It is always stunning scenery with top jockeys, floodlights, fireworks and lots of racing fans from all over the world at Happy Valley on Wednesday night (4 December) in the LONGINES International Jockey’s Championship (IJC).

This year, Japan’s Yuga Kawada will compete in the world’s most prestigious jockey championship for the second straight year. It will be the fourth time the 39-year-old Japanese jockey has participated in the event.

The legendary Yutaka Take shared the IJC championship with Christophe Soumillon in 2004 and Yuichi Fukunaga, who has retired as a jockey and opened his training yard at Japan Racing Association this term, won the title in 2014 but since then, Japan has yet to taste any success and now it’s Kawada’s turn.

Kawada has scored 126 wins from 427 rides in the JRA in 2024 and, overall, his winning numbers have soared to 2,184 from 12,856 rides including NAR (National Association of Racing) and overseas.

Kawada is no stranger to international races, having won the 2021 G1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (2200m) with Loves Only You, the first Japanese-trained Breeders’ Cup winner, before the pair secured another title in the 2021 G1 LONGINES Hong Kong Cup (2000m) a month later and he also won the G1 Dubai World Cup (2000m, dirt) with Ushba Tesoro in 2023. In 2024, he added the G3 Riyadh Dirt Sprint (1200m, dirt) and G3 Korea Sprint (1200m, dirt) victories with Remake to his burgeoning record abroad.

In July, Kawada took two-week break to focus on body maintenance. He revealed he was suffering from the severe nerve pain in his hip joint and, after meetings at Kokura on 7 July, he was unable to walk and found standing impossible.

“A detailed examination showed no major issues with muscles, ligaments or internal organs, but the nerve pain persisted, and it took two weeks to subside. For the first week, I was almost bed-ridden and unable to stand,” Kawada said.

He resumed riding at Ritto Training Centre on 25 July and had 11 rides, including one win at Niigata the following weekend. 

However, another incident hit him again. On 19 October, he had a fall after he finished the race. He was immediately placed on the stretcher and taken to the hospital by ambulance. He was unable to continue riding that day and the following day, which caused him to miss the G1 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger, 3000m). According to detailed examinations, he suffered a head injury, but he returned to the saddle on the following week to prepare for the G1 Tenno Sho Autumn (2000m) with his regular partner Liberty Island.

After the Tenno Sho, Kawada flew to California for the Breeders’ Cup meetings as he had three rides at Del Mar in the United States of America.

“Thanks to everybody’s support after the fall, I was able to come back to the races and to come to the US. Honestly speaking, my neck pain still remains,” Kawada said when he observed the Japanese horses in the morning trackwork at Del Mar. 

Kawada flew back to Japan after the Breeders’ Cup to contest the JBC (Japan Breeding Farms Cup), fashioned after the Breeders’ Cup, being a JRA-NAR exchange race that moves around different NAR tracks year after year. This year, JBC took place at Saga racecourse in Kyushu Island. As Saga is a hometown of Kawada, his victory of the JPN G1 JBC Classic (2000m, dirt) with Wilson Tesoro this year must have been very special for him. Kawada is a well-known jockey as a “cool guy”, but he was quite different at that time. When he returned to the front of the grandstand after he finished the line, he took off his helmet and bowed to the fans with tears, which was a surprising scene.

“It has been the first time to take place JBC at Saga, my hometown, since the JBC was founded 25 years ago, so this might be my first and last ride at Saga for the JBC in my career,” he said.

“I came to compete at Saga with a responsibility that I had to enjoy all the fans who came to the racecourse and leave the special memories to them.”

Kawada is excited about riding in the LONGINES IJC.

“I am extremely honoured to be participating in the event. I am very excited and looking forward to competing against the world’s top-class jockeys,” he said. “I have been to Hong Kong for racing many times.

“Being an easy travel from Japan, a number of Japanese horses have come to compete in Hong Kong. So, I really hope that Japan and Hong Kong will enhance the level and quality of this industry together.”