 Alastair Middleton's Bio | |
|---|---|
| Alastair Middleton, a British living in Seoul since 2006. With his passion in horse racing, he started his racing blog in 2007 which immensely popular with fans around the world trying to learn more about Korean racing. Alastair is familiar with Korean racing that providing racing insights for its races on his blog, like racecard, race-preview in English. He is currently appointed by Korea Racing Authority as the English-language racecaller for the races at Seoul and Busan. | |
Seoul Racecourse – Track Analysis (Korea Sprint & Korea Cup)
Seoul Racecourse comprises an outer track of 1800m and an inner track of 1600m with chutes for races to start over 1000m, 1400m and 1600m. The average width is 25m opening out to 30m in the 400m home straight. Racing is conducted left-handed with the long home straight giving all a fair chance. The surface is sand and there can be plenty of kickback. The home turn is slightly downhill before rising gently from the 400m. The track is usually faster when it is wet.
The G3 1200m Korea Sprint starts in the back-straight of the outer track with a 350m straight run into a sweeping 450m corner before they enter the 400m home straight. In the five Korea Sprint races run to date, the winners have emerged from gates 2, 7, 9, 12 and 13 indicating that the draw is not the be all and end all of a horse’s chance. Four of the five winners, SUPER JOCKEY in 2016, GRACEFUL LEAP in 2017, BLUE CHIPPER in 2019 and EOMA EOMA in 2022 were ridden on or handy to the speed, but in 2018, MOANIN settled towards the back of the field before coming home wide and late to deny Hong Kong’s FIGHT HERO, who employed similar tactics, by a head on the line.
The 2022 Korea Sprint was contested on a wet track and attracted twelve runners. Japan’s RAPTUS and Singapore’s CELAVI set the early pace. EOMA EOMA, meanwhile, broke fairly from gate twelve and by the turn was sitting just behind the leaders. CELAVI weakened in the straight, but RAPTUS and EOMA EOMA ran on to dispute the finish, EOMA EOMA getting the better of his rival by half a length. RAON FIRST was third, six-lengths in arrears.
The G3 1800m Korea Cup starts on the inner track in front of the grandstand, and has a 250m run to the corner, which on the inner track is a little tighter at 350m. Still on the inner track, they head into the back straight of 450m. There is then another 350m turn for home before they link up with the main outer course for the 400m home straight. Winners of the five previous Korea Cups have started from gates 3, 6, 11 (twice) and 14. Those winners have tended to settle midfield or better although in general 1800m races at Seoul, the winner can come from anywhere.
The 2022 Korea Cup was contested on a wet track and attracted thirteen runners. RAON THE FIGHTER crossed the field to lead from the gate with Japan’s SEKIFU going with him. Those two would lead until deep into the home straight. WINNER’S MAN settled towards the rear early before improving from 10th to 4th during the back straight. Launching his run at the top of the straight he first passed SEKIFU and finally overhauled RAON THE FIGHTER in the final strides to win by a length.
The weather forecast suggests showers in the week building up to the races, raising the possibility of a wet track.
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