2 horses try to make Kentucky Derby next Japan conquest

Louisville, Ky.

Yoshito Yahagi was going through the routine all over again Wednesday morning. After tending to his Kentucky Derby horse, he walked outside the quarantine barn on the quiet east end of Churchill Downs, where he was greeted by a gaggle of six journalists from Japan and one from Kentucky.

“I definitely didn’t expect I could come back so soon since last year to Kentucky,” he said through the translation of racing manager Hiroshi Ando. “I’m so excited, and I’m really thrilled to be here.”

Free Brisnet past performances for Kentucky Derby 2024.

It was only two days before the 2023 Derby when Yahagi scratched Continuar, who was “not able to reach peak fitness.” Almost exactly 52 weeks later, Yahagi is not only back, but he has a horse who may represent Japan’s best chance yet to win for the first time in the 150-year history of America’s biggest race.

Asked how it would feel if Forever Young were to do that Saturday, Yahagi declared, “I believe we will change Japanese racing history.”

Forever Young, who is 5-for-5, is one of the two Japan-based horses in the Derby. So is T O Password, who is 2-for-2. They drew posts next to each other in the middle of the 20-horse starting gate.

“I want to show everyone I’m here,” said T O Password’s trainer Daisuke Takayanagi, 46, who came to America seven years ago to study the horsemanship techniques of Dale Romans, Tom Amoss and Ben Colebrook. “I used to watch Churchill Downs races, and I wanted to be in the Kentucky Derby one day. All those things came true, and I want to show the Japanese racing fans, too. That’s why I came here.”

Takayanagi may have the longest shot in the field Saturday. T O Password, a Copano Rickey colt owned by Tomoya Ozasa, has only his debut victory and a 13-1 Derby-qualifying upset in the Fukuryu Stakes on his résumé. He is 30-1 on the morning line and between 50-1 and 80-1 in Nevada fixed-odds betting.

Meanwhile, Yahagi will saddle one of the top five betting choices. Forever Young is 10-1 in the program and in the 8-1 to 11-1 range in Las Vegas.

“With Continuar’s past results before Kentucky, we just wanted everyone (in the traveling team) to experience the atmosphere,” Yahagi said. “But this time we put a target on this race. That’s why I brought this horse that I feel is coming as a (contender) here.”

Forever Young, a Real Steel colt owned by Susumu Fujita, qualified for Saturday’s classic with his two-length victory March 30 in the Group 2 UAE Derby. That race perplexingly has produced 19 starters in the Kentucky Derby with none finishing better than fifth. That, however, was not when Yahagi thought he might have himself a legitimate candidate worthy of the run for the roses.

“I was thinking about him after he won three in a row,” Yahagi said, zeroing in on a seven-length runaway Dec. 13 at Kawasaki in the Nisai Yushun, a designated Derby points race in the Japan qualifying series. “Since then I really thought about the Kentucky Derby.”

Forever Young began his 3-year-old campaign with his win by a head over Book ’em Danno on Feb. 24 in the Saudi Derby (G3) before making his latest impression at Dubai. All the while he has been paired with jockey Ryusei Sakai, who would have made his Churchill Downs debut last year with Continuar. Instead, it will come Friday when he rides 30-1 long shot T O Saint Denis, a 5-year-old stablemate of T O Password, in the Alysheba (G2).

“Ryusei Sakai rides in many different countries,” said Yahagi, 63, who is well-known for his brightly colored fedoras on race days. “Of course, he rode many racecourses for the first time, too. He will ride Friday and ride Saturday, too. I’m not really worried about anything like that. I’m not concerned for him riding for the first time at Churchill Downs.”

A new track may be one thing. A race with 20 horses thundering 500 yards to the same first turn is quite another, especially as Forever Young and T O Password try to find their expected settling points in mid-pack.

“Twenty horses are a lot,” Yahagi said. “Of course I have to be (aware) about that, but all the horses have the same situation, so I don’t have to worry about that.”

T O Password has a slight advantage in that respect. Where Sakai will have only one race behind him at Churchill Downs, Kazushi Kimura already has been down the road once before. A full-time jockey at Santa Anita and Woodbine, Kimura, 24, rode Santa Anita Derby (G1) runner-up Mandarin Hero to a bumpy 12th-place result for trainer Terunobu Fujita in the 2023 Kentucky Derby, his first-ever race at Churchill.

“Of course, he has a lot of experience in North America racing,” Takayanagi said. “Also, he’s the same nationality with us, so we don’t have any language barrier. We can have deep discussions about the horses, so I think this is a very positive thing for us.”

A seven-time training champion in Japan, Yahagi is keenly aware of what a positive feeling is like on a U.S. stage. At Del Mar in 2021 he looked after Loves Only You and Marche Lorraine in Japan’s first-ever wins in the Breeders’ Cup. He also has had Group 1 success in Australia, Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia, and his 14 Grade 1 triumphs in Japan have been highlighted by Contrail’s triple crown in 2021. Last spring a statue of Contrail was unveiled at Kyoto Racecourse. It has been suggested Forever Young could be right up there with him.

“A lot of people have asked me that question,” Yahagi said. “At the moment it’s really hard to say. For my stable I hope he will be like a statue horse.”