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YASUNARI IWATA (L), KATSUHIKO SUMII \/ G1 Melbourne Cup \/\/ Flemington \/\/\/ 2006 \/\/\/\/ Photo by by Kristian Dowling (Getty Images)<\/p>\nBefore Yasunari Iwata arrived in Australia late afternoon on Melbourne Cup-eve, trainer Katsuhiko Sumii was already worried.<\/p>\n
Iwata was a raw talent \u2013 32 years old, fresh from the rugged NAR dirt circuit and yet to win a domestic Group 1 as a licensed Japan Racing Association (JRA) jockey. Other than a holiday to Honolulu, this was his only trip abroad.<\/p>\n
When Iwata cleared immigration Sumii was relieved \u2013\u00a0but as his jockey came into view, he was now even more worried than before. \u201cHis face was pale,\u201d Sumii recalls. \u201cHe was so nervous.\u201d Iwata had arrived with his wife, but company wasn\u2019t much comfort. \u201cI couldn\u2019t eat anything,\u201d Iwata says. \u201cI went to dinner with Sumii\u2019s staff the night before the race, but I just couldn\u2019t eat.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was about to get worse. And the way these two tell the story, two decades on from their famous win \u2013 you wonder how any of it happened at all.<\/p>\n
YASUNARI IWATA (L), KATSUHIKO SUMII \/ G1 Melbourne Cup \/\/ Flemington \/\/\/ 2006 \/\/\/\/ Photo by by Kristian Dowling (Getty Images)<\/p>\n
To settle Iwata\u2019s nerves and get him acclimatised before the big race, owner Katsumi Yoshida arranged a ride for him earlier in the day, aboard a Gai Waterhouse-trained runner named Anapine. Waterhouse, never short of instructions or volume, delivered her orders to a quivering Iwata. \u201cWe got a wide draw,\u201d Iwata recalls. \u201cShe told me to go inside.\u201d The directive was clear enough, even across the language barrier.<\/p>\n
Iwata did not go inside. \u201cI was racing wide the entire time,\u201d he says. The Waterhouse debrief that followed needed no translation. \u201cShe was so pissed,\u201d Iwata says, with a grin that suggests twenty years has made it funnier. \u201cI didn\u2019t understand what she was saying but I could feel it.\u201d He raises both index fingers above his head \u2013 the Japanese gesture for someone demonically, horns-out furious. \u201cI had to carry that feeling into the Melbourne Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sumii, watching from the sideline, was not encouraged. \u201cHe ended up pissing the trainer and everyone off,\u201d he says simply. \u201cI thought we were doomed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Sumii tried. With Iwata visibly rattled, Northern Farm\u2019s Katsumi Yoshida stepped in with the best piece of tactical advice the jockey had ever received \u2013 and it came from an owner, not a horseman. \u201cHe said, \u2018Why are you so nervous? There might be 24 horses in the field, but if you lead the race, you only need to mind yourself,’\u201d Iwata recalls. \u201c\u2018Just go to the front without thinking.’\u201d<\/p>\n
The advice worked \u2013 even if things didn\u2019t go exactly to plan. \u201cThat actually encouraged me a lot,\u201d Iwata says. \u201cIf I led, it would be my own race.\u201d<\/p>\n
What followed was one of the most unlikely performances in Melbourne Cup history. Iwata led at first, settled and handed up the lead passing the post for the first time, and then, rounding the third turn, made the kind of blunder only a man riding Flemington for the first time could make.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made a mistake and thought it was already the final straight,\u201d he says. \u201cI started to make a move \u2013 but then I saw the grandstand coming up beyond the next turn.\u201d There was still a long way to go. He had shown his hand far too soon. \u201cThe racecourse was just so huge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Back in the stands, Sumii was suffering. \u201cHe did tell me after the race: \u2018How could the straight be so long?’\u201d Sumii says. \u201cIt was a tough watch.\u201d Though, it should be said, Sumii\u2019s eyes had barely been on Delta Blues anyway. With the more-fancied Pop Rock also in the field \u2013 joint favourite and his other runner \u2013 the trainer had spent the race roaring at the wrong horse. \u201cMy focus was on Pop Rock. I was shouting, \u2018Go, Pop Rock, get there!\u2019 And only in the last moments did I realise both were my horses.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever wins, I\u2019m good,\u201d Iwata had told himself when he saw Pop Rock looming. \u201cWe are all from Japan and we are guaranteed a one-two finish.\u201d Delta Blues held on. Pop Rock was second. An iconic quinella \u2013 and one of the great accidental masterclasses in race-riding history.<\/p>\n
\u201cI rode without a clue,\u201d Iwata says. \u201cIt was pure luck that I could win.\u201d<\/p>\n
The comedy wasn\u2019t quite over. As Channel 7 commentator John Letts tried to get to Iwata for the traditional horseback post-race interview, Sumii is convinced his jockey spotted Letts\u00a0 coming and attempted to ride away. \u201cHis English was so bad,\u201d Sumii says, laughing. \u201cHe tried to run away.\u201d<\/p>\n
Letts, improvising magnificently, opened with the most direct question available to a man with zero Japanese and a fleeing jockey.<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHappy, happy!\u201d Iwata replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper horse!\u201d he added, for good measure.<\/p>\n
Sumii can\u2019t tell the story without bringing up Keita Tosaki, the Japanese jockey who went viral earlier this year with his post-race declaration of \u201cVery very horse!\u201d after winning the Dubai Sheema Classic aboard Danon Decile. \u201cIt was just like Tosaki\u2019s \u2018Very very horse\u2019,\u201d Sumii says. \u201cIwata did it first. The original one.\u201d<\/p>\n
The morning after the Cup, the full scale of what had happened began to sink in. \u201cAfter I woke up and got out of my hotel room, everybody was waiting for me and cheering,\u201d Iwata says. \u201cThey were just pointing at me and shouting, \u2018That\u2019s the Melbourne Cup winner!\u2019 From the hotel, all the way to the airport, until the moment I boarded the plane.\u201d<\/p>\n
And it never really stopped. Iwata\u2019s eldest son visited Melbourne a few years ago to study English. When locals discovered his surname, the questions came. Was he the son of that Iwata? \u201cAfter they knew he was, they were like, \u2018Woah,’\u201d Iwata says. \u201cIt is amazing how they still remember me after all these years.\u201d<\/p>\n
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YASUNARI IWATA \/ Kyoto \/\/ 2026 \/\/\/ Photo by Idol Horse<\/p>\n
In Kyoto today a typhoon brought rain. We are inside jockey Christophe Lemaire\u2019s CL fashion brand\u2019s flagship store, and the actual Melbourne Cup \u2013 on the first stop of a world tour that will end at Flemington on the first Tuesday in November \u2013 sits under lights like a trophy in a shrine.<\/p>\n
Lemaire, who knows a thing or two about winning it (Dunaden, 2011), is hosting. Damian Lane is here, and so is Kiwi Michael Dee \u2013 two of Australia\u2019s best jockeys, neither of whom has managed to get their hands on the Cup.<\/p>\n
A French, Japanese, New Zealand and Australian jockey walk into a fashion store in Kyoto in a typhoon. It could be the set-up to a joke. The punchline is that two of them have won the Melbourne Cup \u2013 and it isn\u2019t the Australian or the New Zealander. It says something about the changing face of Australia\u2019s greatest race that Lane or Dee\u2019s best chance might be getting a ride on a visiting Japanese horse.<\/p>\n
Iwata looks at his miniature Cup replica, donated to the store for the day, and turns the golden whip \u2013 presented to him in 2006 \u2013 over in his hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to Australia,\u201d he says with a grin, \u201crode like a clown in two races \u2013 and won the Melbourne Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is, of course, being modest to the point of absurdity. In the twenty years since that chaotic Cup day, Iwata has taken his career tally to more than 1,800 winners, including 25 top flight victories in the JRA and three international Group 1 wins: Delta Blues and back-to-back Hong Kong Sprints aboard the great Lord Kanaloa.<\/p>\n
He turns the golden whip over in his hands one more time and smiles at the little Cup that usually takes pride of place in his home, reflecting on the improbable Tuesday that changed his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might be a little bit exaggerated to say winning the Melbourne Cup changed my life,\u201d he says. \u201cBut when I first arrived at the Melbourne airport, the Australian people told me I could be a national hero \u2013 and I only knew what they were talking about after I won the race.\u201d \u220e<\/p>\n
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Adam Pengilly<\/p>\n
Hugh Bowman on Winx, Pressure, and Purpose: \u201cNothing Keeps You Motivated Like a Good Horse\u201d<\/p>\n
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