Cover image courtesy of Northern Farm
Last week, we unpacked some of the elements contributing to why a bigger percentage of 2-year-olds race in other jurisdictions compared to Australia. Japan stood head and shoulders above the rest, with Arion figures showing around 67% of the foal crop start as juveniles each year.
At Northern Farm, preparation begins in the yearling year, with the aim of producing horses ready for the Classics at three. Many remain within the farm’s training system throughout their racing careers, moving between its facilities and their trainers’ stables.
That gives the people making decisions about a horse access to its history, from early development to injury treatment and race preparation. It also puts Japan’s juvenile participation figures in a different light: an early start is part of a much longer plan.
The early incentive
“More than 90% of the horses that enter our training barns for breaking-in eventually make it to the races,” said Northern Farm Manager Dr Tomonori Tsuda.
The wider Japanese figures show high participation beyond Northern Farm, too. According to Arion, 5180 individual 2-year-olds raced in 2025, equivalent to 67% of the 2023 foal crop. There were also 6641 individual 3-year-old starters, equivalent to 85% of the 2022 crop.
In Australia’s 2024/25 season, 2341 individual 2-year-olds raced, equivalent to 18% of the 2022 crop, while 7085 individual 3-year-olds represented 53% of the 2021 crop.
These are comparisons of starters at each age against foal-crop totals, rather than measures of how many horses eventually race. They involve separate crops, overlap between horses racing at two and three, and movement between countries. They cannot establish a lifetime participation rate, but the difference in early participation is substantial.
Imports account for only a small share of Japan’s runners: 97.8% of starters across all ages in 2025 were Japanese-bred.
Dr Tomonori Tsuda | Image courtesy of IFHA
Programming gives connections a reason to prepare early. The limited window for 3-year-old maiden races in the Japan Racing Association (JRA) programme adds pressure to secure a first win. An earlier debut gives a horse more opportunities to do so, as well as time to qualify for races such as the G1 Tokyo Yushun, the Japanese Derby.
The National Association of Racing (NAR) circuit, run by local governments, offers another route, although generally with lower prizemoney than the JRA.
Japan’s juvenile season begins in June, with its major 2-year-old races held in December. Within that window, Japanese juveniles averaged 3.5 starts in 2025, compared with 2.3 in Australia’s 2024/25 season.
The participation feeds into fuller fields. Japan’s 2-year-old races averaged 12.5 runners in 2025, rising to 14.2 in races for horses aged three and upwards. Australia averaged 9.5 runners across all races in 2024/25.
The categories differ, but the figures give some sense of the depth available to Japanese race programmes.
Start young, build consistency
Dr Tsuda said Northern Farm’s preparation is directed towards the Classic season. Much of the groundwork is already in place before a horse turns two.
By then, horses have been broken in and introduced to the farm’s training facilities, which include a 900-metre circular dirt track, a 600-metre Polytrack, hypoxic treadmills and a covered uphill track.
“By the end of December of their yearling year, many have progressed to training over three furlongs at approximately 18 seconds per furlong on our uphill track,” Dr Tsuda said.
The 900-metre, woodchip-based uphill track allows work to continue through Hokkaido’s winter, when temperatures can fall to -20°C.
“The incline allows us to develop aerobic capacity while naturally encouraging the horse to shift its balance towards the hindquarters. This means we can build strength and cardiovascular fitness efficiently without relying on excessive speed.”
Interior view of the uphill indoor training track | Image courtesy of Northern Farm
Workload is adjusted to how each horse is progressing. Different surfaces and gradients give staff options as fitness develops, while heart-rate monitoring and blood-lactate measurements supplement their observations.
The control over pace is deliberate.
“We also place considerable emphasis on adhering to planned training times rather than allowing horses to work faster than intended,” Dr Tsuda said.
Delivering that work requires skilled riders who understand what the session is intended to achieve.
“Rider education is therefore an important part of injury prevention. We want young horses to develop correct movement and balance rather than running excessively on the forehand or leaning heavily on the bit. The rider needs to be able to control pace while allowing the horse to develop an efficient way of moving.”
“Rider education is therefore an important part of injury prevention. The rider needs to be able to control pace while allowing the horse to develop an efficient way of moving.” - Dr Tomonori Tsuda
Riders at Northern Farm Training Facility | Image courtesy of Northern Farm
The JRA Horseracing School conducts a three-year residential course for jockeys and a six-month course for stablehands, which also places an emphasis on correct riding skills. The latter is necessary for stablehands who want to be employed at JRA tracks, helping to finetune horses before raceday.
Symbiotic systems
Limitations breed ingenuity and the limits on trackside stabling in Japan necessitate a symbiotic relationship between trainer and pretraining centre, with the level of trust and communication between the two directly impacting a horse’s trajectory. Horses typically only arrive at the trainer’s stables 10 days before a race and they return to the farm after one or two starts for a freshen up.
“This integrated system may also explain something that is relatively distinctive about Japan,” Dr Tsuda said.
“When owners purchase horses bred by Northern Farm, many choose to leave them within the Northern Farm training system. This allows them to take full advantage of the continuity of information, facilities and management from the horse's early development through its racing career.”
“When owners purchase horses bred by Northern Farm, many choose to leave them within the Northern Farm training system. This allows them to take full advantage of the continuity of information, facilities and management.” - Dr Tomonori Tsuda
Horse doing ground work at Northern Farm Training Facility | Image courtesy of Northern Farm
The continuity of information from birth through breaking in and into full race training is particularly key to the system’s success.
When a horse performs poorly, management has access to a lifetime of information to help pinpoint a potential root of the problem and to feed their decision making on what happens next.
“In that sense, our objective is not simply to produce more exceptional winners,” Dr Tsuda said.
“It is also to continually improve our ability to produce horses that are less likely to fail - horses with the soundness, physical capacity, and mental resilience required to sustain a racing career.”
Managing the workload
Dr Tsuda noted that it is important to get the balance right for young horses between building their fitness and preventing injury.
“The articular cartilage is still developing, physical growth can potentially be compromised, and there is also the risk of mental burnout,” he said.
Going too hard too fast risks stress fractures and sprains, particularly in the hind limbs. While superficial digital flexor tendon injuries are relatively uncommon, other suspensory ligament problems from earlier in life can reoccur and having the knowledge of their existence leads to better proactive management.
“When fractures or other musculoskeletal injuries occur, we use surgical treatment where appropriate, but we also actively use regenerative and orthobiologic therapies,” Dr Tsuda said.
Corticosteroid treatment of joints is infrequent, with preference given to treatments like protein rich plasma (PRP) and Interleukin-1 Receptor Antagonist Protein (IRAP) therapy that use derivatives of the horse’s own blood to drive healing.
The hypoxic treadmills play a particularly important role in injury rehabilitation.
“Treadmills play a major role in our rehabilitation programs because they allow us to control both workload and movement very precisely,” Dr Tsuda said. “We have specific rehabilitation protocols depending on the type and stage of each injury.”
Breeding to win
The racing records of Japan’s leading stallions offer another view of its priorities. Juvenile ability is valuable, alongside performance maintained into later seasons.
Among the top 20 sires in Japan’s 2025 premiership, only three did not race at two. Two of those, Kitasan Black (Jpn) and Hokko Tarumae (Jpn), each made at least 20 starts over multiple seasons.
Across the group, the average racing career comprised 15.7 starts over three and a half seasons.
The 20 busiest stallions in Japan’s 2026 breeding season had similar records, averaging 14.4 starts over three and a half seasons. Kitasan Black was the only member of that group who did not race at two. His son Equinox (Jpn), a six-time Group 1 winner who raced across three seasons, was the country’s third busiest sire.
Kitasan Black (Jpn) | Standing at Shadai Stallion Station
Australia’s 20 busiest stallions in spring 2025 averaged 11.25 career starts over 2.3 seasons. I Am Invincible and Hellbent raced across four seasons, while Harry Angel (Ire) and Better Than Ready raced across three.
The juvenile figures run in the opposite direction. Australia’s busiest stallions averaged 3.4 starts at two, compared with 2.5 among Japan’s leading and busiest sire groups.
These selected groups cannot establish the durability of either country’s horse population, or what the stallions will pass on. They do, however, suggest a difference in the racing records breeders are rewarding: Australia’s busiest sires had more juvenile starts, while their Japanese counterparts generally raced across more seasons.
Japanese breeders also buy accomplished racemares from overseas. Recent Australian purchases include dual Group 3 winner Just Feelin’ Lucky (Justify {USA}), Group 2 winner Philia (All Too Hard), and Group 3 winner and Group 1 fourth Lilac (Justify {USA}).
Last year’s purchases included G1 Queensland Oaks winner Socks Nation (Sioux Nation {USA}), Group winners Hell Hath No Fury (Hellbent) and Eagle Nest (Shalaa {Ire}), and Listed Tasmanian Oaks winner Soul Choice (Redoute’s Choice).
Golden Slipper winners Fireburn (Rebel Dane) and She Will Reign (Manhattan Rain) were also purchased privately for Japan, as was dual Group 1-winning juvenile Yankee Rose (All American).
Yankee Rose has already produced four-time Group 1 winner Liberty Island (Jpn) (Duramente {Jpn}). Four of her other five runners have won at two, including her current juvenile Danon Dax (Jpn) (Saturnalia {Jpn}), who broke his maiden over 1800 metres on Sunday.
Those purchases bring proven racing ability into Japanese breeding programmes, including mares that performed early and others that sustained their form over several seasons.
For Australia, the scale of Japan’s juvenile participation deserves attention well beyond the sale ring. Northern Farm’s account shows how much work sits behind a debut: controlled preparation in the yearling year, facilities that support training through winter, and staff who continue to manage the horse between races.
An incentive to race early can only achieve so much on its own. At Northern Farm, the people preparing a horse for its first start are still involved when it comes back for its next campaign. That continuity is one of the most useful features of the Japanese approach to examine.
