Chain of Love Japan's Lone BC Horse After Currency Drop

After Japan's success at the 2021 Breeders' Cup at Del Mar including the victories of Marche Lorraine  and Loves Only You  for trainer Yoshito Yahagi, only one contender returns to the World Championships this year.

Chain of Love , trained by Michihiro Ogasa for Koji Maeda's North Hills operation, will contest the Nov 5. Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) at Keeneland.

Stabled separate from the rest of the contenders, the atmosphere was quiet as Japan representative and translator Kate Hunter spoke about how the 5-year-old daughter of Heart's Cry  was settling in.

"She traveled really well. She didn't particularly like being alone in quarantine. She was a pretty ornery chestnut mare while she was in there," Hunter said.

"Once we got in the van she was a completely different horse and once she got here surrounded by other horses she's super happy... She's having the time of her life."

Hunter says the mare has enjoyed training over the Keeneland surface throughout the past couple of days. The routine is typically two laps around the training track followed by a light gallop on the main.

With Chain of Love the single competitor representing her country after a successful 2021 season, it begs the question, where are the other Japanese contenders? Hunter's response was matter-of-fact—the funding is just not there.

"The Japanese currency collapsed. It's the second worse collapse since World War II. It's not the best situation to be in," Hunter said. "The country is fine, it's just really expensive to buy things. For example, to enter in the Sprint is $60,000, but it would cost $90,000 worth of Japanese yen to pay the $60,000.

"It's about a third more expensive than it was before. The flight from Japan to the United States doubled. For a round trip it's about $200,000. Between that plus the 1/3rd loss in value in the currency, unfortunately, if the Breeders' Cup would have been in January, it wouldn't have been a problem."

She said that many Japanese horses traveled to Europe to compete during the summer which helped to eat up more of the budget.

"There's a lot of money used and not a lot of money coming back so everyone is kind of cutting their losses this fall and staying home where the prize money is pretty spectacular," Hunter said.

As for Ogasa, Hunter says that he is focused on representing Maeda and North Hills. She mentioned that it will be exciting for the entire team to see the mare move in conditions that she likes, as she does not typically have the opportunity in Japan.

"I think she's been a victim of her own birthplace. There are no graded stakes dirt sprints for fillies and mares in Japan. There aren't even many sprints that she'd be allowed to run in," Hunter said. "She's been running against colts almost her entire life on the dirt going in the sprints.

"This is really the first time she's going to be able to run a distance she likes, on a surface she likes against her own sex."

The mare has yet to win in graded stakes company, though she has won twice in stakes company in the 2021 Aqualine Stakes at Nakayama and last out in the Enif Stakes at Chukyo.

Her record sits at 3-2-3 from 22 starts with $910,796 in earnings.

"We're up against a whole lot of good horses and it's a very big field," Hunter said. "While looking at her on paper I don't think she would be a horse that people would be interested in. If you look past that at the situations around where she's running, she looks a lot better.

"Personally speaking, when I recruited her (I thought) that if she can't win than she'll hit the board. She's real fast at the end. If we get a good pace, I'd like to see her fly in."