{"id":145077,"date":"2026-09-06T20:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/145077\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T20:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T20:00:08","slug":"japan-dominates-koreas-top-races","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/145077\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan Dominates Korea’s Top Races"},"content":{"rendered":"

Japanese runners dominated Korea’s top international races Sept. 6, finishing 1-2 by wide margins in both with Diktaean<\/a>\u00a0 a repeat winner in the featured Korea Cup (G2) and Kentucky-bred Dragon Welds prevailing in the Korea Sprint (G3).<\/p>\n

Both earned “Win and You’re In” Challenge spots in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships Oct. 31 at Keeneland<\/a>. Diktaean turned down a similar chance after winning last year.<\/p>\n

The Cup was all-Japan with a long way to go in the 1,800 meters (about 1 1\/8 miles). Sunday Funday<\/a>\u00a0, dispatched as the favorite by the Seoul Racecourse crowd, opened a huge lead entering the long stretch. Jockey Takayuki Yano took aim on the leader, drew even at the 200-meter mark and won off by some 6 lengths. The rest of the field was far back.<\/p>\n

“I was hoping for a sustained run in the end, and he has done it,” Straits Times quoted Yano. “This is the third time a Japanese horse has won the race back-to-back after London Town\u00a0and Crown Pride.<\/p>\n

“I think Japanese fans will love this (result) very much and I thank them for their support. If we were to be invited again next year, we would aim for a third consecutive win.”<\/p>\n

Diktaean might have a more immediate assignment back home. After the 2025 Korea Cup triumph, the King Kamehameha gelding returned to Oi Racecourse to win the Tokyo Daishoten (G1),\u00a0defeating Mikki Fight<\/a>\u00a0.<\/p>\n

In two previous runs this season, he finished fifth in the Kawasaki Kinen and third in the Teio Sho. Overall, he has 12 wins from 34 starts.<\/p>\n

Video<\/p>\n

The Sprint came down to the two Japanese contenders, American Stage<\/a>\u00a0 and Dragon Welds, with some 150 meters to run. They raced side-by-side briefly before Dragon Welds drew clear and ran on to win by 6 lengths with Keita Tosaki in the irons. Tosaki said the race went to plan after his colt got a good start to the 1,200-meter (about 6-furlong)\u00a0journey.<\/p>\n

\"DragonPhoto: Katsumi Saito<\/p>\n

Dragon Welds defeats American Stage to win\u00a0the Korea Sprint at Seoul Racecourse<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Hong Kong-based Self Improvement, like Diktaean, was looking for a second straight win but never reached contention and beat only two rivals.<\/p>\n

Dragon Welds, a Frosted<\/a>\u00a0 colt out of the Eskendereya mare Little Dipper<\/a>\u00a0, has quickly climbed the ladder of Japan’s improving dirt competition. A winner at both 2 and 3, he now has won all four starts in 2026, including a last-out victory in the Tokyo Sprint at Oi.<\/p>\n

He was bred by Willow Oaks Stable and sold at the 2024 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Spring Sale\u00a0of 2-Year-Olds in Training for $150,000 to T B Bloodstock out of the Harris Training Center consignment.<\/p>\n

American Stage, by contrast, already has an international profile. The 4-year-old son of Into Mischief<\/a>\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0, bred by Spendthrift Farm, finished sixth in the 2025 Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1) at Meydan Racecourse and fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Sprint (G1) at Del Mar<\/a>. This season he was fourth in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint (G2) and 12th in the Golden Shaheen.<\/p>\n

Video<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Japanese runners dominated Korea’s top international races Sept. 6, finishing 1-2 by wide margins in both with Diktaean\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42265,73630,73631,73007,72905,2285,31,73009,73632,73011],"class_list":["post-145077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-breeders-cup","tag-breeders-cup-dirt-mile-g1","tag-breeders-cup-sprint-g1","tag-diktaean-jpn","tag-dragon-welds","tag-international","tag-korea","tag-korea-cup-g2","tag-korea-sprint-g3","tag-thoroughbred-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}