Clive Brittain is back in Japan for another serving of the Japan Cup, his seventh, in fact. The 72-year-old trainer has returned with 7-year-old Warrsan, who, come Sunday afternoon, will try to lay to rest the memories of his 15th-place finish of last year. Brittain, winner of the 6th Japan Cup with Jupiter Island, attributes the defeat to the draw, which slotted Warrsan in the outside stall in a field of 16. With new British champion jockey Jamie Spencer in the saddle--and a better draw, as he hopes for--Brittain will aim to take home a second Japan Cup medallion with Warrsan, one of six overseas entries in the 2,400-meter, Grade 1 race at Tokyo Racecourse. In an exclusive interview, Brittain spoke about his chances on Sunday at the Fuchu track, and about the strides Japanese thoroughbred racing has taken over the years since his involvement.
Welcome back. What happened last year?
Clive Brittain: We ran a very disappointing race last year, and I knew it wasn't the horse's fault. And we went on to Hong Kong and he ran very disappointing there, so obviously the horse wasn't as well as he looked. This year we changed things slightly. We've had a track season aimed at the Japan Cup, the idea being we raced him less this year, spaced his races so we brought over here, hopefully, a fresher horse. He looks to be in very good condition. The Japan Cup was always the major race for us.
I thought the draw was one of the major factors. I left Japan thinking it was the draw that killed his chance. Obviously, he ran very disappointing in Hong Kong so maybe the horse itself--mentally--wasn't up for it. The whole thing about horses is that you can train them, but you can't always train the mind. They can look good, their blood picture is good, the physical condition is good, and the mental condition can be below par. And that can be very much a deciding factor. This is what I find over the years training older horses. They can switch off on you very quickly, and might act with no warning.
Is Warrsan in better for this year?
CB: He looks very much, yes. To be absolutely honest, going into the Japan Cup last year, I thought we had a very good chance. The horse was working well, there was no obvious sign that he wasn't feeling the top of his form. To go back to England, the Coronations Cup wasn't a run that suited him. It was a stop-go race, and a small field which didn't play to his strength. In the King George, he got hampered when he was challenging but showed his old determination and form again.
Of course at Baden Baden, he came back to his very best and the Arc, again, wasn't a kind race on him; he didn't even get the best of runs through the race. But still finished well, finished eighth, wasn't beaten that far. That's racing; it's what happens.
His racing weight remains the same. He will go to scale between 476 and 478. He's 480 at the moment, so really he'll be a fit race.
When you come this far, you want Lady Luck anyway. If Lady Luck is riding with us, we have a very good chance.
What can Jamie Spencer do for your horse?
CB: We took Warrsan and two lead horses to Lingfield for a mile and quarter trial gallop for, to give Spencer a feel for the horse, and this year we find that the horse..needs to go away, and with the horse not running as often, we've been taking him down to Lingfield to give him his gallops. He worked absolutely brilliantly with him, switched on, quickened. Actually, it's as close to racing pace as a gallop can get, and Jamie Spencer was very impressive. Obviously, the jockey and the horse appears to be a marriage at the moment.
How tough is this year's field?
CB: I think last year's field was very strong. This year, Bago, Ouija Board all looked to be much of the same level. I think if there's an advantage, we probably have it coming out of quarantine when we did, having an extra day of training on the track. Actually it gives us two days. There's a difference between the quarantine, which is a very good quarantine facility, but the track isn't really fit for fast work. So it gives us an extra chance to get the work into the horse that we needed. We're hanging on a slight advantage at the moment.
The Japanese horses, it's very difficult to assess the form. Therefore, what I do know is that they're very fit and they run very fast. It's tough, always a tough race. In fact, I probably have said this before because I've been here 10 times, the quality of the Japanese horses has soared in the 10-, 15-year spread that I've been coming. Every year, it gets harder to win here. I'm reliably informed that the Japanese horses aren't as good this year as last year's. But that doesn't make them any easier to beat.
Will Zenno Rob Roy, the defending champion, the horse to beat?
CB: Probably so. But I'm afraid as a trainer, I'm blinkered. I always look at my horse, and when the race is on, I only look at my horse. After the race, I only ever make excuses for one horse and that's my horse. Really, the opposition has never been a factor. In my training career, I have a reputation of taking on horses with no chance of winning. And yet I win races because I can't train other people's horses. If I go to bed worrying, 'What's it going to be, what's it going to be,' I've reached 72 years now, and I'm sleeping.
How will Warrsan handle the Tokyo track?
CB: That wouldn't be too much of a worry. It's, again, being in a position to travel. If you're unfortunate, and drawn on the outside, you have to ask your horse for an effort from the start. If you ask a horse to use speed then, it will blunt his speed for any finish later in the race. You can be in a hopeless position after a half mile is gone. You can almost be in a no chance of a position. I think you always look on the bright side and that you get a good draw and that the race breaks. And if it does, I think we have a solid chance.
Kieren Fallon, who rode the horse last year and has obviously ridden in Japan many times, his first words were when he came back was, 'We had no chance from the draw.' So he put it down to the draw. Watching from the stands, you can't assess what's going on like the jockey can from the back. He said he had to go a stride faster than he wanted to go, and was never in a position to sit, gather his horse, to hold him together. In his opinion, from the first jump out of the stall, his chance had gone. So a jockey of his caliber says that, I have to listen.
What is the allure of the Japan Cup?
CB: It's always been a tremendous challenge. When we won it with Jupiter Island, it was very much new ground. It was the start of the Japan Cup as it became. To see it grow in stages over the years, apart from the prize money, the prestige the Japan Cup carries now in my personal opinion, far above the Breeders Cup. It's one of the reasons why we resisted the temptation to go to either Woodbine or the Breeders Cup. I felt that for Warrsan, to win the Japan Cup, it would be the absolute pinnacle of his racing career.
Do you like where Japanese racing is headed?
CB: Very much so. I've said many times over the years that I've been privileged to come over in the early years and see the improvement in the Japanese horses, the home bred horses. I felt the clever purchases of horses like Sunday Silence, and the influence, the money that Japanese breeders spent, I've been around long enough to see it mature and to start showing through. So it's very difficult to come here and win now. Dare I say it, Jupiter Island probably wouldn't be in the first 10 in a very good run race. I don't think any of the horses that won the Japan Cup in the early days would compete today.
There are more races open now than we first come. It was only the Japan Cup. Probably I was one of the first trainers to bring a horse for the second race they opened, the mile race..I don't think the JRA have any fears about opening up their bigger races because the door can be open, but you've got to be able to go through it.
How is it for a traveler to race in Japan?
CB: I'm very much impressed with the strict quarantine facility. I think it makes a lot of sense. If you're going down for quarantine, you've got to have a strict one. It is, probably, the finest quarantine center that I've been to. That includes..many of the quarantine facilities in the States, Kentucky for instance where at one stage you weren't allowed to fly horses into. But when you got there, the quarantine facilities, in my opinion, weren't 100 percent anyway. Here in Japan, I don't think you could take any more measures to ensure that your horse doesn't pick up anything from the local horses or in fact leave anything behind.
Where do you want Warrsan during the trip?
CB: He's won some of his races from the front so really, I think anything from a 3 to 10 draw would be acceptable.
© Japan Association for International Racing and Stud Book (JAIRS). All Rights Reserved.
