Einshin Preston & Agnest Digital

[masun]

In the Int'l forum, it was mentioned in one of the posts that EP & AD were listed as US horses in the current World Championship. Horny Harry clarified that it meant "American bred". I know they were out of American sires, but were they actually born in the US or Japan? If the latter case, wonder if they should still be regarded as "American bred".
A more general question is among the horses in Japan right now, what is the % of locally bred horses vs. imported ones?

[Horny Harry]

They were by American Sires, not out of ..unless the traditional roles of sires has been reversed?
It would certainly make for an interesting experience to be present at the birth.
I think that both horses had American Dams as well and were most likely to have been "born in the USA "
Not sure about the percentage of local vs overseas but perhaps special week may know more.( ?)

[breezin']

Dear Masun,
In reply to your wondering about Eishin Preston and Agnes Digital. Yes, they were both born in the United States so are both American-bred. If a horse is born in Japan, even if his sire was American-bred, naturally the horse is Japanese-bred. No, that shouldn't sound as obvious as you may think. Earlier, if a mare was in foal but was imported to Japan and gave birth in Japan, the foal was not considered to be Japanese-bred, but was called a "mochi-komi," or "carry-in". They were not permitted to run in the classics. There is a very famous example of this, a horse by the name of Maruzensky, who was born in Japan but had already been in his mother's womb when she came to Japan. Maruzensky won all his races but of course was barred from the Derby. Apparently, his connections, I think the owner, pleaded to permit him to run, even if not for the prize money but it wasn't allowed. Foreign bred horses were not permitted in Japanese races until 1971, hard to believe but true.
Did you know that the JRA has a horse of the year category for horses whose sires were Japanese-bred. Last year there was no horse designated.
Also, here are the latest stats on the number of horses running in the JRA and the number of foreign breds. Also, the stats on races open to foreign-breds.
2001 stats
Total no. of horses registered: 7,715
Foreign-breds registered: 778
Percent of foreign-breds to total horses: 10.08%
Total no. of races: 3,448
No. of graded races: 128
No. of races open to imported horses: 1,897
No. of graded races open to imported horses: 110
Percent of total races open to foreign-breds: 55%
Percent of graded races open to foreign-breds: 85.9%
[ May 15, 2002: Message edited by: breezin' ]

[masun]

Many thanks for an excellent reply, Breezin'!
When AP and EP won their races in HK, there was much talk that the Japanese were keen to use the races to showcase their breeding industry. The media also talked about how the vast sums of money the Japanese spent on acquiring expensive stallions were beginning to pay off. Now it turns that the it was just a beautiful misunderstanding -- since the winners were in fact American-bred, the big wins were more an advertisement for the US rather than Japanese breeding industry!

[specialweek]

Very impressed breezin. What is your source?
There will be a meeting of Asian race Clubs in Tokyo in about two weeks and that meeting may provide some interesting stats.

[breezin']

The source is the JRA. The JAIR lists all sorts of statistics on their Web site. The 2001 ones aren't on there though yet. Here's the address:
http://www.jair.jrao.ne.jp/special/stat2000/jra/main.html
What's this Asian racing clubs meeting all about? I've never heard of that.

[specialweek]

breezin'
I was curious to know how you got last year's stats.
The meeting is a get together of Racing Association Officials from Asia who are invited by the JRA to inspect their operations and to discuss the future direction of racing generally.
I am not privy to the goings on but I am just aware of the event.
Maybe we can talk racing face to face if you would like or perhaps you wish to remain a nick only.
Anyway my Keitai number is 090-9103-7395.

[hobbes]

There will be a meeting of Asian race Clubs in Tokyo in about two weeks.
i think this is an annual event going back 15 yrs or more. i think the URL for same was asianracing.com but currently that takes me to a casino site. the JRA did list an URL for same a few mths ago. normally the clubs would present papers so it would be useful to get hold of any interesting ones ( they were not saved on the previous site ).
when exactly is the conference SW ?? ;) ;) ;)

[breezin']

Oh, sorry, the 2001 stats are available. Here's the address:
http://www.jair.jrao.ne.jp/special/stat2001/jra/main.html

[specialweek]

Hobbes,
I didnt ask for the exact dates but can find out soon.
I believe it is around the week leading up to Yasuda Kinen.
I'll be back
SW

[SlimChance]

Asian Racing Conference (http://www.asianracing.org/)