Rusei Sakai’s Confession: The Jockey Who Made History with Kentucky Derby and BC Classic Wins
I don't know how much money is in my account.
A rising star in her mid-20s who has already won 11 GI races reveals her true feelings
May 4, Churchill Downs Racetrack in Kentucky, USA. On that day, the history of Japanese horse racing was set in motion.
It was the last straight line of the “Kentucky Derby,” the biggest race in the United States. Forever Young, a 3-year-old gelding, led by Rusei Sakai (27), was closing in on the lead horse with a powerful final leg. In a big race that is said by Japanese horsemen to be “impossible to run well” and has never even been on the placing board, Forever Young crossed the finish board in third place by a nose plus a half length.
The horse was owned by Susumu Fujita, 51, president of Cyber Agent. It was also a challenge that was filled with the three parties’ hopes and aspirations.
Now in his ninth year, Sakai has become one of the top jockeys in Japan, having already won 11 GI races (including races for Japanese-trained horses only) and four overseas prizes, despite being in his mid-20s. This year, he is ranked fourth in the JRA leaderboard with 94 wins (as of October 6, 2012).
He was brought up in an environment where horse racing was close to him from an early age. His father, Eikoh, was a jockey (now a trainer) at Oi Horse Racetrack, and his uncle was a jockey at Kasamatsu Horse Racetrack, so the family had a long history of horse racing.
I never had any other choice but to become a jockey,” he said. Before I can remember, I wrote in my kindergarten graduation album that I would be a jockey in the future.
After graduating from horse racing school, Sakai was assigned to Yoshito Yahagi Stables. When Sakai’s parents came to greet him, they had this exchange.
He said to my parents, ‘Please take care of me as if I were your real parent. He is like a mentor and a real father to me. He taught me everything from the very beginning, from how to greet people to how to approach my work. Even now, he is the one who is the strictest with me.
In his rookie year, he became the most victorious new jockey in the Kansai region, and in his second year he went to Australia by himself to hone his skills.
After living in Australia for a year, he won a series of Grand Prix races with less popular horses in 1919. The following year, he won the GI title. From ’21, he had more opportunities to ride overseas. It was during this time that he met Forever Young, a horse that was a true horse.
My first impression was that he was a big horse. Nothing special caught my attention in his training. Sakai says, “The stable staff had the same impression. However, during the warm-up for the new horse race, I was shocked. Even Sakai, who knows the backs of many famous horses, had never felt this way before.
