The Courier-Journal du lieu suivant : Louisville, Kentucky • Page 26

A26 THE COURIER-JOURNAL SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1999 Gettin a breed-apa apae luero in the Mace A I WIS Differences aside, it's still a major racing, social event TBORQUCHBREQ SIMULATION CAME -J Vr r. r. 'as By KIRSTEN HAUKEBO The Courier-Journal TOKYO The Japan Derby is no hat-wearing, mint julep-sipping social occasion. Most fans arrive at the track by crowded subway. Any hat would be crushed or lost along the way.

Racegoers are more likely to drink chilled green tea than Kentucky's famous sugary bourbon concoction. Or they might grab a can of "Beer Water," "Pocari Sweat" or one of the many other drinks with odd and unappealing English names. Like the Kentucky Derby, the Japan Derby is one of the most important racing events of the year. It draws celebrities and millionaires and virtually guarantees the winning horse a cushy retirement at a stud farm. And that's about where the similarities end.

Unlike old-fashioned Churchill Downs, the Tokyo Race Course's grandstand is sleek, modern and enclosed. The 1933 track was fully renovated and extended in 1993 and holds a crowd bigger than any that ever gathered in South Louisville on the first Saturday in May. Japan allows only four types of bets: win, place, show or quinella (you pick the first two finishers in any order). In Kentucky you can bet on any number of exotic combinations. The Japan Derby is run on turf rather than dirt, and the final stretch is on a slight incline instead of flat.

At the Kentucky Derby, it's considered normal to wear sunglasses. At the Japan Derby, a messy-haired, rebellious pop singer named Takuya Kimura shocked people by wearing wraparound sunglasses in the presence of his elders. Young people in Japan, especially celebrities, are expected to show the utmost respect to older people. Among other things this means never wearing sunglasses when speaking to them. The proper attitude toward elders is "kobiru," which means to show respect.

Kimura, who appears as a sexy cowboy in a national television ad for racing, is so popular among young women that police stepped up security after learning he would attend the races. Most fans couldn't get close to him, as he watched the races from a lofty box. But they could see his image on an enormous $12.5 million Mitsubishi "Turfvision" screen on the infield decade-old technology that far outshines the infield screens at the Downs. The trophy ceremony at the Kentucky Derby is a boisterous affair, as the winning owners, jockey, trainer and assorted friends and relatives crowd Like its Kentucky counterpart, horse eventually will retire to the Japan Derby draws millionaires and celebrities to the Tokyo a comfortable life at a stud farm. PHOTOS BY KATSUMI KASAHARA, SPECIAL TO THE COURIER-JOURNAL Racecourse.

And it virtually guarantees that the winning Derby Stallion is played at home, at tracks and in karaoke bars in Japan. Popular video game is based on racehorses By KIRSTEN HAUKEBO The Courier-Journal TOKYO One of the best-selling video games in Japan is a horse-breeding game called Derby Stallion. The game is played at home, at race tracks and in karaoke bars, usually using a Nintendo system or Sony PlayStation. Advanced players launch their virtual racehorses on the Inter net and compete against othei players' horses. Derby Stallion has sold 6 mil lion copies in Japan.

A book has been written about it, and a monthly magazine is filled with tips on how to play. Hirofumi Natahara, a 35-year-old computer programmer from Osaka, first got hooked on the game after entering a Derby Stallion chat room on the Internet. "When I first got into it, I would play three or four hours a day. Sometimes I would do it all night. Forget about sleeping," Natahara said between races at the Japan Derby.

NATAHARA IS one of 20 or so chat-room regulars who now attend the races together, bringing small laptop computers with them to play the game between races. Japan has about 10 other horse-related video games, but none as big as Derby Stallion and none with as much emphasis on breeding. "I think that's why it's so popular. Because in real life, the combinations of bloodlines are limitless," said Hiroyuki Sonobe, 37, who created the game in the late 1980s, inspired by a friend who was deeply into horse racing. Sonobe has since become a racing fan himself and owns several American-bred racehorses, including one he named Star Programmer and another called Bet More Money.

Sonobe, a lifelong sports fan who also created a role-playing video game for baseball, admits that even he was surprised by the popularity of the horse-breeding game. When Derby Stallion II came out recently, people all over Japan lined up outside computer stores to reserve a copy. Dedicated groups of 20 or 30 fans regularly gather at karaoke bars to race their virtual horses. The game, manufactured by ASCII opens with images of horses in their morning workouts, then instructs you to name your farm and design your racing silks. Next, you choose a stallion to breed to your mare based on a preas-signed budget.

The stallions have real names and real stud fees. A character in a tweed cap identifies himself as the farm manager who is ready to advise you. But most Japanese racing fans are fairly sophisticated about bloodlines, and don't need the help. "It's common knowledge in Japan which are the good stallions and which aren't, so players know what they're doing," Sonobe said. After your foal is born, you name it and choose a diet, while a readout on the screen shows how quickly you're spending money on veterinary care and the like.

You pick a trainer, and just as in real life take or leave your trainer's advice. AT AGE 3, your horse is ready to race. Owners can even bet on their horse (in game money) as it competes in graphic animation. Shizuka Gen Imaizumi, managing director of Thoroughbred Breeders Club in Hokkaido, said the game contains good, accurate detail about horse breeding. "It's not misrepresenting the industry, but personally, 1 hate it.

I'd rather have the real-life experience," he said. "But it suits the Japanese culture and the' way we are. You get to be a breeder; which is impossible in real life. Japanese people like imaginary Kentucky Gov. Paul Patton and his wife, Judi, were guests at the VIP balcony during this year's Japan Derby.

into the winner's circle, some- receive a trophy. Grooms share times with champagne glasses in the extraordinarily rich win-in hand, ning purses. Some Japanese In Japan, the ceremony is a grooms drive Mercedes-Benz solemn event in which trophy sedans. presenters and jockeys, train- Horses were exercised in the Tokyo Racecourse paddock before ers anu owners ouw 10 eacn oeiween me rveniuctty uerpy annual race is strikingly different from the Kentucky Derby, other. At this year Japan Der- and the Japan Derby is the by, winning owner Riichi price.

eraj admission, no seat includ- and a contingent of state eco- to press for more American ac-Kondo struggled to remain sto- It costs about $1.65 to attend ed. Reserved seats run as high nomic-development officials at- cess to Japanese races, which ic while accepting his trophy, the Japan Derby, the same as $475. tended the race. Toyota offi- are mostly closed to foreign-tears running down his face, price as any other race. The Despite all the differences cials served as their hosts.

bred horses. In Japan, where the empha- most expensive reserved seat between the two races, this Although the purpose of the "We're continuing to emphasis tends to be on the "team" was $29. year's Japan Derby did have a trip was much broader than size more openness in the in-rather than individuals, the The cheapest ticket to the touch of Kentucky. the horse business, Patton said ternational racing scene," he groom and exercise rider also Kentucky Derby is $35 for gen- Gov. Paul Patton, wife Judi he didn't miss the opportunity said.

But the biggest difference i.v1ff i -i. 'mk For Japanese, placing bets is as simple as A-T-M the Japan Derby. The In Japan, more than 90 percent of the wagering is off-track and there are many more ways of placing a bet. A fan in Tokyo, for example, could go to one of 20 different convenience stores and bet using an automated teller machine, which withdraws money from a special pari-mutuel wagering account. Wins are automatically credited to the account.

There are 27 off-track-betting centers in Japan, many so crowded that the neighbors often complain, said Katsumi Banba, an assistant general manager at Tokyo Racecourse. The newest remote betting system is called a "mobile mate," a 5-by-7-inch computer used by 140,000 subscribers (with many more on a waiting list). Customers buy the computer for about $280, and many use it with their cell phone. In the United States, 20 states are expected to get Television Games Network within the next two years. Programs, produced in conjunction with Fox Sports, will include four to six races an hour.

If market tests of TVG are any indicator, the cable channel could become one factor in a Japanese-style turnaround of U.S. racing. About 65 percent of customers who don't regularly go to a race track said they would be likely to watch racing in the. TVG format and would go to the track more often because of it. Kentucky racing stands to gain if U.S.

follows suit By KIRSTEN HAUKEBO The Courier-Journal TOKYO Nearly a million Japanese fans regularly bet on thoroughbred races from their homes, cars and corner stores. They use their Nintendo systems, convenience-store ATMs or cellular phones plugged into special hand-held computers. Bets are automatically debited from bank accounts and winnings are automatically credited. Fans who want to watch the races at home can tune in to the Green Channel, a 19-hour-a-day cable and satellite channel whose motto could be, "All horses, all the time." The Green Channel is so popular, it's signing 5,000 new subscribers each month, even though it has been available since 1993. And so many people have applied to use the phone-betting system that the Japan Racing Association has to grant applications by drawing names.

The pace of technology can't keep up with the demand, and sometimes only 5 percent of applicants can sign on. "It's like a dream world," said Rick Baedeker, vice president of communications for C71 rrrsttm 5-t---1': government's agriculture department and reaches about a half-million viewers. In both the United States and Japan, most betting on horse racing is done at off-track-betting centers and by phone. Between 1993 and 1997, U.S. off-track wagering grew 12 percent each year to 77 percent of the market.

d7 Television Games Network, a U.S. home-betting network being launched this year. "They are so far ahead of us." Japan is indeed a vision of what might happen someday in the United States and what many in the thoroughbred industry are feverishly working toward. If they are successful, Kentucky racing will be one of the biggest winners. Television Games Network, which is gradually being introduced in Kentucky and several other states, will be America's first 24-hour cable channel with interactive betting.

Users will be able to place bets with a hand-held remote control and a box atop their television set. TVG is owned by heavyweights who have about $100 million invested in the project: Rupert Murdoch's News which controls much of the world's satellite programming, and Tele-Communications which has about 40 percent of the U.S. cable market. TVG's technology has been tested in Louisville for the past four years and is legal in Kentucky under the law that allows phone betting. Seven other states also explicitly allow such betting, including Oregon, home of TVG's wagering hub.

The company's attorneys contend that TVG also is legal in the 42 other states, based on case law establishing that wagers are considered to be Louisville. Kentucky tracks and horsemen will receive 10.5 cents of every dollar wagered in Kentucky, in addition to a standard 3 percent fee for use of the racing signals. Churchill Downs and Keene-land Race Course have signed exclusive contracts allowing TVG to broadcast their races. Japan's version is a not-for-profit enterprise run by the BY KATSUMI KASAHARA, SPECIAL TO THE COURIER-JOURNAL Yukikazu Miyamoto of the Japan Racing Association showed off some of the devices that racing fans can use to place bets either at home or on the road. placed at the wagering hub rather than the bettor's home.

Some legislators in other states have challenged that opinion but haven't taken any steps to stop TVG's progress. The network, aimed at a mass audience of 20 million to 30 million viewers, will showcase Kentucky racing and also return money to traditionally heavy-betting communities like.