This time, the host was a pretty young woman.
Whether the host was a man or a woman made no difference to Koichi, but a pretty young woman was more pleasant to look at.
"Let's congratulate jockey Sasaki on taking first place in the Satsuki Sho."
The host handed him the other microphone.
When she interviewed the other jockeys, they were about the same height. With Koichi Sasaki, however, she was clearly a full head taller than him.
"Thank you all for your continued support. We didn't let you down this time, either."
"Jockey Sasaki, that was an excellent performance. In the final 500-meter sprint, you secured victory by a margin of five lengths."
The host gave a brief rundown of his result.
This was the first leg of the Triple Crown for three-year-olds, yet they had won by such a huge margin. That alone demonstrated the strength of this pairing.
It seemed everyone had underestimated them.
She was no exception, of course.
Koichi Sasaki had already achieved something no jockey before him had managed.
His rise had simply been too fast.
Three starts, three wins.
And each victory was more impressive than the last. This jockey was improving at an astonishing rate!
"We were pretty lucky this time, too. An opening appeared on the final straight, though the most important factor was Golden Masterpiece's powerful Final Kick."
Koichi nodded as he spoke.
Things had not deviated much from the route he had planned beforehand.
Of course, Red Star's breakaway tactics at the start had disrupted everyone's plans.
Yuga Kawada was a very skilled jockey, too.
"Then why did you choose to take the inside at the start?"
The host continued her questions.
Golden Masterpiece had started from gate twelve, so taking the outside would not have been a problem.