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.
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.
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