A “Leading Figure” in the Horse Racing World Reveals: “Forever Young Can Win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe if He Tries! This is the basis for the claim that Forever Young can win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Forever Young is rather “suited to turf”?

The 26th year of the “World Dirt Champion” is about to begin.

Last fall, Forever Young (5 years old, Yoshito Yahagi Stables) became the first Japanese horse to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic in the United States. His management has announced that his main targets for this spring are the “Saudi Cup (G1, February 14)” and the “Dubai World Cup (G1, March 28).

His hoofprints are glorious. With 10 wins from 13 starts, all of them on dirt, he has accumulated five G1 and Jpn1 titles, including the Japan Dirt Classic as a 3-year-old and the Saudi Cup, the world’s richest race, as a 4-year-old. Last November, he also won the BC Classic, the world’s top dirt race. He was awarded the JRA Award for “Horse of the Year” and the Eclipse Award for “Best Old Dirt Stallion” in the United States.

Although this horse has reached the pinnacle of the dirt world, there are those who have a different opinion about his suitability for the dirt. He is Makio Okada, 73, the president of Okada Stud, which runs the Normandy Owners Club and other organizations. Mr. Okada, who is known for his “rare horsemanship,” asserts, “Forever Young is a horse that is essentially a horse.

Forever Young is a horse that is naturally suited to turf. If he runs in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, I think he can win.

The world’s best dirt horse is actually suited to turf?　We asked Mr. Okada about this theory, which is hard to believe at first glance, and found that he has a very logical “rationale” that only a professional who has been watching horses for many years could come up with.

I was really happy to see him win the BC Classic. I have always said that Japan should aim for American horse racing. This victory proves that the level of Japanese horses is at the top of the world.

When the topic turned to Forever Young’s “aptitude,” Mr. Okada began to talk about his impression of the horse when he first saw him at the Monbetsu Race Course in Hokkaido as a 2-year-old. He said that he had been looking at him like this since then.

When I first saw him in the paddock, he had a long back, long legs, and a nice loose neck. His hind legs were not as wide and large as a dirt horse’s. I thought, ‘Oh, this horse can run on turf. I thought, ‘Oh, this horse would run better on the grass.

There is a clear difference between “dirt running” and “turf running” in thoroughbreds.

A true dirt horse,” he said, “bends his front knee in his footwork. They hit the ground and run as if they are scraping with their front legs. In contrast, a turf horse does not bend its front knee so much, but runs with a straight leg and a kick (propulsive force) of the thigh. The likes of Karandagan, who won last year’s Japan C, and the former Silence Suzuka and Deep Impact are a perfect example of this. Forever Young’s footwork, which we saw at the Monbetsu racecourse, was completely the turf type.

So, how did Forever Young become the world’s number one dirt horse? Mr. Okada analyzes that it was the result of “modifications” made by trainer Yoshito Yahagi, 64, who is a master trainer.

Mr. Yahagi is an excellent trainer, so in order to win the world’s dirt G1 championships, he trained him to be a ‘dirt horse. He rode him on the slope and added muscles to his front frame so that he could run with power. Now he is muscular and has the body of a dirt horse, but the base of his frame and running style is definitely an aptitude for the turf.”

Longchamp’s heavy track is for power types!

Can Forever Young really win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) in France, a long-cherished dream of the Japanese horse racing world?

In 1999, Elcon d’Or Pasar was beaten in the straight and finished second by half a length. The nightmare of Orfevre’s second-place finish in 2012, when he broke away in the straight but ran off the inside lane at the end, is still burned into the minds of fans.

Why can’t he win? The biggest reason is said to be the “heavy track” peculiar to the Longchamp racecourse in Paris, France.

The track at Longchamp becomes so heavy that when it rains, all the horseshoes are buried. In fact, only twice in the past 10 years has the track been good. In fact, only twice in the past 10 years has it been held on good ground. It is almost as if it is a different sport from horse racing in Japan, which is held on good, flat ground. That is why, in order to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, a horse must have the power to run on Japanese dirt tracks,” says Okada.

A pure turf horse that shows its cutting ability on Japan’s high-speed tracks will have a hard time competing in Europe’s power races. On the contrary, a horse like Forever Young, who has the “power to win the world’s top dirt race,” and whose “natural mechanism is a turf horse,” is the optimal solution for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

This horse is closer to winning the Arc than any Japanese horse that has ever attempted the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. He has already proven his power. He just needs a few months of training to awaken his natural “turf running” ability. It is possible to strengthen the kick of his thighs and get him back to a body capable of carrying speed.

Although he has only raced on dirt, trainer Yahagi has said in the past, “In discussions with the owner, we have talked about ‘running him on grass at least once. This spring, his targets are the Saudi Cup and the Dubai World Cup, but the biggest drama may finally await him in the fall, when he wins all the big dirt titles.

If a horse that wins the BC Classic, the pinnacle of dirt racing, also wins the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the pinnacle of turf racing, it would be a “major event” that would overturn the history of horse racing in the world. Like Shohei Ohtani, who has been taking his career to a whole new level in Major League Baseball, this horse may become a world sensation with his “two-faced” performance on turf and dirt.