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MELBOURNE - There will be a long list of Japanese horses trying to win next year's Melbourne Cup.
That's the tip from the racing supremo Katsumi Yoshida, who produced a Delta Blues-Pop Rock quinella result in the great race yesterday.
And if he's right, Australians, already vocal about there being too many international horses in the Cup, won't have a leg to stand on.
You can only imagine how that thought goes down with Aussie cups king Bart Cummings, who was noticeably missing after the race.
No one could believe a Japanese quinella in Australia's most famous horse race.
But, with no runners this year from the stables of Cummings and Lee Freedman, which have won 16 Melbourne Cups between them, this race always had a Disneyland feel to it.
This was no playschool Cup attempt by a minnow international body - Yoshida is one of the biggest players in the world of thoroughbreds.
He and two brothers own the massive Japanese conglomerate Shadai Group, which houses 1300 horses and produces 300 foals each year.
It consists of three major farms, two private training centres, one stallion stud and two horse ownership clubs.
Sunday Racing Syndicate, which races Delta Blues, is one of these clubs.
This was a triumph of resources by the Shadai Group and one of its offshoots, Northern Farm.
Yoshida revealed that his group planned the Melbourne Cup raid after Pop Rock won a group two race in Tokyo this year.
It was planned to the finest detail.
To make it work they imported into Japan bulk Australian horse feed to get Pop Rock and Delta Blues accustomed to what they would be required to consume when they arrived in Melbourne.
"Mashed soya beans," replied trainer Katsuhiko Sumii when asked about the pair's staple diet.
Sumii, 43, looks like an ex-jockey, but says he has never been on a horse's back on a racetrack.
He has certainly saddled the right ones.
Last year he won the American Oaks with Cesario and the Hong Kong Mile with Hat Trick. With the Oaks win he became the first Japanese trainer to produce a group one winner in the United States and he also picked up a group one in Dubai.
Yoshida, well used to winning top races, said producing a Melbourne Cup quinella rated alongside winning the Prix De l'Arc de Triomph.
"Everyone will be here next year," he replied to the question of what yesterday's result would mean in Japan.
Asked by the Victorian Racing Club executive who conducted the press conference whether the team felt "over the moon", Katsumi Yoshida said: "Yes, the moon, we feel like we're on the moon."
So did most Australians when the two Japanese horses broke clear.
The Japanese brought with them an interpreter, Keita Tanaka, who provided a somewhat English version of the speeches at the birdcage presentation.
"Very happy, very happy. My biggest winner ever," was about all jockey Yasanuri Iwata said.
The men from the land of the rising sun made it clear they were going to party to the setting sun.
Channel 7 interviewed Tanaka yesterday morning before he arrived at Flemington.
The last question was: "What will you do if you win the Cup?"
After staring blankly for a moment, Tanaka broke into a massive smile and said: "Drink all night."
That might have been a funny line to end the story, but the much more formal Yoshida repeated the threat of a few drinks at the press conference.
Then he would plan next year's Melbourne Cup raid.
Pop Rock and Delta Blues might have easily beaten Australasia's best, but Yoshida said his other high-profile stayer, Deep Impact, was easily better than the pair.
"Deep Impact is stronger, but he would have too much handicap [weight] for a Melbourne Cup.
"That will always prevent the highest-rated Japanese horses from coming here."
For two weeks, Damien Oliver had been tipping everyone that Pop Rock would win the Melbourne Cup and he was wrong by only half a head.
But there were moments in the home straight when he was sure he had been right.
"I thought I was on the winner at the 200m.
"I thought, 'I've got this, it's almost too good to be true', but as we got closer to the winner I could feel my horse starting to feel the pressure."
Delta Blues has a private reputation for being lazy, something which fooled trackwork watchers this week.
When you've won a Melbourne Cup you've earned the right to be a slob for life.
