2025 News
The 2025 World All-Star Jockeys Welcomes International Participants at SapporoA welcome reception attended by participants and members of the racing circle was held at Premier Hotel -TSUBAKI- Sapporo from 18:00 on August 22 prior to the World All-Star Jockeys (WASJ), held over two days from tomorrow.
 Alexis Badel (Hong Kong) “I'm very pleased and very honored to be here and take part of the challenge for the second time. I had a really great time in my first opportunity, and I'm really looking forward to participate once again. It's my great honor and pleasure to be here in front of you, so thank you.” “I am grateful to be here for riding here in Japan under a short-term license—I was really honored and I'm grateful for the support that I've had from the owners and trainers. I have ridden quality horses and I have tried my best to give the horses the best and the opportunity to give what they can give. To be honest, (racing under the short-term license at) Chukyo was a different track and I didn't have a lot of experience in Japan before that, only the challenge in Sapporo. Certainly that (experience) helped me a little bit with the custom and the way of racing, but I feel like I was very fit coming back from a long season in Hong Kong which definitely helped me with the racing and (riding in) the heat. So, I feel (the reason I did well this time was because) I've had good horses, good momentum, and I was also very fit. So this certainly contributes to the success. It was a very challenging experience for me, and I think it was a very good thing. And I experienced a lot of things, but I think the experience of racing in Hong Kong is also useful. Hong Kong only has handicap races, which makes races very competitive, and the gate position is extremely important because of the tightness of the track in Happy Valley, for example. Japan has more long-distance races, and the quality of the horses, I believe, is pretty good over longer distances, so I would say I can ride the horses a bit more accordingly to their ability rather than being too aggressive that is the Hong Kong style, but I’ve ridden many many young horses with great abilities.” [Assigned mounts]
 Francisco Goncalves (Argentina) “Thank you very much for the invitation to come to Japan for the first time. I am very happy and hope that it will be a beautiful event for both the riders and the fans. I would like to thank everyone involved in the JRA for inviting me. This is my first time riding in Japan, so I am very excited. I am very happy to be able to participate in this event. I hope to do my best.” “I always ride with utmost respect towards the horse I ride—I believe that if I can keep the horse in a comfortable rhythm, that would bring out the best response heading towards the finish, so that is my style of riding. I’ve never ridden in Asia although I have experience riding in Dubai and Saudi Arabia so I’m looking forward to riding in Japan for the first time. I haven’t spoken or being given advice directly from Joao Moreira but I have great respect for him and he’s been my idol right from the beginning of my career. So, I do hope I can emulate what he’s done here in this series and be as successful. As for which I like better between turf or dirt racing, that would depend on the horse’s I ride but if it was just about me, personally I might say I prefer racing on turf.” [Assigned mounts]
 Thore Hammer-Hansen (Germany) “I would like to extend my gratitude to all the people from JRA. I hope that all the jockeys will be able to perform well and that we have a great series. It's a true honor to be standing here in front of you and participate in a challenge like this.” “I’ve followed Japanese racing all my life. It’s developed over the last couple of years and seems to be very competitive on the international stage. And it's been my dream to come here for a number of years and if you look back on the success, there's a couple of horses springing to mind—Deep Impact of course is a standout in Japanese racing and my impression here has been fantastic and I've been welcomed very openly and the people here seem very nice. I’ve spoken to Andrasch Starke, who won the (Japanese) Oaks here this year and a very close friend of mine. He just told me a little bit about Japan and how the jockeys ride here and he's been a great help. And also Rene Piechulek, who spent the winter here, and Bauyrzhan Murzabayev who's sadly injured at the minute. but I’ve spoken to him. He was here for a couple of seasons so they've been a great help in getting to know the racetrack and getting to know the jockeys and the style of racing. As a rider, I'm very strong in the finish. I've been racing all over the world. I've been to England for a number of years and I've raced internationally and in America and the list goes on. Even from a young age I think I've got plenty of experience. European jockeys are known for being very tough and I hope that translates to Japanese racing.”[Assigned mounts]
 Karis Teetan (Hong Kong) “I just want to say thank you to the JRA for inviting me once again to participate in this event. It will be nice to compete against champion jockeys and I’m just looking forward to a great weekend.” “Besides my first participation in 2019, I have raced here in Japan and now that I have experience in various Japanese races, I have come to understand a lot about Japanese racing, and I hope that the knowledge will help me compete.”[Assigned mounts]
Cristian Torres (United States) He was absent from the Welcome Reception due to the delay of his arrival. [Assigned mounts]
 Craig Williams (Australia) “It's a big honor to represent Australia in the World All-Star Jockeys. I'd like to thank the JRA for putting up a fabulous competition. We're all outstanding world-class riders—the Japanese are from the two jurisdictions of Japan, the NAR and the JRA, and we're looking forward to all the fans coming out and watching us compete against each other on Saturday and Sunday.” “It's always a privilege for riders to be able to ride in Japan and I would love to come back to apply for a short-term license. I’m very busy with my schedule in Australia and Hong Kong at the moment but if something does work out, of course I would love to ride in Japan. As a rider you want to be on the Japanese horses, not against the Japanese horses. Whether it be in Melbourne for example, or Sydney, America, Europe, Saudi Arabia, Dubai or Hong Kong. But your riders are starting to travel all around the world—great jockeys, great horses, great trainers, everyone wants Japan.” [Assigned mounts]
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