The Asia Challenge Cup: An Introduction

This Sunday, the Korean Racing Authority will host the 1200-meter Asia Challenge Cup, the highlight of the KRA's International Racing Festival weekend at Seoul Race Park. The Challenge Cup is notable for a few reasons, not least of which is its purse. At 403,840,000 (about US$344,322), the race isn't Korea's richest, but still represents a hefty prize. More important is that the Challenge Cup is the embodiment of a local racing industry that is looking to open up to the world. Despite the fact that Koreans have been shopping at American sales for well over a decade and a half, and have been buying stallions for just as long, we tend to not know very much about racing here. The same could be said for other jurisdictions that do business with the Koreans. That isn't necessarily an accident. As a young industry that nonetheless attracts outsized betting dollars–it handled about $6 billion last year–and enjoys healthy purse structure because of it, Korea has long taken a protectionist stance. But as the Korean racing industry lays a proper foundation for growth, the KRA is is showing a willingness to embrace outside participation.

One step the KRA took was opening up the Challenge Cup to foreign-based horses for the first time two years ago. Initially known as the Korea/Japan Goodwill Cup, since Japan was the only country with which the KRA had established quarantine protocols, the inaugural race was won by the the late-charging Japanese invader Tosen Archer (Jpn) (Barathea {Ire}) (click here for video). The locals held their own, though. Local star Watts Village (Forestry) not only fought on to be second, but came back to win a reciprocal event at Ohi Racecourse in Tokyo that November. Another local, the filly Indian Blue (Henny Hughes), was third.

In 2014, when quarantine protocols were secured with Singapore, too, the race name was changed to the Asia Challenge Cup. Again, the Korean horses ran well, but again saw their flag lowered by a foreign invader. This time it was Singapore's El Padrino (NZ) (Mr. Nancho {Arg}) who swept to the fore in the stretch, defeating the locals Wonder Bolt (Desert Warrior) and New York Blue (Candy Ride {Arg}) (video).

It wasn't a win, but there was plenty to be positive about. El Padrino was no slouch. Singapore's champion older male in 2014, he was flying late to just miss third, and was beaten just 1 3/4 lengths by winner Secret Circle (Eddington), in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen last March. The results of the first two editions of the Cup confirmed that Korean racing was making strides. Now we're on the eve of the third Cup, and there are five foreign-owned horses competing—three from Singapore and two from Japan.

Might an American-owned horse ever compete in the race? It's possible. But a quick look at the results shows that plenty of American-bred horses have already competed in it. The aforementioned Watts Village was a $20,000 juvenile purchase from Niall Brennan at the 2012 OBS April Sale. Indian Blue was purchased the same year from Stephens Thoroughbreds for $26,000 at Fasig-Tipton May. Ends Well, whose graduates include the Grade I winner The Big Beast (Yes It's True), sold last year's runner-up Wonder Bolt for $20,000 at the 2012 OBS June Sale. The filly New York Blue was a $150,000 graduate of White Fox Farm's draft at the 2012 Keeneland September Sale.

All of this to say: it makes sense for American breeders to pay attention to what's happening in South Korean racing.

Over the next few days, we'll take you through the ins and outs of Korean racing, including, for the first time this year, the licensing of foreign owners (the short list includes Team Valor's Barry Irwin and Dr. Kendall Hansen). We'll also give you the lowdown on the Racing Festival. There is Saturday's Asian Young Guns Jockey Challenge, which pits 11 apprentice jockeys from Asia, Oceania and South Africa against each other; and the latest renewal of the Cup, which features the return of El Padrino. The veteran drew the two hole at yesterday's barrier draw, and who could be up against it this year, considering the Cup distance has been shortened to 1200 meters from his preferred 1400 meters. That's especially true given the presence of the emerging Korean threat, the American-bred Choegang Schiller (Artie Schiller). Stay tuned…

Arriving in Seoul…

Last Thursday, at home in Lexington, Kentucky, I was doing my best to avoid cutting myself while shaving when I got a text from Chauncey Morris. You likely know Chauncey from his time as a sales marketing associate at Keeneland. Or from his time in Australia as the CEO of AusHorse. Or in his current repatriated form as the executive director of the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association. The text read: “A buddy of mine who helps run racing in Korea needs an American journo in Seoul Aug. 29-30 to cover an international race. Interested?”

Yes, I was. “Hey babe, can I go to Korea next week for a horse race?” I yelled out to my partner Ada. “Wow,” she hollered back. “YES.”

That is a cool woman.

Five days later, I was patting myself down at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington to make sure I had remembered my passport and wallet. Check on both. The adventure was off to a good start.

The journey was typical travel fare: A 3-year-old at Detroit Metropolitan proudly pointed out to his mother that the wet spots on his pants were from the spray of a water fountain, not incontinence. A trip–no word is more accurate–down the airport's psychedelic Light Tunnel that connecting the A and B terminals. A packed-full 747. A pair of college-age kids in the seats across the aisle first introducing themselves to each other, then, after the meal service (read: wine service), making out with almost surprising gusto. (He seemed to go missing later in the flight, so there's a chance she actually devoured him, mantis-style.) A smooth landing at Incheon airport. A first: a driver holding up a sign with my name on it.

On Wednesday evening, 23 hours after leaving my house in Lexington, I settled in at the Intercontinental Coex and was happy to get this text from my contact here, Dr. Seungho Ryu: “Let's have a bottle of beer for your refreshment.” (This phrase, with its selfless tone, is one I'll be adopting.)

Ryu is a driving force behind the reason I'm here: this weekend's International Racing Festival, and its highlight, the Asia Challenge Cup. He is the Korean Racing Authority's International Racing Manager, and, from what I've seen, appears to be something of a Renaissance man. He is a non-practicing equine surgeon with several letters following his name: DVM, MS, PhD, and is dedicated to the growth of Korean racing.

We had a nice chat at the hotel bar about racing here, what to do in Seoul, etc., but the traveling caught up with me. This before I could try the traditional Korean beverage Soju, a distilled beverage made from sweet potatoes. Something to look forward to.

On Thursday morning, I joined with the connections of El Padrino (NZ), maybe the leading threat in Sunday's Asia Challenge Cup, and took a shuttle with them to Seoul Race Park. The horse's trainer, Alwin Tan, and jockey, Oscar Chavez, were both terrifically friendly. I told them I remembered their horse because there was a good runner in America by the same name.

“That's where we got the name,” Chavez admitted. He explained that El Padrino was initially named Ip Man, after the famed martial arts teacher whose students included Bruce Lee. According to Chavez, family members complained about using the name, and so they changed it to El Padrino.

Chavez, a native of Panama, has more ties to America than just the borrowing of a name. His nephew is the Delaware Park jockey Gabriel Saez, who won the GI Kentucky Oaks on Proud Spell.

Tan also has close ties to the U.S. The native Singaporean, 46, lived in Kentucky from 2002-2006. He started from the bottom walking hots, and went on to work for the likes of John Ward, Murray Johnson and Don Bernard. A former Air Force regular, Tan returned home in 2006 to work as an assistant, and finally struck out on his own in 2009.

The shuttle dropped us off at the racing office, which sits on a hill behind the track's backstretch, and the connections of the weekend's horses milled around outside the small, one-story structure as the races were drawn for both Saturday and Sunday. It was a decidedly relaxed affair with few, if any, owners in attendance. People spilled out of the packed racing office, and tried to find shade as the hot August sun beat down. Finally they took entries for the Challenge Cup. El Padrino drew post two. Tan's other horse in the race, Happy Money (Aus) (Econsul {NZ}), got the six. Chavez asked a racing official if they could switch. He laughed when he was told no. “We'll be OK,” he smiled.

I hung around the backside for the rest of the afternoon, chatting with, among other people, Seoul Race Park's English-speaking (and, in fact, English) race caller Alastair Middleton (more on Alastair later). Around four I took the subway back to the Intercontinental. The subway was everything you'd expect—fast, easy to navigate, impossibly clean—and when I got off at Samseong Station, I figured I'd better get a bite to eat before sitting down to write.

I found a place that was either called Ramen + Beer, or that was advertising those things. The beer was fine, the ramen was perfect. It was hot enough to make your eyes water and speaking slightly difficult, but not so hot it overwhelmed the delicious broth. The meal cost me $6.50. A good first day in Seoul.