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The story
At Sapporo Racecourse’s 3-year-old maiden race, Suraj Narredu (India), a jockey visiting Japan for the World All Star Jockeys event, scored his first JRA win in just his second ride. On 5ch threads, the win itself took a backseat to talk about the surging number of Indian staff at Hokkaido’s horse-training farms and stables, and the 200-year history behind Indian horse racing.
Praise has been pouring in on social media for the foreign jockey who claimed his first JRA win aboard a long shot. In the 6th race at Sapporo on the 22nd — a 3-year-old maiden race over 2,600m on turf with 13 horses entered (Realize Pario was scratched) — Fiere Chante (filly, age 3, trained by Kensuke Ogura at Ritto, sired by Fierement), the 6th favorite at 22.2x odds, won comfortably by two and a half lengths. Suraj Narredu, in Japan for the World All Star Jockeys (WASJ) event, picked up his first JRA win in just his second ride.
Breaking evenly from gate 5, Fiere Chante settled into 6th, mid-pack. As rivals began moving from the backstretch into the third corner, she patiently held her ground along the rail. Her jockey started urging her on a touch early, but once they turned for home he drove her hard, and she gradually found another gear, reeling in Gion Bayashi — who had opened up a lead — right at the wire. She pulled clear for a comfortable two-and-a-half-length win. Winning time was 2:41.4 (good going).
Narredu, on his first trip to Japan for WASJ, made his debut ride in Sapporo’s 3rd race aboard Mon Royale (3rd favorite), finishing 4th. But in just his second ride he pulled off a brilliant win, and when handed the microphone in the winner’s circle, he beamed and said, “It feels like I’ve reached the top of the world.”
Source: article.auone.jp / Read the original article here
What people said
Apparently Hokkaido's horse-breeding regions are turning into an Indian stronghold.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6GoKvNi2lA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmuHAv9no7I
It's a tradition from England, dummy.
Over 200 years of tradition, dummy.
This is why Japan is like this, dummy.
There is — an Indian-bred horse has even run in the Japan Cup before.
And for pace-setting workouts, it trains alongside an elephant (lol — a play on "awase-uma," the term for paired training gallops).
Isn't it Islam that bans eating pork, not Hinduism?
Haha, that's Nagura! (comedian Naoto Nagura — apparently there's a resemblance)
>https://pbs.twimg.com/media/HQTI0MwaEAAWz68.jpg
The whole family's rocking sunglasses, very Indian.
Totally "Shanti" vibes.
His first time riding in England was only last year, in an invitational jockeys' race.
It's fair to say Indian jockeys almost never ride in England.
Though they probably do go over for horse-breaking and training facilities.
Guess it's already gotten pretty wild over there.
Apparently plenty of people working at the training farms in Hidaka or Urakawa only know one Japanese jockey — Yutaka Take — but among Indians working in the horse business, it's said there's basically nobody who doesn't know Narredu.
Veron
Honestly, if they just added more special-designated races to bring in more regional (NAR) horses, that would pull in regional jockeys too and things would sort themselves out.
Though they'd need perks too — like not docking the starting allowance even if a regional horse finishes past the time limit, as a reward for horses that bring a jockey along with them.
Yeah. There used to be a lot concentrated in Nagoya and Monbetsu, but now they're everywhere.
Seems like the racing world can't really run anymore without foreign stable hands.
NHK did a whole feature following one Indian stable hand.
No wonder Michelle loves it here — must feel like being treated as an idol.
That's just, like, your own opinion.
The ruby embedded in his forehead, though — that's a bit much.
I really don't think that's the same thing.
So basically he's the Yutaka Take of India.
Well if you're going to say that, isn't the real one already "Japan's Take Yutaka" lol
Does India even have its own Take Yutaka? lololol
Mii-chan, lol (a fan nickname for Yutaka Take)
That's Marie Vélon, from France.
Can't be helped, really — Japanese people don't want this kind of grueling, dirty, dangerous work (the classic "3K" job).
You've got to genuinely love horses to do it.
"Getting to ride in Japan means a huge amount to me. I've thought Japanese racing was the best since I was young. Indian racing also has 200 years of history, and even today horses are still used as a means of transportation. I'd guess most Indians can probably ride a horse."
It really comes down to how many Japanese people can even ride a horse and actually want to work in this industry.
Even before you get to pay and conditions, there just aren't many people with the skills to do the job properly.
Background and Key Points
The JRA (Japan Racing Association) runs Japan’s premier “central” racing circuit, distinct from regional NAR tracks, and Hokkaido’s Hidaka and Urakawa districts are the country’s thoroughbred-breeding heartland, dotted with the training farms (bokujo) that condition and pre-train young horses before they reach a trainer’s stable. Japan’s rural workforce has been shrinking for years, and farm labor — feeding, mucking out, handling horses in all weather — is exactly the kind of physically demanding “3K” work younger Japanese increasingly avoid, so farms have turned to foreign staff, with Indian workers now a visible and growing presence in that pipeline. Narredu himself is not a novelty import: Indian racing traces back roughly two centuries to British colonial-era clubs, and he is one of India’s most decorated jockeys, in Japan specifically for the World All-Star Jockeys (WASJ) series that invites elite international riders to compete alongside JRA stars like Yutaka Take.
Where the thread actually diverged was less about the race result than about scale — some posters treated the Indian-staff phenomenon as a quirky, isolated aside, while others insisted it reflects a structural shift, with entire farm workforces and even paddock handlers now largely non-Japanese, to the point NHK has documented it.
One thing the thread muddled: a poster wondered whether Indians “eat horse” and floated a beef/pork taboo without sorting out which religion holds which restriction — Hinduism (India’s majority religion) generally avoids beef, while the pork taboo belongs to Islam, a distinction the thread never actually resolved.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Geisports Sokuho+) thread “[Horse Racing] Dark-horse Indian jockey Narredu praised online after scoring his first JRA win: “He should get a full-year license,” “Total rich-guy energy”.”
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