Jockey Christophe Lemaire told French media that “in Japan, horse racing is the second most popular sport, right after baseball,” a remark that sparked discussion on the “Nanademo Jikkyo G” (live-sports chat) board.
The thread split over whether horse racing or soccer is actually more popular. Some backers pointed to the fame of the Arima Kinen (the year-end Grand Prix race) as evidence for racing, while others pushed back with “nobody would watch it without betting on it” and “is it even a sport to begin with?”
Well, he really went there.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
On the popularity of horse racing in Japan, he explained: "Japan is a country where horse racing is massively popular — it's the second most popular sport after baseball. About 6 million people watch racing every week, and it gets huge coverage on TV, in newspapers, and other media. The jockeys are very well known. You might walk right past one on the street without noticing, but say the name and people instantly recognize it. Trainers' and horses' names are famous too. A horse in good form or a top jockey becomes the star of the moment. Almond Eye was on the level of a world-famous athlete, and since she's the winningest horse in Japanese G1 history, she naturally became a legend."
>>2 Maybe that was true back in the 1990s
If you count horse racing as a sport, it's absolutely bigger than soccer
I get that he's trying to say it's popular, but isn't sumo actually above it?
A nation of gambling addicts — someone fix this double taxation already (Japan taxes racing winnings both as "miscellaneous income" and again via the payout structure, a frequent complaint)
Once you've bought a ticket, you're locked in watching for sure. That's the power of horse racing.
I wonder how many years of a normal company's tax revenue the JRA rakes in from a single year of race meets. Though with jockeys mired in scandal after scandal, the people involved might be rotten to the core.
>>12 Even Urawa Racecourse alone pays something like 2 billion yen in taxes every year
Lemaire used to show up at Panasonic Stadium (Suita) back in the day — does he still go these days?
Wouldn't it make sense for horse racing to be right after baseball? Though sumo's in the mix too.
There's a chance horse racing is actually #1 🤔
If you couldn't bet money on it, wouldn't nobody care?
If you ask who's more recognizable — the current top horse in the JRA or the current top player in the J.League — the horse probably wins
>>18 The J.League survived 30 years on Kazu alone, don't mess around 😤 (Kazuyoshi Miura, the league's ageless veteran star)
>>18 Jockeys are probably better remembered by name among the general public, honestly. Racehorses retire after three years at the most.
If soccer-loving Lemaire is the one saying it, it must be true
As far as fan behavior goes, he's not wrong — you don't see racist banners at horse racing, and you don't see fans surrounding the team bus
My image of soccer is that it only really gets exciting during the World Cup
Like others here have said, I don't think of it as a sport. The jockeys riding the horses are definitely athletes, sure, but horse racing itself is gambling, not a sport. It's like saying horseback riding is Japan's second most popular pastime.
It's on terrestrial TV more than baseball or soccer, honestly
Horse racing's economic impact is definitely #2, no question
Is horse racing actually a sport though? 🤔
>>32 It's a sport — the whole point is determining the strongest horse
>>32 It gets covered in the sports section of the paper, so it's a sport (weak logic, I know)
>>32 Jockeys genuinely risk their lives out there, and it takes core strength, not just fingertips. Sure, there's an element of depending on the horse's raw ability, but I'd say it counts as a sport. Though watching it isn't really "watching a sport."
They've got a soccer league that draws 13 million fans a year, and people still wildly underrate how popular soccer is in Japan
>>63 Because nobody knows the winning team, let alone the top domestic player
I heard the J.League is at risk of losing out to Korean baseball in attendance
>>69 How bad is Korean baseball's attendance then, seriously 😩
The Arima Kinen has basically become a national event — it draws more attention than baseball's All-Star Game or the Japan Series
>>75 That's probably just because you like horse racing — the general public isn't that into it. Nobody actually knows who won.
>>75 Even people who never follow horse racing otherwise will place a bet just for the Arima Kinen. Meanwhile soccer went and moved the Emperor's Cup final off its New Year's Day tradition slot — what a dumb move that was.
I don't know if it's above or below soccer, but does horse racing really pull in 6 million viewers a week?
>>85 TV ratings run around 5%. For a G1 race, that's probably about right.
It's not a sport, it's just gambling. The number of people who'd watch a race with no money on it and go "wow, that was exciting!" is a tiny minority.
>>95 Soccer has the toto lottery too, you know (toto = Japan's official soccer betting pool)
>>95 I've never bet on it and I still enjoy watching. Even human track and field — basically a worse version of horse racing — is popular, so of course horse racing is entertaining on its own.
>>97 There's definitely a good chunk of soccer fans with zero interest in toto who just watch the matches
>>103 That's becoming more common in horse racing too these days — credit to the JRA's efforts
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Nanademo Jikkyo G) thread “Jockey Lemaire makes an enemy of soccer fans. Tells French media: “In Japan, horse racing is the second most popular sport, after baseball”.”
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