Japanese Resort For Run-Down Horses

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30737, 29 April 1965, Page 4

Japanese Resort For Run-Down Horses

Japanese racing has boomed in the last decade along with Japanese industry and living standards. The importance of the sport is illustrated by the recent establishment of a mineral spring resort for rundown race-horses in Funabashi, near Tokyo.

For the equivalent of £5O an owner can send a string of horses to the health clinic where veterinary surgeons examine the horses and prescribe suitable steam and water treatment for muscular complaints.

An earlier health establishment for racehorses was the Equine Health Laboratory, set up in 1959, for research into the cause of accidents in racehorses and effective therapy. The laboratory now has a staff of over 70 and carries out research in diseases, feeding, training methods, fatigue, training, pathology and doping. Beside the laboratory, in the Equestrian Park, the Japan Racing Association runs a full-time school for jockeys. Starting in 1950 as a one-year course, it was extended in 1959 to a two-year programme.

The course is divided into riding technique and academic studies. Besides being taught the rules of racing and how to ride, the budding jockeys learn such subjects as sociology, ethics and English.

Facilities on Japanese courses rival anything in the world. Closed-circuit television relays betting, odds, fields, and even the actual races to all parts of the course.

Racing in Japan is strictly controlled, with every race filmed in entirety- In addition. each horse is under constant surveillance by a steward during a race.