Hokkaido Horse Racing Story.

Chapter 130 Two Concepts
"Then I'll leave it to Mr. Kimura."

At Louisville Airport, Kitano said his final goodbye.

"Don't worry, leave it to me!"

Kimura nodded seriously, picked up the suitcase and agreed.

Entrusted by Kitano, Katuna will be temporarily placed at Xinsheng Ranch to start his second life as a retired horse.

A few days ago, the Kentucky Expedition was officially disbanded.

Although NAR had planned a welcoming ceremony, it had to be temporarily canceled after the news of Mejiro Sakuya's surgery was announced.

The first to leave was the rider Hotan.

After winning the Kentucky Derby, it seemed like the requests for rides kept coming.

Then there are the brother and sister Huangshan and Xuhe.

After handing over to the Johns Hopkins University team, the trainer hurried back home.

On Kitano's side, the procedure for canceling the horse racing took a little time.

However, it's time to leave.

"Then we'll see each other when we get back to the country."

Taking a deep breath, Kimura's gaze lingered on Kitano's face for a while.

To provide for the retirement of a newly purchased and worthless gelding—

If this kind of thing were to be made public, it would definitely cause a lot of ridicule.

However, Kimura secretly admired Kitano for making such a decision.

Then, I inadvertently remembered a rumor——

Compared to Toyokichi, this Kitano is more like Kyohiro.

The independent side of his personality can indeed be felt to some extent.

In any case, as a production ranch, we have indeed received care.

After learning that Cartoona was also a member of the "Meritorious Group" of the Kentucky Derby, Kimura took the initiative to offer to deposit him.

Speaking of which, the brother and sister from the Xuhe family seemed to have some strange looks in their eyes at that time.

Shaking his head, Kimura drove away some distracting thoughts from his mind.

"Well, see you back home."

Kitano raised his hand, and Kimura's figure gradually disappeared from his sight.

The two people's flights had similar times and were heading in the same direction, but they were heading to different destinations.

Kitano will travel to Sydney, Australia via a connecting flight via Los Angeles.

There, he will have the opportunity to witness the horse racing management that Mo Jinxian said is "at the forefront of the industry."

Thanks to the cooperation of Fujita, who is also the owner of the horse, Ma Hanya and his CMR (Ciaron Maher Racing) team agreed to Kitano's request to visit.

They will open the most advanced of CMR's eight training facilities across Australia to Kitano.

Bang Bang Ranch in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales.

At the beginning, Kitano thought that Ma Hanya was a horse owner or a horse breeder.

I was shocked to learn that he was a trainer who managed more than 500 racehorses.

Even in Menbie, one hundred horses is the limit for the stables and trainers.

In the central regions of Ritto and Miho, trainers often keep the number of racehorses under their names below 50.

A trainer who manages more than 500 racehorses——

Even if it is just to the extent of not making any mistakes, it is indeed enough to be considered a high level of management.

"Mr. Kitano, our flight is almost here!"

Zepp shouted as he ran with a huge luggage bag on his back.

As Mejiro Sakuya's personal hoof trimmer, although nominally belonging to the Arashiyama Stables, Zepp is actually Kitano's personal employee.

On this trip to Australia, I brought a German hoof trimmer along.

Consider it a reward for his recent hard-earned paid vacation. Although, given Kitano's limited knowledge, he couldn't think of any fun options in Australia.

"Isn't there still time?"

Looking down at his watch, Kitano spoke slowly.

However, I still took the first step.

As they passed the shopping area, Zep's eyes suddenly lit up.

If he didn't have to catch a flight, Kitano felt he could spend the whole day there.

The soft sound of the cabin door closing announced the beginning of the first air journey.

There was a sporadic conversation between the two people sitting next to each other.

However, most of the time it was Zep who took the initiative to bring up the topic, while Kitano was the one who passively responded.

While occasionally agreeing with a few words, he took out his mobile phone and turned on a documentary.

A Game of Chess with Nature

After learning that Kitano was studying ranch management, Kanna Ogawa recommended this documentary to him.

So, I downloaded it to my phone while I still had some free time.

I turned my phone to silent mode, whispered to Zep, and watched the documentary with the subtitles.

Some time after takeoff, the obvious turbulence disappeared, and the slowly vibrating seat back transmitted drowsy 1/f fluctuations.

The German hoof trimmer next to him quickly closed his eyes.

Slightly relieved.

After putting on the headphones, I continued to click play.

The documentary introduces the history of the Aga Khan Stud Farm from a third-person perspective. It has a slow pace but a compact structure, and is interspersed with many interview clips with Aga Khan IV himself.

After boarding the connecting flight to Sydney Airport, Kitano watched the documentary several times.

Even when I set foot on Australian soil, a subtle emotion was still surging and echoing in my chest.

“The Aga Khan’s centuries-old history and horse breeding philosophy are all condensed into this one hour.”

This seems to be what Kanna Ogawa said when she recommended this documentary.

This is indeed the case.

Aga Khan IV runs horse breeding as an ongoing business, and bloodline is the bond that maintains this huge business.

Even through just a few words in the documentary, Kitano was able to sense Aga Khan IV's almost obsessive pursuit of bloodline.

To this end, he rarely even keeps his top racehorses in active service beyond a classic year.

Although it doesn't align with mainstream breeder guidelines, this philosophy seems to be working.

and--

In recent years, there seem to be more and more cases of strong horses being retired early for breeding in the horse racing world in Japan and the United States.

However, for Kitano, such an idea can only be regarded as a reference.

He cannot agree with the practice of retiring a racehorse early or later in order to continue the bloodline or earn bounties.

If we really have to classify horse breeding concepts, he can be considered as one of the "follow nature" factions.

After leaving Sydney Airport, Kitano met the staff sent by Bang Bang Ranch to pick him up.

A trainee communications specialist named Rooney.

On the way to the ranch, Rooney enthusiastically introduced the facilities of Bang Bang Ranch.

Training routes include a 1250m irrigated gently sloping grass track and a 1200m sand track, a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, a horse spa, a water walker, a hypoxia chamber, two gaiters, two indoor arenas and state-of-the-art office facilities
Everything at Bang Bang Ranch is state-of-the-art.

"He's like Mourinho making his Premier League debut. Mr Mahanya has revolutionised horse racing."

Even holding the steering wheel, Rooney could hardly restrain the desire to raise his hand to gesture.

“Before him, few trainers had thought of treating racehorses like top athletes.”

(End of this chapter)