Nakayama Closed till September, JRA Shuffles Meets

The racing industry has taken a fairly large blow after the catastrophic 9.0 earthquake that hit the eastern coast of Japan. While luckily there was no loss of life, there has been major set backs. In the East most, if not all of the JRA’s OTBs, called WINS, are closed. Nakayama Racetrack, on of two JRA tracks in the Tokyo area was damaged in the March 11th quake and canceled the rest of it’s spring racing meet; March 12th through April 17th. All of it’s stakes races have been moved to Hanshin Racetrack, which is located over 300 miles west in Osaka. Nakayama will not open again until September, though after it’s April meet, it usually doesn’t open again until September. This will give the JRA to repair the damage to the facilities before man and beast return...