Japan Cup Dirt (G1) - Preview (1)

* Summer Bird has withdrawn from this race, due to a metacarpus fracture in his right foreleg.

2008 Japan Cup Dirt (G1)

As if to mark the 10th anniversary of the Japan Cup Dirt on Dec. 6, Summer Bird - this year's winner of the Belmont Stakes - will swoop onto Hanshin Racecourse chasing after the lucrative Japan Autumn International bonus of a potential 100 million yen, on top of the check by the same amount awarded to the new champion.

Summer Bird, who will be joined by fellow American Tizway in a full field of 16, is the first winner of a U.S. Triple Crown race to run in Japan. When the Japan Racing Association first held the Japan Cup Dirt in 2000, it had world-class horses like Summer Bird in mind to test the best dirt runners in the country, after seeing what the race's counterpart - the Japan Cup - had done to raise the profile and quality of Japanese thoroughbreds on turf.

The importance of the dirt program has grown with each year since 1995, when the JRA expanded the parameters of its relationship with the local racing associations. The increased number of quality races at home led to more and more horses traveling abroad to dirt havens like the United States and Dubai in search of even greater competition.

For the first eight years, the Japan Cup Dirt was held at Tokyo over 2,100 meters the day before the Japan Cup (apart from 2004, when the two races were organized on the same day). But beginning in 2008, the Japan Cup Dirt was relocated to Hanshin, shortened to 1,800 meters and fixed the weekend after the Japan Cup. The Japan Cup Dirt is also the final race of the Japan Autumn International, the JRA's four-race series launched last season with a combined purse of more than 1.2 billion yen.

Only two overseas horses have managed to finish inside the top three at the Japan Cup Dirt: Lord Sterling, who came in third in the inaugural race, and Fleetstreet Dancer who won in 2003. A maximum of eight from abroad are allowed.

Post time is set for 3:40 p.m.