Following Trading Leather and Up With the Birds comes Ivanhowe, setting down in Japan just a little more than a week ahead of the Japan Cup. The 4-year-old from Germany arrived Thursday evening local time is the last of the three foreign raiders to fly in from abroad for the big event Nov. 30 at Tokyo Racecourse. The other two overseas-based runners arrived earlier in the week and are already quarantined at the JRA Horseracing School, located in Chiba Prefecture east of Tokyo. Ivanhowe was transported there after arriving at Narita International Airport on Thursday, Nov. 20. His plane landed shortly after 7 p.m. and he arrived at the racing school at 10 p.m.

Rene Piechulek, assistant trainer to the French-born Jean-Pierre Carvalho, said, “The colt is no different from when he’s back home in his own country.” Piechulek added that Carvalho had instructed that Ivanhowe’s training was to proceed the same as it would at home.

And, on Friday, Ivanhowe was taken out on the dirt course from 7 a.m. and cantered to the left over 1,400 meters. He covered the ground at about 30-35 seconds per furlong, then walked about 100 meters and cantered (at about 25 seconds per furlong) for another 1,200 meters.

Piechulek said Friday, “We’ve been here a day now at the racing school and the horse looks the same as always. He has an appetite and I can see no signs of fatigue.” Piechulek said the morning’s work was “to check his condition” and that “he looks pretty good.” Piechulek said work from Saturday would continue as it would were they back in Germany.

Ivanhowe is sired by Soldier Hollow out of the Sternkoenig mare Indigo Girl. He was bred at Gestut Schlenderhan, the oldest farm in Germany and situated near Cologne, and he is owned by the same. The colt has had nine starts and won five of them and finished second once. He has captured two G1s, both in Germany, both this year, the 2,400-meter Grosser Preis von Baden, won Sept. 7 at Baden-Baden, and the Grosser Preis von Bayern, won easily by 2 1/2 lengths last outing on Nov. 1 over the same distance at Munich under 60 kg. He also has two G2 wins to his name, the Gerling Preis he captured in May at Cologne and the Oppenheim-Union-Rennen notched at the same venue in June 2013. Ivanhowe also raced in this year’s Prix l’Arc de Triomphe on Oct. 5, but failed to overcome a far outside draw and finished 18th of 20 runners 10 lengths behind winner Treve. From his five starts this year, all over 2,400 meters, Ivanhowe has tallied three wins, one sixth and the Arc 18th. All but his last race were over fast turf. 

Ivanhowe‘s trainer, former jockey Jean-Pierre Carvalho, moved to Germany in 1994 and took out his training license in 2009. Ivanhowe‘s win of the Grosser Preis von Baden was Carvalho’s first G1 victory as trainer. This year he has gained 25 wins from 122 starts (in addition to six wins from 30 races in France) and ranks as Germany’s No. 11 trainer for wins. In the saddle come Sunday will the Czechoslovakian-born Filip Minarik, whose father was a champion jockey in his home country. Son Filip started his career as an amateur jockey in his country of birth and moved to Germany in 1996. Minarik currently has 73 wins from 555 mounts and is ranked No. 3 in Germany. The 39-year-old Minarik piloted Ivanhowe for both the colt’s G1 victories this year. After the Grosser Preis von Bayern win, Minarik was quoted as saying, “I was very confident today. He showed that his Arc form was all wrong. I have ridden a lot of good horses, but he is easily the best.”

Trainer Carvalho agreed that the Arc conditions had been against the colt but Munich suited him well. “We knew everything had been against him at Longchamp, but here conditions were ideal and we expected him to win like that, just as he had done at Baden-Baden,” the 43-year-old trainer said.

The Japan Cup total purse is worth over 521 million yen, or over US$5.2 million. The winner takes home 250 million yen, the runnerup 100 million and prize money and participation incentive money are paid out to the eighth-place finisher.

Ivanhowe is the only foreign runner this year eligible for the Japan Cup bonus offered by the JRA. The bonus goes to any horse finishing in the top three spots if that horse has won any of 19 designated top international races this year. Ivanhowe‘s win of the Grosser Preis von Baden makes him eligible for an additional 80 million yen if he is able to capture the Japan Cup, 32 million yen for finishing in second place, 20 million yen for third.

The Japan Cup will be the 11th and final race on the Sunday, Nov. 30th card at Tokyo Racecourse. Post time is set for 3:55 p.m.

fonte : Horse Racing in Japan