Established as one of the Japanese racing’s rising stars, jockey Ryusei Sakai aims to strike aboard a pair of Japanese contenders at FWD Champions Day at Sha Tin on Sunday (28 April).

The talented 26-year-old jockey has been a prolific success in Grade 1 races on the JRA circuit, winning the Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes on Dolce More, the Shuka Sho (final leg of the Japan’s fillies’ Triple Crown) on Stunning Rose, the February Stakes and the Champions Cup on Lemon Pop, and this year’s Takamatsunomiya Kinen on Mad Cool. 

Furthermore, Sakai has become more well-known young jockey internationally in recent years. He has travelled to ride Japanese horses in many countries including the USA, Europe, the Middle East, Australia and Korea.

He won the 2022 G2 Godolphin Mile at Meydan and the 2023 G3 1351 Turf Sprint at King Abdulaziz on Bathrat Leon. In 2024, Sakai won the G3 Saudi Derby in dramatic style on the star prospect Forever Young before he punched the tickets to the Kentucky Derby with a dominating victory on Forever Young again in the G2 UAE Derby at Meydan last month. 

Sakai, whose father is a former jockey and now is a trainer on the National Association of Racing, started his jockey career in 2016 and has 437 Japan Racing Association wins from 4,608 rides overall. 

Sakai’s increasing popularity saw him take a total 20 mounts at Tokyo and Kyoto racecourses over the weekend before he flew to Kentucky to have a penultimate breeze for the three-year-old Yoshito Yahagi’s unbeaten Forever Young ahead of the Kentucky Derby.

He returned to Japan on the next day for 11 rides at Kyoto this Saturday (27 April). On the following day, he will ride two Japanese invaders at Sha Tin, Mad Cool in the HK$22 million G1 Chairman’s Sprint Prize (1200m) and Champagne Color in the HK$22 million G1 FWD Champions Mile (1600m).

After Sha Tin’s showpiece, Sakai will fly back to Japan on Monday (29 April) and will ride in the G1 race at NAR-Funabashi racecourse on 1 May before he bounds for the USA again.

Champagne Color is the one to ride for the first time for him, but on the other hand, he is a regular rider of Mad Cool. The five-year-old grey Irish-bred horse had a third straight win under Sakai in 2022. After finishing below par in the G3 CBC Sho last July, he was beaten by only a nose to Mama Cocha in the G1 Sprinters Stakes. Unfortunately, Sakai did not have an opportunity to ride the horse in the G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Sprint, but the pair reunited this year, avenging Sprinters Stakes defeat in the Takamatsunomiya Kinen.  

Sakai said after winning the race: “I have been riding on this horse since he raced in the novice at three and even at that time I talked to the assistant trainer ‘Let’s take the Takamatsunomiya Kinen with him.’. He has lots of rooms for improvement and I am looking forward to his coming future.”

His mentor, Yahagi who is also a very international-minded trainer gave him a lot of overseas experiences. Sakai went to Down Under in November 2017 and spent one year there to advance his riding skills and have more experiences. His unique opportunity still raises his ambitions and enthusiasms to ride as many as he can not only in Japan but also on the global stages. It may not take so long for the young hope to score his first G1 triumph internationally, and it will be possibly seen on Sunday.