WEEK-END DU 95ÈME QATAR PRIX DE L’ARC DE TRIOMPHE
Christophe Lemaire et Makahiki remportent, le 11 septembre dernier, le Qatar Prix Niel, course préparatoire au Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Christophe Lemaire and Japan Arc hopeful Makahiki cruise past Midterm and Doha Dream to win the Prix Niel at Chantilly on Arc Trials Day last month.
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aneko Makoto, owner of Japan’s Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe hopeful, Makahiki, has become one of the biggest businessmen in Japan as CEO of Zucen Inc, specialists in electronic engineering. His racing silks are the colours of his company logo – a striking blue, yellow and black. He is one of the biggest owners and breeders of racehorses in Japan, and the force behind the powerful Yoshida family’s Shadai and Northern Farm. His most successful racehorse, Deep Impact, won seven Group 1 races and finished a fighting third in the 2006 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Deep Impact was Kaneko Makoto’s first runner in the Arc and started a clear favourite but was subsequently disqualified a few weeks later after a postive test, caused by a breathing problem he suffered before the race. Since then he has become the most influencial stallion in Japan. Now, one of his progeny, Makahiki, has been brought back to France by Makoto, hoping to make up for Deep Impact’s disqualification, and finally win a first Arc for Japan. Makoto’s colours have also been carried successfully by King Kamehameha, which won the 2015 Japan Derby, equalling Deep Impact’s record time. He also went on to become one
Makahiki and Lemaire aiming for Japan First of the best stallions in Japan. Makahiki’s trainer, Yaso Tomomichi, aged 43, is one of Japan’s most successful trainers in Ritto, the HQ of horseracing in Japan, home of the Japan Racing Association’s training centre and birthplace of Yutake Take, Japan’s most famous jockey. Tomomichi was assistant to Kunihide Matsuda, previously one of Japan’s leading trainers, who handled King Kamehameha, as well as Makahiki. Matsuda also trained Daïwa Scarlet, a filly who won the prestigious Arima Kinen. She also beat the champion Vodka in the 1.000 Guineas, then a Group1 race. Tomomichi has trained six Group 1 winners with Verxina, Clarity Sky and Admire Jupiter plus Makahiki, who became his first triumphe in the Japan Derby in May this year. Makahiki’s jockey in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Christophe-Patrice Lemaire has the strongest Japanese connection of all French jockeys. He obtained a permanent jockey’s licence in Japan at the beginning of last year and quickly joined the top five jockeys in the country.
Lemaire is a frequent visitor to Japan and had been spending his winters there since 2002. In a bid to break the sequence of near misses by Japanese horses in the Arc, it was decided that Makahiki should be ridden in the Arc by a French jockey who was familiar with riding in the Great Race. With his Japanese connections, Lemaire was the obvious choice. In a slowly run race at the Arc Trials at Chantilly three weeks ago Lemaire produced Makahiki at just the right moment to ease past Midterm and Doha Dream for a comfortable victory in the Group 2 Prix Niel. Makahiki has been working on the Chantilly gallops since early August. Back in Japan he had won four of his five races with the Japan Derby his first Group 1 success. The three-year-old shows a distinct resemblance to Deep Impact and if Makahiki can do what no other Japanese horse has been able to do and win the Arc, the cheers may be heard all the way to the Land of the Rising Sun. n
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