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This year the event will be held on 26th and 27th August.

The line-up includes some very impressive names in both the Internationals and the Nationals.

Six overseas jockeys are invited to compete against seven Japan-based JRA jockeys and one jockey representing the NAR.

The overseas jockeys are Alexis Badel representing Hong Kong, Joao Moreira – Brazil, Luke Morris – UK, Umberto Rispoli – USA, Marie Velon – France and Rachel King – Australia.

The nationals are Yutaka Take, Christophe Lemaire, Keita Tosaki, Takeshi Yokoyama, Yuga Kawada, Ryusai Sakai and Mirai Iwata.  The NAR representative is Minoru Miyagawa.

The top 3 jockeys earn significant prize money – first gets 3 million yen (US$22.901), second 2 million yen (US$15,267) and third 1 million yen (US$7,634).

This will be Rachel's first time riding in Japan although she has ridden in England, USA and the Middle East, and the same for Marie Velon.