For the first time, a Japanese horse hit the board in the Ky. Derby. A win will come soon.

As the 2024 Kentucky Derby came to a thrilling end — with a trio of horses hitting the finish line separated by mere inches on Saturday night — Churchill Downs track announcer Travis Stone bellowed an iconic race call from his perch high above the action.

“Here’s the wire! Photo finish! Three noses on the wire: Mystik Dan, Sierra Leone and Forever Young in an international thriller!”

Mystik Dan edged out the other two horses for the win in a three-way photo finish to capture a historic 150th running of the Derby.

Stone’s signature call of the race ended on that crescendo thanks in part to the great race run by Forever Young, who became the first Japanese horse to finish in the money in the Derby with his third-place effort. That result confirmed the years of progress made by Japanese horses in the pursuit of finally winning the Run for the Roses.

Forever Young and fellow Japan-bred T O Password — who are both great grandsons of 1989 Kentucky Derby winner Sunday Silence — rewrote the record books for Japanese performance in the Derby. In addition to Forever Young’s third-place effort, T O Password used a late charge to finish in fifth, a more-than credible effort given his long-shot 48-1 post-time odds.

Forever Young, who battled second-place finisher Sierra Leone in a rough-and-tumble stretch run, went off at 7-1 odds.

The first time a horse shipped from Japan to Louisville to run the Kentucky Derby was in 1995, when Ski Captain finished 14th. The first time a horse born in Japan competed in the Derby was Master Fencer, who finished sixth as a long shot in 2019.

Forever Young and T O Password represented the seventh and eighth horses all-time with ties to Japan to compete in the Run for the Roses, and they produced the two best results from that group.

“He’s a very fast closing horse,” Forever Young’s jockey, Ryusei Sakai, told media members prior to the Derby via a translator. “He’s got that late kick.”

Sakai, along with trainer, Yoshito Yahagi, both made their Derby debuts with Forever Young, who is 5-0-1 in six career starts and has amassed more than $2.5 million in career earnings.

At least one Japanese horse has competed in each of the last three Kentucky Derbys: Crown Pride was 13th in 2022, Mandarin Hero was 12th in 2023 and Derma Sotogake was sixth in 2023.

As the pedigree of Japanese horses has improved, so has their prominence.

There’s a reason Forever Young had 7-1 odds at post time of this year’s race: He came to Kentucky undefeated in five previous starts. T O Password arrived at Churchill Downs a perfect 2-for-2 in his racing career.

And in running quality races Saturday night beneath the Twin Spires, both horses bucked significant historical trends.

Forever Young made the Kentucky Derby gate as a result of winning the Grade 2 UAE Derby in late March. Before him, UAE Derby runners who then raced in Louisville had never finished better than fifth in the Kentucky Derby. In addition to delivering Japan its first top-three finisher in Kentucky Derby history, Forever Young did the same for runners from the UAE Derby, a race that has existed since 2000.

Forever Young also became the first foreign-born horse to finish in the money in the Kentucky Derby since Great Britain-bred Bold Arrangement ran second in 1989.

T O Password — who earned his Derby spot via the Japanese qualifying pathway — was lightly raced entering the Derby. Only one horse (Leonatus in 1883) has won the Derby with just two previous races. While T O Password finished more than six lengths behind winner Mystik Dan and behind a finishing group that also included fourth-place runner Catching Freedom, T O Password’s fifth-place effort still saw him finish above a slew of top Derby contenders, including morning line and post-time favorite Fierceness (15th).

“He didn’t break well,” T O Password’s jockey, Kazushi Kimura, said after the Derby. “This was his third time running and he was in a new country. He probably wasn’t 100% mature. Today he finished up strong. I hope the horse can stay for the Preakness.”

The next step from this clear progression is for a Japanese horse to go and win the Derby, which is a feat easier said than done.

No horse bred outside of North America has won the Kentucky Derby since Great Britain’s Tomy Lee in 1959.

But it’s clear Japanese horses have arrived in a big way on the global racing stage.

In 2021, Japan made a big mark at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships at Del Mar when Loves Only You won the Filly & Mare Turf and Marche Lorraine won the Distaff. These were the first Japanese horses to win a Breeders’ Cup race.

Last Friday, the Japanese also nearly scored a win on Kentucky Oaks Day at Churchill Downs: Sakai, Forever Young’s jockey, was aboard T O Saint Denis in a front-running, second-place effort in the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes.

But with the Breeders’ Cup box checked, all eyes are now on the Kentucky Derby for Japanese horse racing’s next big moment.

And it should be coming soon.

“Of course they want to win the Derby,” Sakai said of the Japanese horse racing industry prior to this year’s race.

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