During the post-race interview, Koichi was congratulated on winning another mile championship that year.
Although Red Dream had been the fourth favorite, she had clearly been the less fancied contender compared with the favorite, Vega.
Koichi also said he was looking forward to next year's Oka Sho.
The two racehorses would face each other again next year at the same venue, on the same course, over the same distance.
But whatever happened next, they had won this year's race.
After the race, both the horse trainer and the club had high praise for Koichi.
Shadai naturally offered him some praise as well, since the winner was a Stay Gold offspring.
Still, their own horses had lost this time, and most of the leading favorites had come from their ranches.
Over the past year or so, Koichi Sasaki had brought Shadai Club plenty of victories.
The most notable had been last year's Japan Cup and this year's race in Dubai.
After the race, Koichi went to the club's celebration party with his agent.
The club's makeup was fairly complicated. Besides its staff, there were plenty of fractional-share owners, and these members might one day become individual horse owners themselves.
Saki Ikegami was therefore delighted to attend the party with Koichi.
Overall, clubs naturally had access to better resources. After all, once they bought a racehorse, they could have their fractional-share members shoulder the risk. As long as the shares sold well, they were sure to make a profit.
And this time, they had earned the recognition of another club.
As a jockey, he certainly couldn't rely exclusively on one club's resources. However powerful Sunday Club was, it couldn't provide strong mounts for every race.
The following Tuesday.
"Haah..."
Watching the staff bustle back and forth, Koichi yawned as he stood