“If you’re living in Japan and you open a sports newspaper,” says Kanichi Kusano, until recently the Japan Racing Association’s [JRA] representative in London, “three major sports come up. One is baseball, one is sumo wrestling and the other one is horse racing. We are always exposed to racing and thoroughbreds are beautiful animals, and there is drama and romance and a challenge to the Arc because we’ve been trying to win for more than 50 years. I think that’s why Japanese people are so attached to the Arc.”
For thousands of Japanese racing fans who will make the 12,000-mile round trip to Paris, and millions more who are expected to tune in back home in the early hours of Monday morning, it is that time of the year once again. Since Speed Symboli, the first Japanese-trained runner in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, finished 11th in 1969, another 32 have tried and failed to win Europe’s most valuable and prestigious race, and three more – Byzantine Dream, Alohi Alii and Croix Du Nord – will make the attempt at Longchamp on Sunday afternoon.
