The horses have arrived, the draws have been made, and everything is ready for the 8th OBS Korea Cup (1 1/8M) and OBS Korea Sprint (6F) at Seoul Racecourse this Saturday night, September 6th.
Both races are Breeders' Cup Challenge Series "Win and You're In (WAYI)" races for the Championships at Del Mar later this autumn.
While there are no North American trained horses in either starting gate this time around, six strong Japanese horses – three in each race – have made the short trip across the sea to bid to follow Crown Pride and Remake, who won the races for each of the past two years, while Hong Kong has a representative in each race aiming to emulate Super Jockey, who won the first ever running of the Sprint.
Japan's RAMJET heads a field of eleven in the Korea Cup. A winner of five from twelve, four-year-old Ramjet has been running in elite company, finishing off his three-year-old campaign with 3rd place in the Tokyo Daishoten behind Forever Young, earning him a trip to both the Saudi Cup and Dubai World Cup running 6th and 9th respectively. He last ran 6th in the Teio Sho behind Mikki Fight in July.
Ramjet is trained by Shozo Sasaki and will be ridden in Seoul by Kosei Miura. If he does win then it will be three consecutive years that Koji Maeda's colours are in the Seoul Racecourse winner's circle – he also owns the 2023 and 2024 Korea Sprint winner Remake. Ramjet has drawn gate 3 and could well be peaking on Sunday.
A mainstay in Group races in Hong Kong, the most recent of CHANCHENG GLORY's eight wins came in the G3 Centenary Vase in January and he has also placed at G1 level. How he takes to the sand track will be key with all his racing experience coming on the Sha Tin turf, but he is bred for it (by US sire Mor Spirit), and Hong Kong-trained horses with fewer credentials than him have run well in previous editions of both Cup and Sprint.
Chancheng Glory is trained by Francis Lui and will be ridden by Jerry Chau, and they have drawn gate 2. Assistant trainer Vincent Sit, who is with the horse in Seoul, is a former jockey who rode briefly at Busan in the early 2010s, and he is confident that the horse will be absolutely fine on the Seoul sand.
The overseas challenge in the Korea Cup is rounded out by DIKTAEAN and DURA EREDE of Japan, both high class campaigners, while the local Korea hopes are spearheaded by SUCCESS BAEKPA.
With Global Hit injured, Success Baekpa has assumed the mantle of best staying horse in the country, and he beat Global Hit by four-lengths on his way to a strong win in the KRA Cup Classic in early August. A double Classic winner at three, at his best, he can be in the mix. SPEED YOUNG, 4th in last year's Korea Sprint and a Swiss-army knife of a horse who seems to be able to excel at every distance will also be present under popular jockey Kim Hye-sun. Both have drawn well in gates 5 and 8 respectively.
Legendary Japanese jockey Yutaka Take won the Korea Sprint on Graceful Leap in 2017 and eight years later, he gets the opportunity to repeat on the probable favourite. That's CHIKAPPA. The winner of the Listed Hokkaido Sprint Cup and Tokyo Hai last year, Chikappa kicked off his four-year-old season with a trip to Saudi Arabia for the G2 Riyadh Dirt Sprint. While he had a hard time there, he showed a return to form when 4th in the Listed Cluster Cup on August 11th and could be peaking in Seoul. Take will need all of his expertise though, having drawn the widest gate in a 13-strong field.
TAGANO BEAUTY and SUNRISE HAWK are both strong sprinters representing Japan while solid Sha Tin all-weather track campaigner SELF IMPROVEMENT has made the trip from Hong Kong. It is in the Sprint, however, where the home team perhaps has its best hope.
VINCERO CAVALLO was a breakout 6th in last year's Korea Sprint as a three-year-old and has since established himself as the nation's top one-turn horse. He swept all three legs of the Sprint Series this Spring in emphatic fashion, getting better with each one. He hasn't raced since May having missed a planned prep in late July, but he went through two trials in August and should be match fit on the big day. Jockey Jo Jae-ro will pilot Vincero Cavallo from gate 5.
The Korea Sprint (IG3) has a local post time of 15:25 (11:25 PM PDT) on Sunday while the Korea Cup (IG3) is set for 16:45 (12:45 AM PDT). The title sponsor for both the Korea Cup and Korea Sprint is Ocala Breeders' Sales (OBS). The Korea Sprint winner receives an automatic invitation to the Breeders' Cup Cygames Sprint, while the winner of the Cup qualifies for the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile.
