Japanese Racing Experience

[Kitan]

Very fortunate this past week to have been able to attend two of the biggest races on the Japanese calendar: Arima Kinen (approx US$5.5 million) at Nakayama Racecourse, and the Tokyo Daishoten (approx US$1.1 million) at Ohi Racecourse (aka Tokyo City Keiba). The latter is the lone international Group 1 race held at the "local" tracks, the NAR. Certainly a very different passion for racing than what we see in North America, with the tracks fully, and especially in general admission, uncomfortably packed. Had to watch the Arima Kinen on the big screen in the parade ring (paddock) and the Tokyo Daishoten on the course big screen, because it was impossible to make my way to find any standing area either at ground level or in the grandstand. In the earlier races I was able to squeeze my way through to find standing room on some stairs, but there was no chance of getting out there for the G2 and G1 races. Was very difficult to even get a few into the parade ring. There was room for more people also, and due to the race being on Christmas Day I think the attendance was "low" compared to previous years. Tokyo Racecourse can hold 150,000 people, so it will be interesting to check out the February Stakes...

At least there are no huge admission fees, with the standard rate of $2 and $1 (respectively) applying to all race days. All the betting machines in automatic where you insert a filled out betting slip. Each machine has a window beside it, where a "teller" will poke their head out to help if there are any issues.

Nakayama was an interesting track, with an underground tunnel to the infield containing a large betting area and a playground for kids! Even when you arrive at the train station, they have 8 TV screens showing odds/results for all races as well as live video feeds. And, even with the mass amount of people, everything is completely organized, as is everything in this country, and there were no issues whatsoever with 100,000 people coming to or leaving the track. Complete opposite to the chaos when I attended the BC in 2005 at Belmont. The only real queues were at the betting machines for the big races, and at the info desk after the G1 where people were taking photocopies of their winning tickets!

Below are some pictures...