more positive and Emmet and Diarmuid have done a tremendous job in conditioning the gelding for this race.

"I am thrilled and if the horse's condition is fit to come again next time, I would be quite eager to do so."

Walsh felt both the step up in trip and his previous experience of the track had helped Blackstairmountain.

"We were a bit worried about coming back after the Pegasus but the (extra) distance and the experience of the track really helped him and he was a much different horse to ride and it's a thrill to win it," he said.

"After the last fence and coming into the lane when there was a (loose) horse on our outside and the others started to panic, but I was able to position him where I wanted.

"Blackstairmountain likes the fast ground. Unfortunately we haven't been able to have that ground back in Ireland in the last two summers, so we came to Japan for the firm ground and he's shown what he can do in this big race."

[mayo]

Donn

Things We Learned » Conquering Japan

Conquering Japan

It is difficult to over-estimate the magnitude of Willie Mullins’ achievement in winning the Nakayama Grand Jump, the second richest jumps race in the world, last Saturday morning with Blackstairmountain.

The very fact that Mullins would even think to try to win the race, a race that had never before been won by a European horse, tells you about his attitude towards frontiers and limits and precedent.

But there was so much more to this than just attitude.* He had to choose the right horse, a horse who had the potential to possess the attributes required to win this unique race, run over two miles and five furlongs on lightning quick ground at a tight flat track but with a couple of startlingly steep inclines and declines, right-handed and left-handed, a stalls start and over unusual obstacles, big and soft.* He had to have an owner in Rich Ricci who was willing to take a punt, he had to have a safe pair of hands in Emmet Mullins who could look after the horse out there, and he had to have a rider in Ruby Walsh who could excel against the locals on their home terrain.

On top of that, he had to train him for the race.* Willie had the prescience to take his horse out to Japan for the Pegasus Jump three weeks earlier, allow him have a spin over two miles of the Nakayama circuit, get used to the ground and the tempo of the race and the fences. Blackstairmountain did warm to his task during the Pegasus but, given how long it took him to begin to negotiate his obstacles with even a modicum of fluency, you can be certain that, without that run in the Pegasus Jump, it would have been a wasted trip.

It wasn’t the first time that a Mullins had traversed international frontiers.* It was in April 1990 that the Paddy Mullins-trained Grabel, ridden by his son and Willie’s brother Tony, went to Kentucky Downs and won the Duelling Grounds International, worth over $300,000 to the winner.

Saturday’s race on the other side of the world obviously wasn’t as high-profile for Irish or British racing enthusiasts as a Champion Hurdle or a Punchestown Gold Cup is but, make no mistake, this was a memorable feat by that champion trainer, an achievement that is up there with all his victories at Cheltenham and Leopardstown and Punchestown and Auteuil.