Zhou Yuang remained calm, though he could understand why they thought that way.
There was a saying in horse racing: Japan had first-rate racehorses, second-rate jockeys, third-rate trainers, and owners who did not even make the grade.
Japanese horses were not actually bad. In reality, Japan had imported plenty of bloodlines from famous horses.
As for the jockeys... Yutaka Take, widely acknowledged as Japan's best jockey, had never made the world's top ten. At 170 centimeters, he was too tall for a jockey, and his riding style was unconventional. Yet plenty of jockeys scrambled to imitate that style, which had been tailored specifically to him.
Trainers generally did a sloppy job, always insisting on their own interpretations without paying much attention to training techniques in other countries.
As for the owners... their records were downright disgraceful.
Rudolf's owner was a rabid Japanese nationalist who thought she was invincible and insisted on sending her to race in the United States. He fell out with her trainer, and then she developed problems racing on a track that had already ruined quite a few famous horses. Suspensory ligament inflammation forced her into retirement.
And the unlucky Sirius Symboli, from the same farm, went overseas to race, not only losing half her tongue after biting it off, but returning without any of her former spirit.
Oguri Cap's second owner lost his eligibility as an owner after committing tax evasion, then sold her to a third owner for an annual price of three hundred million yen. The third owner immediately dragged her through race after race, treating her as a money-making machine. Oguri Cap suffered a crushing defeat and even lost her athlete's heart.
Like Oguri Cap's owners above, T.M. Opera O's owner, Takeda, was another inhuman bastard. Never mind making her race eight times