Racing’s major global events are not only enriched by Japanese participation but also necessarily bolstered and the normal practice of Japan’s top horses staying in training at four and five is vital when top colts in Europe and the U.S. usually retire at three.

Here we are, the year’s end, that gap between the holiday Group 1 racing in Japan and California and the first weekend in January: a time when the sport in Europe is consigned to low-grade fare on artificial surfaces before plunging into the spring Classic season, when Japan and Australia roll on through similarly low-key spells, and Hong Kong’s primary focus shifts to four-year-olds and the road to the Derby at Sha Tin.

It’s also the time of year when the sport’s established heroes look toward the first big international events 2026 has to offer: those rich purses in the Middle East, the G1 Saudi Cup and the G1 Dubai World Cup fixtures in February and March – and Japanese participation is vital.

The result of Monday’s G1 Tokyo Daishoten means there’s unexpected excitement around the NAR – Japan’s second tier of racing – in that regard. The seven-year-old gelding Diktaean became the first NAR horse to win the Oi feature since it became a Group 1 in 2011, and is preparing to take on the big guns in the Saudi Cup and Dubai World Cup.

Trainer Katsunori Arayama said of the G3 Korea Cup winner, who he is now calling Uncle Diktaean, “Based on what the horse has achieved we have to go to Dubai.” He will be joined by his Jpn1 JBC Sprint-winning stablemate Fern Hill, a G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen candidate.

A year ago, the talk was about Hong Kong’s Romantic Warrior and Japan’s burgeoning dirt track legend Forever Young heading to Arabia, but it looks like there’ll be no rematch in Riyadh between that pair. Instead, there could be a mega-match at Meydan with Godolphin’s U.S. superstar Sovereignty aiming to take on Japan’s G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner after sickness robbed Sovereignty of the chance at Del Mar in November.

Godolphin should be applauded for the decision to keep the top-class colt in training beyond his Classic season. It would have been all too normal for the global owner-breeder to have packed him off to stud with a three-year-old record of five wins from six starts, including the G1 Kentucky Derby, G1 Belmont Stakes and G1 Travers Stakes. It’s happened far too often before.

Their decision this time gives the racing world a double bonus after the Aga Khan Studs opted to keep the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Daryz in training: historically, a rare move for a top three-year-old colt from that operation. But it’s what the sport desperately needs. If only Coolmore had kept City Of Troy in training through 2025.

But Japan is the gold standard when it comes to star colts racing beyond their three-year-old campaign. It’s the rule there, not the exception; establishing tried and tested multi-season on-track legacies and giving the fans the connection they want. It’s a big part of why the sport remains comparatively popular and healthy there: look at last weekend’s Arima Kinen crowd of 56,409 at ‘little’ Nakayama and raceday turnover of almost US$580 million.

In that vein, it looks like the 2024 Japanese Derby winner Danon Decile will be pointed towards the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic he won last year as a four-year-old. And there’s exciting word from the Masquerade Ball camp that Shadai’s G1 Japan Cup runner-up might make the trip to Ascot next July as a four-year-old to contest the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, 20 years after the same owner’s Heart’s Cry was a close third in the race.

Without some of Japan’s deep battalion of top-class older horses traveling offshore, the world’s major events would look thin indeed.

Hong Kong Jockey Club must have an eye on Loughnane’s big numbers

It was mid-way through the Breeders’ Cup Saturday afternoon at Del Mar last November when Billy Loughnane exited the jockeys’ room and waited by the door in his white riding breeches and matching crew-neck vest. Within moments he was approached for selfies and signatures and obliged, albeit awkwardly.

Loughnane is only 19 but fame is already encroaching and there’s no doubt the Hong Kong Jockey Club and the Japan Racing Association will have their eyes on him as a likely candidate for short term licenses in the not-too-distant future. For now, though, the youngster is focused on the daily business of accruing winners.

To those familiar with British racing, it certainly feels like Loughnane has been around longer than he has, and that’s probably a lot to do with the sheer volume of his work so far.

On New Year’s Eve, Loughnane rode his 222nd winner in Britain this calendar year, breaking Kieren Fallon’s 21st century record for wins in a season.

He only had his first ride in October 2022 at age 16, rode in his first Classic race the following May – the youngest to do that since the great Lester Piggott 72 years earlier – was Britain’s champion apprentice in 2023, had his first Royal Ascot win in 2024, and his first Group 1 victory on Godolphin’s Rebel’s Romance in September this year.

On that November afternoon at Del Mar, Loughnane went on to pick up his share of the lucrative third-place check from the G1 Breeders’ Cup Turf. Forty-eight hours later he was back in England, riding a lowly Class 4 winner on the Tapeta at Southwell. That dedication to the grassroots is providing the platform for more big days ahead.

This Week In Horse Racing History

Omega Perfume won the G1 Tokyo Daishoten for an incredible fourth time on December 29, 2021. Jockey Mirco Demuro rode the Shogo Yasuda-trained gray to all four of his record-setting wins in the NAR’s end of year feature held at Oi racecourse. Omega Perfume’s first Tokyo Daishoten win came on December 29, 2018.

Omega Perfume. JBIS

Kent Desormeaux made history on December 31, 1989 when he established a new record for the most wins in a single year anywhere in the world. His 598 wins was 52 more than the previous record held by fellow North American rider Chris McCarron.

January 4, 1946 was a tragic day. Jockey George Woolf died as the result of a race fall from Please Me at Santa Anita Park on January 3. He was 35. The Canadian rider’s career began in 1928 and in that span he rode in 3,784 races for 721 wins and total earnings of $2,856,125. ‘The Iceman’ is remembered each year in the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, voted for by jockeys and presented to a rider who demonstrates high standards of personal and professional conduct, on and off the racetrack.

Reads of the Week

Michael Cox shares a unique insight into the ‘Galacticos’ super stallions at the Yoshida family’s Shadai Stallion Station, speaking to stallion handler Keisuke Miwa about the ‘geniuses’, the ‘gentlemen,’ and the ‘rule breakers’ among the esteemed cohort.

In his must-read column, former top jockey Shane Dye gives his blunt verdict on why the system in Australia and New Zealand is failing to produce superstar apprentices. He also shares insight into his 1997 Chipping Norton ride on Octagonal, as well as James Orman’s form in Hong Kong.

Kazushi Kimura picked up an American Oaks-winning spare ride on Ambaya at Santa Anita’s opening day on December 28. David Morgan spoke to the Japanese rider in September 2024 after he had made the move to the Golden State and this feature from that time outlines where he had come from and what his aims were.

Racing Pic of the Week

@smz_hnd

Fans in Japan packed into Tokyo Racecourse on December 28 to watch the JRA’s last major of the year, the fan-voted G1 Arima Kinen, even though the race was held 31 miles to the east at Nakayama Racecourse. Those who turned out to the track in Fuchu watched Museum Mile’s victory on the racecourse’s big screen.

Global Blackbook

The last race at Nakayama on Sunday was aptly-named the Final Stakes, being the Japan Racing Association’s (JRA) last race of 2025. But there was plenty about the way Joyful News won the contest to suggest there’s nothing final about where she’s at in her career trajectory.

The three-year-old took her race record to four wins and two seconds from six starts, dating back to a debut second at Tokyo in November 2024. Trainer Masahiro Otake has given Joyful News plenty of time to develop in allowance races this term but she looks ready to make her mark in Graded stakes in the coming year.

Daisuke Sasaki settled the filly in sixth spot at Nakayama and she moved easily to a challenging fourth off the home turn, ranging up to the leader’s flank traveling powerfully. When Sasaki asked Joyful News to quicken at the 200m point, she did so swiftly and fluidly, accelerating away to register a two-length win, seemingly with plenty in the tank.

The Shadai homebred has top-class genes being a daughter of Japan’s greatest sprinter Lord Kanaloa out of Joy Nikita, winner of the 1,000 Guineas at San Isidro, Argentina in 2018.

What’s Coming Up?

King’s Plate
Kenilworth, South Africa, January 10

The King’s Plate is a weight-for-age mile championship contest, a ‘win and you’re in’ race for the Breeders’ Cup, and this year’s 165th running should bring together some of South Africa’s biggest stars. Among those are the 2023–24 Horse of the Year Dave The King, and the star three-year-old Jan Van Goyen, recent winner of the G1 Cape Guineas. Oisin Murphy is expected to fly in to ride Eight On Eighteen, winner of the G1 Cape Town Met, G1 Cape Derby and G1 Daily News 2000 earlier this year.

Al Maktoum Challenge
Meydan, Dubai, January 23

The Maktoum Challenge honor roll includes such stars as the great Dubai Millennium, Street Cry, Grandera, Electrocutionist and Eu Tambem. Last year Walk Of Stars took the spoils. The race is a natural set towards the G1 Dubai World Cup at the same venue but that double has not been achieved in the same year since Electrocutionist in 2006, although African Story and Prince Bishop in 2014 and 2015 both won the Maktoum Challenge and added a Dubai World Cup win the year after.

Jebel Hatta
Meydan, Dubai, January 23

The Jebel Hatta is a traditional lead-up to the G1 Dubai Turf and last year it was won impressively by the Hong Kong champion Romantic Warrior who went on to place second behind Forever Young in an epic edition of the G1 Saudi Cup on dirt before losing out by a nose to Soul Rush in as close a finish as you could get in the Dubai Turf itself.

Railway Stakes
Ellerslie, New Zealand, January 24

New Zealand’s premier summer sprint invariably draws a competitive field and this year’s edition of the 1200m contest could well feature last year’s first and second, Crocetti and Alabama Lass. The latter was second in the G1 Moir Stakes at Moonee Valley, Australia in September but was last of 10 in the G1 Manikato Stakes at the same track later that month.

Stewards’ Cup
Sha Tin, Hong Kong, January 25

The first leg of Hong Kong’s Triple Crown offers the promise of a mighty clash at a mile between last year’s Triple Crown winner Voyage Bubble, a two-time G1 Hong Kong Mile winner, and the world-proven four-time G1 Hong Kong Cup winner Romantic Warrior.

Centenary Sprint Cup
Sha Tin, Hong Kong, January 25

The phenomenal Ka Ying Rising has 16 straight wins, one short of the great Silent Witness’s Hong Kong record of 17 consecutive wins, and the Centenary Sprint Cup is the race in which the current superstar will match the legend’s feat. Given the dominant manner of Ka Ying Rising’s G1 Hong Kong Sprint win at Sha Tin last time, it’s difficult to envisage any horse being able to beat him in the 1200m feature.

This story first appeared on Idol Horse as "World Racing Weekly: Diktaean, Billy Loughnane & Joyful News."

Hong Kong Jockey Club must have an eye on Loughnane’s big numbers

This Week In Horse Racing History

Reads of the Week

Racing Pic of the Week

Global Blackbook

What’s Coming Up? King’s PlateKenilworth, South Africa, January 10

Al Maktoum ChallengeMeydan, Dubai, January 23

Jebel HattaMeydan, Dubai, January 23

Railway StakesEllerslie, New Zealand, January 24

WORLD RACING WEEKLY: Diktaean, Billy Loughnane & Joyful News