David Hayes up for another challenge with outsider Boom Time in Japan Cup
TRAINER David Hayes took on the world and won with Better Loosen Up in the 1990 Japan Cup, and he is back for another shot at the prize with outsider Boom Time on Sunday.
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WHEN Boom Time parades at Fuchu on Sunday before the Japan Cup, odds are he’ll be more a curiosity than challenger.
Local idol Kitasan Black, a phenomenal stayer of the highest ilk, is regarded with almost reverence in the Land of the Rising Sun.
His aura is such that, outside of a smattering of regally-bred Japanese-trained challengers, he is regarded as having a mortgage on the Grade 1 2400m race.
Far from being disheartened, David Hayes is in familiar territory.
In 1990, as a callow training freshman, Hayes took on the world with Better Loosen Up — and won.
Tales of the betting windfall secured by “Blu’s” ownership group grow almost by the day but the large suitcase race-caller Bill Collins used to collect mountains of yen from the tote windows wasn’t big enough to accommodate the winnings.
In the mayhem following the journey back to the hotel, Collins inadvertently left the booty on the bus before sprinting after the driver and securing the cash — and then had to go to an off-course office to collect the rest of the money the following day.
“Nobody knows how much they got out of it, but it was huge,” Bryan Martin, who called the race, said. “From memory, I think ‘Blu’ was about 9/2 and they didn’t have enough money at the track to pay out at the time.”
For Hayes, memories of Better Loosen Up’s herculean performance to become Australia’s first — and so far — only Japan Cup winner have not dulled. He recalls casting an eye over the opposition and musing how “Blu” looked “pretty insignificant”.
“He wasn’t much to look at the best of times and on this day he looked particularly bad because of the class opposition he was up against,” Hayes said. “The Japan Cup that year, it was a cracking field. It was possibly the best field ever assembled for the race.
“Alongside Better Loosen Up, there were these huge European colts — the best of the best.”
Northern hemisphere champions such as Ode, Belmez, French Glory and Cacoethes dominated discussions. But Better Loosen Up was much more than an unadorned colonial in the presence of blue bloods. He possessed paralysing acceleration and a chilling will to win.
“I was a true believer in the horse,” Hayes said.
“There was a bit of a split decision at the time over who should get the invitation to run in the Japan Cup between Better Loosen Up and Super Impose. The Cox Plate (won by Better Loosen Up) settled that.”
Then, as now, Japanese racing is as much about ritual as practicality.
There is no greater sense of occasion for Japanese thoroughbred purists than the Japan Cup.
It is an occasion where appreciation for the horse rises to idolatry, hence the 90-minute parade from saddling up the field to start time.
While his human companions fretted, Better Loosen Up did what he always did — laid-back and lapped up the attention. And when it was time to perform, he did what he almost invariably did — produced his best and left nothing to doubt.
On this day, there were 156,000 people at the track.
Despite a rich vein of form, driven by four successive Melbourne spring victories and topped by Cox Plate triumph, Better Loosen Up drifted in the market.
Word had quickly spread of an unflattering track gallop five days before the race. But jockey Michael Clarke wasn’t concerned “because he was such a lazy horse”.
“He was the type of horse that if you let him lob along in trackwork, he’d just lob along,” Clarke said. “He was different in races. When I worked him before the race, he was fantastic. We knew he was spot on.”
HAYES’S TRIBUTE TO BETTER LOOSEN UP
When Hayes weighed the horse before the Cup, he was at his prime weight. It was almost as if he had never left home. Having studied the form of the opposition, Hayes knew Better Loosen Up could not afford to race to his customary pattern.
“We knew he couldn’t circle the field and come down the outside and beat the quality of horses in the field,” Hayes said.
He organised a private discussion with Clarke. None of the owners was present.
“I’ll never forget it because the boss never used to say much with instructions,” Clarke said.
“He preferred to leave it up to me. But he came to me and said he wanted to speak with me in private. He was never one to overburden me with instructions, so it was unusual.
“He told me he thought the horse was a great winning chance and we had to do everything right, where normally he’d just say ‘Make sure you give the horse room’.
“David said, ‘Today, you have got to ride the best race to win this race. I don’t want you going wide, you have got to save ground and I want you to wait’.”
Clarke, sporting three stitches in his head after an accident in a previous race, had prepared well but nothing could have steeled him for what was to unfold.
As strapper Cate Irvine led Clarke and Better Loosen Up out of the tunnel and into view of the masses, both were struck by the enormity of the occasion.
“When we came out of the tunnel, all you could see was a sea of black heads,” Irvine said.
“The crowd was huge and the roar was incredible. The horse didn’t flinch. He just walked out as if it was normal.”
By now, nearing the end of the interminable preliminaries, Clarke was in dire need of a toilet break. Trouble was he was at the barriers for the Japan Cup, the world’s richest and most prestigious race. He dismounted in the pen behind the barriers “because I was dying for a leak, but I couldn’t go”.
Clarke would soon have other matters on his mind.
As the barriers finally flung open, Clarke was immediately taken by Better Loosen Up’s frame of mind.
“Before the race, I could feel he was ready to go. He was all business,” he said. “As soon as we jumped, he relaxed and travelled so well, he arched his neck and put himself into the race.
“As a gap opened up ahead of him, he put himself into position.
“We eventually made our run and it was a tough battle. He really fought. In Australia he was used to having horses on his inside because we used to circle the field but this time he had one (Ode) chasing him down the outside. There was no way she was going to get past him and I reckon, on the line, he was lifting again and holding them.”
For Hayes, it was business as usual.
“It was just the same old story for Better Loosen Up, he just doesn’t get beaten in photos,” Hayes said. “That day was the eighth time he’d figured in a photo finish and the eighth time he’d won. He was amazing.”
Boom Time, ridden by Cory Parish, will jump from barrier 10 of 17 on Sunday.
Boom Time is eligible for a US$2 million bonus if he wins.
He is guaranteed of earning a $100,000 bonus for participating after winning the Caulfield Cup, while there is a $400,000 bonus for running second, and $250,000 for third in addition to any prizemoney earned.
Hugh Bowman will ride Cheval Grand from the inside draw.
Kitasan Black, the 2016 Japanese horse of the year, has drawn barrier four.
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