Training Report of Foreign Entry
The 59th Running of the Takarazuka Kinen (G1)

June 21, 2018 (Thursday)

<At Hanshin Racecourse>

Weather: Cloudy
Going: Yielding (turf course)

Werther (NZ, G7, Bay)

- jogged 500m (left-handed), walked 200m, cantered 800m, galloped 1,200m (right-handed) on turf course
(exercised from 7:26 AM to 7:40 AM, ridden by Romain Clavreul)

“The horse has been doing very well since arriving in Osaka. He loves traveling, he’s relaxed, bright and healthy. He’s very fit and we expect a very close race on Sunday. Japan has always been close to me personally because I went to high school in Tokyo and lived there close to six years, so running my horse here is a dream come true. Japan is close to home and we’ve always wanted to explore Japanese racing. We were thinking about Japan Cup earlier but the timing of the Takarazuka Kinen fit the Hong Kong program very well. We would love to have a draw anywhere between gates 1 to 6 but I think my horse will be able to handle any gate. The condition of my horse is very much suitable to the soft track here during the rainy season. This is a competitive race with many good Japanese horses but we’d like to do our best.”

(comments taken by Johnson Chen)

“The horse is in really good condition and we are really happy with him, and Werther is enjoying this moment so much. It was the owner that wanted to race him in Japan. The horse is very mature and it was a good timing for him to travel. So Mr. Moore and Mr. Chen decided to race him in the Takarazuka Kinen. The horse really enjoys traveling. He hadn’t traveled for a long time since coming to Hong Kong so this is really good for him.”

(comments taken by Fifi Moore)

“The horse felt really nice and worked really well this morning. The boss told me to gallop him 1200 meters and he handled the track very well. We raced him in the Lion Rock Trophy to get him fit because he hadn’t raced at all since February. He traveled very well to Japan. He didn’t lose much weight and he’s been eating very well. Regarding the race development, you can’t really say because you never know what’s going to happen…but the ideal development will be for him to win the race. We’re not really worried about other horses… as long as we run our own race. The ideal post would be 1-5. The horse prefers soft track so that’s probably one of the main reasons why we came here during the rainy season. Everyone knows that Japanese races are really good and that Japanese horses are very tough but we have a tough horse. He’s been raced on different distances but I think his best would be the distance he will be racing on Sunday. We’re not worried about the uphill homestretch at Hanshin because he’s a well-balanced horse, he’s six years old and tough and pretty light on his feet. Some of his many strong points are that he is really tough and loves competition. I think that if there is another hose next to him 100 meters from the finish line, it would be hard to beat him.”

(comments taken by Romain Clavreul)