Pop Rock to Rock for Pop in cup

[imaufo]

Former champion jockey Damien Oliver took a morning off from trackwork on Monday - and spent it at the track.

Oliver was an interested observer at Sandown as his Cups mount Pop Rock continued his preparation.

While the horse did little more than trot, Oliver didn't miss a step of his work.

Ever the professional, Oliver then quizzed stable representative Toshihide Kiyota on most aspects of the horse's racing and training pattern and temperament, over breakfast.

"He looks a good Cup ride to me," Oliver said.

"I'm fairly familiar with how they train them in Japan and what their procedures are.

"But it's always good to learn as much as you can about your horse."

Pop Rock and his better-performed companion from the stable of trainer Katsuhiko Sumii, Delta Blues, have both settled in well at the Sandown quarantine centre, but have so far only been asked to do slow work.

They will both gallop next week in a final preparation for the Caulfield Cup, with Kiyota providing a small clue as to the stable's preference.

When asked by Oliver how he wanted the gallop to be run, Kiyota told him to simply follow Delta Blues.

"Then when you come to the last two furlongs, you pass him on the inside," Kiyota said.

Pop Rock goes into Saturday week's Caulfield Cup with the best form card in the race.

The winner of his past four starts in Japan, he accounted for last year's Cup runner-up Eye Popper in a Group Two event at his latest appearance.

The better-performed Delta Blues is topweight for the Caulfield Cup with 56kg.

He hasn't started since April and is a winner over 3600m last December.

© AAP 2006 Published 09/10/06

http://japanracing.jp/_news2006/images/060528/060528-04.jpg




Third favorite POP ROCK partnered with Yuga Kawada won this year's MEGURO KINEN to land his first grade-race victory. Runner-up was second-pick EYE POPPER mounted by Yutaka Take, with DADDY'S DREAM coming in third.

The race broke off with EXPLOIT saving ground to take the lead. Race favorite TOKAI TRICK stalked right behind on the outside with SMART STREM following three lengths behind. POP ROCK settled in mid pack around 7th from the front followed by EYE POPPER on the inside. Twelfth choice DADDY'S DREAM traveled wide in 5th to 6th position but gradually moved up to third position by the end of the backstretch.

As the field turned for home, DADDY'S DREAM and POP ROCK surged out from the pack, rallying with TOKAI TRICK, who was still keeping the front. As POP ROCK broke off from the two horsed around the 300-meter line, Yutaka Take steered EYE POPPER between the horses to make a challenge and drew even with POP ROCK in the last 50 meters. POP ROCK, however, barely held off the challenge to reach the goal a neck in front. DADDY'S DREAM also held on well in the homestretch, coming in third for two consecutive years.

http://japanracing.jp/_news2006/images/060528/060528-03.jpg

Japan sends top pair on Cup mission

http://www.33ff.com/flags/M_flags/flag_of_Japan.gif

Tony Arrold

October 04, 2006

JAPAN's two $5m Melbourne Cup hopes, Delta Blues and Pop Rock, jetted into the Victorian capital yesterday looking to balance the books for their homeland.

Australia is two-up on Japan this year, having succeeded there with the world-class sprinter Takeover Target and the history-making jumper Karasi.

Takeover Target won Japan's richest sprint, the $2.3m Sprinter's Stakes (1200m) at the Nakayama racecourse on Sunday.

The Australian sprinter's success was on the same track that Karasi won at in April when he notched back-to-back victories in the $1.77m Grand Jump (4250m), the world's richest race for jumpers.

Delta Blues and Pop Rock linked up in Singapore yesterday with the British-trained cups trio of Land 'N Stars, Geordieland and Wunderwood. The five horses entered the Sandown quarantine facility late yesterday.

Japan is a newcomer to the Melbourne Cup. Eye Popper was its first runner last year. He finished 10th after almost causing a 40-1 upset on debut here when a neck second to Railings in the Caulfield Cup.

Katsumi Yoshida, one of Japan's most influential racing figures, led the Eye Popper syndicate of owners and was encouraged by what he saw.

The same Sunday Racing syndicate owns Delta Blues and Yoshida is also the senior member of a group of eight in the ownership of the tough Pop Rock.

One of three brothers who run the all-powerful Shadai Farms in Japan, Yoshida also has breeding interests in Australia and has a number of horses in work every year.

"Katsumi knows Australian racing very well and understands what the Melbourne Cup means here," David O'Callaghan, Yoshida's bloodstock manager in Australia, said yesterday.

"He tested the water with Eye Popper and felt that horse did well enough to have another go.

"This year, Katsumi asked his trainers to advise him of what might be available (for Melbourne) and these two (Delta Blues and Pop Rock) were the ones seen as the most suitable."

O'Callaghan said that while Delta Blues and Pop Rock had not raced for several months, their training had been geared towards travelling to Australia and running in the Melbourne Cup.

"When you look at all the international horses going for the Cup, I think it is very important to remember the Japanese horses have been trained specifically for the race," O'Callaghan said.

"In general, the European horses come here with the Cup as sort of an afterthought on top of regular racing at home."

The two Japanese horses are also in the $2.5m Caulfield Cup (2400m) on October 21 and, at this stage, it is likely both will run there.

Damien Oliver, who has ridden Yoshida-owned horses in Australia, has been sought for Pop Rock, who has 53kg in both cups. Pop Rock has won six of 18 races, clinching a Melbourne trip by beating Eye Popper at his latest start on May 28. He has earned $1.95m to date.

Nash Rawiller has been booked for Delta Blues, a high-class winner at 3000m and 3600m at home with total earnings of $4.75m. He has 56kg in the Melbourne Cup.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20520497-2722,00.html

[imaufo]

Pop Rock is music to Oliver's ears

Tony Bourke

October 16, 2006

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/10/15/poprock161006_narrowweb__300x440,0.jpg

Let's rock … Damien Oliver gets acquainted with Pop Rock yesterday.
Photo: Pat Scala

IT WAS barely light when Damien Oliver arrived at Sandown yesterday to test his Caulfield Cup mount Pop Rock for the first time but he could have gone around blindfolded and came back with the same report.

"He felt terrific," Oliver said after Pop Rock galloped with stablemate Delta Blues over 1200 metres and finished just ahead, running their last 400m in 24 seconds.

After a few riding stints in Japan, Oliver knows how Japanese trainers prepare their horses and he also knows what is needed to win a Caulfield Cup, given that he has won four of them - sharing the record with Scobie Breasley.

"On his record, I expected him [Pop Rock] to be a high-class galloper and that's what he showed me," Oliver said.

The six-year-old has won his past four starts from 2200m to 2500m and at his most recent outing, on May 28, he defeated Eye Popper, which finished second in last year's Caulfield Cup, in the group 2 Meguro Kinen Stakes (2500m) at Fuchu in Tokyo.

"I've watched tapes of those wins and he can either race on the pace or come from behind, which is what you need in a Caulfield Cup," he said.

Pop Rock, which is by the 1996 Arc winner Helissio, from the Sunday Silence mare Pops, carried 54 kilograms in his latest win and drops to 53kg in the Caulfield Cup in which Delta Blues, to be ridden by Nash Rawiller, has topweight of 56kg.

The main concern for Oliver at this stage is whether Pop Rock, equal 18th in the elimination order, will scrape into the field.

Nick Ryan was also at Sandown yesterday to ride English stayer Land 'N' Stars - trained by Jamie Poulton - which is in the same bracket as Pop Rock in terms of a Caulfield Cup start.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/horseracing/pop-rock-is-music-to-olivers-ears/2006/10/15/1160850815117.html

[imaufo]

Japanese raiders ready to rock

Andrew Eddy

October 19, 2006

JAPANESE trainer Katsuhiko Sumii yesterday likened one of his Caulfield Cup contenders, Pop Rock, to last year's cup runner-up, Eye Popper. But he conceded Pop Rock may struggle to mirror the Japanese horse's grand on-pace effort last year, given the midfield gate he drew at yesterday's barrier draw.

Sumii, speaking through an interpreter, said his horses, topweight Delta Blues (barrier 17) and Pop Rock (barrier 11), would not press to be on the pace from their wide gates and, instead, were likely to get back in the field.

"They are not that good at the jump and will get a little behind but that is no big deal," Sumii said.

Sumii said he could not split his two runners, despite Pop Rock being at $21 and Delta Blues a $67 chance, but he said Pop Rock was a similar type to Eye Popper, who raced on the pace last year and held off all challengers except for the winner, Railings. He said Delta Blues was a lazy horse who was likely to get back, but added both were fit and ready.

"We have been here two weeks and the condition of the horses is good and they have both had a very good preparation," he said.

While the Japanese horses fared poorly at yesterday's barrier draw, local heavyweights David Hayes and Lee Freedman were feeling confident after all but one of their six Caulfield Cup contenders drew single-figure barriers. With 10 of the past 13 cup winners jumping from inside barrier 10, yesterday's draw was seen as a vital factor.

Hayes especially had some luck: his most-favoured runner Growl drew barrier nine, which has been the most successful barrier in the race's history, having supplied the winner nine times, including four of the past eight cups. The Hayes-trained Tawqeet drew barrier three, while race outsider, Short Pause, snared gate six. "I was confident of being able to win the race before the draw and now I'm very happy," Hayes said.

Jockey Craig Williams attended yesterday's draw and could not hide his delight, pumping his fist after Growl's gate was drawn. Hayes said Growl, who won his first race less than four months ago, was his best chance of victory on Saturday. "He's backed up before and physically he looks right, his action's good and he's eating well."

Freedman said barrier two suited Our Smoking Joe because he was "a good beginner and a go-forward horse" while he said the race favourite Sphenophyta's barrier eight meant jockey Dan Nikolic would have several options from the jump.

As for Serenade Rose's 15 alley, Freedman said the mare was likely to show pace.

Our Smoking Joe and Activation were the firmers in betting after the draw with Our Smoking Joe into $6 from $7 and Activation moving up to fifth favourite at $9 from $11. Serenade Rose was the most obvious drifter in the market, easing from $9 to $11.

Nick Williams, deputising for his father Lloyd, was relieved the two barriers he picked out for Activation and the race's second emergency Zipping came in the right order as Activation came up with barrier four, while Zipping, who is most unlikely to make the final line-up, drew the extreme outside gate of 21.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/horse-racing/japanese-raiders-ready-to-rock/2006/10/18/1160850999405.html

[imaufo]

Japanese success a matter of time

Tony Bourke

October 21, 2006

OVER the past 40 years or so we have come to accept Japanese-made goods as part of our daily lives. From radios to motorcars and just about everything in between, "Made in Japan" typifies technological brilliance.

They quickly moved from copying goods made in the West to being the frontrunners in many industries and now they have done the same with thoroughbred racing and breeding. Not that horse racing is even remotely new in Japan. They were indulging in their version of the "sport of emperors" before Captain Cook sailed into Botany Bay.

Racing in Japan has had as long and rich history as any of the accepted racing countries, it is just that we never heard about it. Now we are, in a big way, and it will not be long - perhaps even this year, that a Japanese-bred, owned and trained horse wins the Caulfield or Melbourne cups, maybe even both. They came close last year when Eye Popper finished a close second in the Caulfield Cup won by Railings and was probably unlucky.

This year we have the stablemates Delta Blues and Pop Rock and they come with better credentials than Eye Popper. The pair lack for nothing in the way of breeding or ability compared with their rivals from the biggest stables in Australia as well as some from the northern hemisphere. Over the past 20 years or so, the Japanese have diligently bought up much of the best bloodstock available anywhere in the world to mix with their own bloodlines and the results have been startling.

Japan has a booming thoroughbred breeding industry and boasts the best prizemoney in the world, other than for the world cup meeting in Dubai, and it has all come about despite the Government actively discouraging gambling.

Now, instead of the closed-shop attitude that existed until fairly recently, Japan has opened up more of its races to international competition and at the same time more of its horses, trainers and jockeys are heading offshore to compete against the best in the world at the major carnivals.

Katsuhiko Sumii, who is here with Delta Blues and Pop Rock, was one of the first Japanese trainers to win a feature race in the US. The push to travel their horses has not been so much a concerted effort by the Japan Racing Association, the main racing authority, as the initiative of Japan's biggest owners and breeders, the Yoshida brothers. Including stallions, broodmares and racing stock, they have about 3000 horses under their control.

Although Katsumi Yoshida is the driving force behind the international forays, his involvement in Australian racing came almost by accident. His Australian racing manager, David O'Callaghan, explained Yoshida and his wife were visiting her father who lives at the Gold Coast and he decided to buy a few yearlings. "He's usually got about 20 horses in work in Australia with Lee Freedman, Gai Waterhouse, David Hayes and John Hawkes."

With the weather in Japan often extremely cold, the training centres all have indoor tracks. Alf Matthews, who paved the way for Australian jockeys riding in Japan 10 years ago, said races there were always run at a strong tempo. "They will not hold back like we do here, they go forward and find their [horses] comfort zone and stay with it."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/horseracing/japanese-success-a-matter-of-time/2006/10/20/1160851138059.html

[imaufo]

Both Delta Blues and Pop Rock ran good races. Delta Blues ran a good third at 100+, Pop rock not far behind.

[Seabiscuit]

Have they been drug tested yet?

[imaufo]

No I dont think so...the Australians dont care if overseas horses do well in their big races.

[imaufo]

Double shot of Japanese

Delta Blues and Pop Rock fired a warning to Australian trainers that Japan means business.

Brendan Cormick reports
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A SLEEPING Japanese giant rocked the Australian racing industry yesterday when committed thoroughbred owner Katsumi Yoshida quinellaed the Melbourne Cup with Delta Blues touching out stablemate Pop Rock in a thriller.

November 08, 2006

SINCE Vintage Crop won the 1993 Melbourne Cup, in the process turning the race into an international event, a motley crew of European visitors has made the trip to Flemington.

A few like Media Puzzle, Central Park and Yeats have been worthy contenders; many have been little more than pedestrian and have jumped from the barriers at cricket-score odds.

Yesterday's Japanese quinella by Delta Blues and Pop Rock in front of a crowd of 106,691 ensured the days of viewing the international contingent as bringing colour and curiosity but not a whole lot of calibre to the spring carnival are over.

While the Europeans have had more than 50 runners, producing two winners, two seconds and two thirds, the Japanese have triumphed with only their second and third runners.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/11/07/racefinish_narrowweb__300x366,0.jpg

The perfect blend of Irish genius Dermot Weld and Cups king Bart Cummings, 42-year-old Japanese trainer Katsuhiko Sumii completed an audacious raid on the Melbourne Cup with iron horse Delta Blues and his stablemate Pop Rock, which finished second, just centimetres away.

Leigh Jordon, Racing Victoria's international talent scout, said Sumii's squad arrived on October 3. He marvelled at their professionalism. He first courted their participation in June last year and secured them early this year for the Melbourne spring carnival.

Jordon does not believe that yesterday's quinella will open the floodgates for Asian participation in the Melbourne Cup. He said they were expected to carefully choose ideal horses to target plum spring carnival races.

To bring two horses from Japan, keep them healthy and sound into the race was an achievement in itself. To provide the quinella was a pipedream come to life.

But there was no element of fluke in Sumii's deed. This had been 12 months in the planning and no stone was left unturned in executing the plan behind the $200,000 gamble.

That is how much it has cost, approximately, to ship Delta Blues and Pop Rock to Australia for their Caulfield and Melbourne Cups bid.

After fellow trainer Izumi Shimizu brought Eye Popper to Melbourne last year, much was learned. Eye Popper was touched off by Railings at his first Australian start in the Caulfield Cup. He left it all on the track at Caulfield, and he wasn't the same horse at Flemington in finishing 12th to Makybe Diva. Delta Blues and Pop Rock ran in the Caulfield Cup this year, finishing third and seventh respectively. The pair trained on at Sandown, getting stronger by the day.

Delta Blues even endured a trip to Flemington a week out from the Cup, simply because he was lazy and needed the trip away across town. He needed the hard gallop to be physically and mentally tuned for the race.

Sumii arrived on Friday to put the finishing touches on the preparation but his staff, which numbered three to six people at varying stages, followed his instructions to the letter.

The main issue that threatened to derail the task related to feed. Sumii said yesterday that jet lag and time-delay issues had little or no bearing on the preparations, but the stable could not bring with it the usual feed the horses have in Japan.

"We like to use mashed soya beans but were told we could not bring it to Australia," Sumii said. "Instead, we bought Australian feed and sent it over to Japan so the horses could get used to it."

This was a masterstroke in the wake of all the drama endured by European trainers Luca Cumani and David Elsworth with their Cup hopes. Their horses ate poorly on occasions, particularly soon after their arrival in Melbourne, as their feed was rancid because of the irradiation process used to purify the food.

Sumii's perfectly planned Melbourne Cup preparation is a reflection on his meticulous nature and reputation as an outstanding horseman.

Australia-based author and journalist Mariko Hyland says Sumii loves the challenge of overseas competition.

Sumii has been training in Japan since 2000 and is regarded as one of that nation's leaders at his craft. Where he excels is in the travelling of horses to far-flung destinations. Last year, he produced Cesario to win the American Oaks and has also won a Hong Kong International Mile with Hat Trick.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/11/07/jockeys_wideweb__470x340,0.jpg

This year he prepared Heart's Cry to win the Dubai Sheema Classic at the World Cup meeting at Nad Al Sheba. His Melbourne Cup performance is a crowning achievement of a phenomenal training career. Sumii trains for Katsumi Yoshida, described as a visionary in bloodstock circles in Japan. Half the 42 horses he has in work are owned by Yoshida, who is the principal of Northern Farm, Japan's biggest thoroughbred breeding operation.

Yoshida pays the bills for more than 70 thoroughbreds in Australia, with elite trainers Lee Freedman, John Hawkes, Gai Waterhouse and David Hayes doing the training, while there are broodmares, weanlings and yearlings to pay for.

Yoshida employs 300 staff, owns a staggering 1300-plus racehorses and revealed more than 300 foals were born on his property every breeding season. He first learned of the Melbourne Cup 20 years ago and has always wanted to win the famous race.

http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2006/11/07/deltamain_wideweb__470x323,2.jpg

Sumii gambled on one of his own to ride Delta Blues, Yasunari Iwata. He has ridden over 3000 winners but most in Japan's secondary racing association. He graduated to the main circuit, the Japanese Racing Association, two years ago and had ridden two Group I winners prior to yesterday's triumph.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20719644-2722,00.html

[imaufo]

http://jra.jp/topics/column/kaigai/meta/06_melbourne_h.asx

Thanks Seabikkies...heres the call in Japanese for those interested. The announcer got a little excited at the end.