Dessert Time

It was 9:55 a.m. local time.

Buyers and sellers could be seen gathered in conversation throughout the auction venue. Even before the auction officially began, the atmosphere had already grown quite lively.

This side was no exception.

Although they had not yet settled on any yearlings they wanted to bid on, Mahanya had already reserved the role of trainer in Australia.

According to him, Australia did not have a truly nationwide, unified racing association like the JRA.

Races in New South Wales, where Sydney was located; Victoria, where Melbourne was located; and Queensland, where Brisbane and the Gold Coast were located, were generally organized by each state separately.

In addition, racecourses were divided into three tiers: top-level metropolitan racecourses, second-tier provincial racecourses, and third-tier country racecourses.

Their prize money, the caliber of horses competing, and the training fees charged by stables all differed.

As a rough standard, monthly management fees at top-tier metropolitan tracks were around 400,000 yen, provincial tracks around 300,000 yen, and country tracks between 150,000 and 200,000 yen.

—The costs were far cheaper than in Japan, whether central or regional racing, though that was largely related to the scale of Australian stables.

Furthermore, once a horse had been registered in any state, it could race at any racecourse in Australia.

Horses stabled at metropolitan racecourses would sometimes use maiden races at provincial racecourses to ensure victory in their debut.

—It was roughly like a horse registered with central racing being allowed to debut at Oi or even Saga.

"Here, our goal is to target races that suit our level and fight for the best placing possible. Nothing else matters."

Mahanya casually looked up as he cut into a frosted muffin with his fork.

One major difference between Australian racing and Japanese racing was that there was no