G1 Racing's Diktaean, an 8-year-old gelding bred by Haruya Yoshida's Oiwake Farm, has accepted the invitation to the Korea Cup (G2) Sept. 6 at Seoul Racecourse. He will try to become the third horse to complete back-to-back wins of this race after London Town, who won it in 2017 and 2018, and Crown Pride, who won it in 2023 and 2024.
In addition to Korea Cup, Diktaean, who is trained by Katsunori Arayama at the Kobayashi Branch of Oi Racecourse, won the Dec. 29 Tokyo Daishoten (G1) at Oi, which is the year-end championship race on dirt in Japan. He was awarded the National Association of Racing Horse of the Year in 2025. Diktaean was the first NAR-trained winner of the Tokyo Daishoten since Adjudi Mitsuo in 2005.
A Japanese representative in the Korea Sprint (G2) at Seoul is Dragon Welds, a 4-year-old colt by Frosted bred in Kentucky by Willow Oaks Stable. He is trained by Hideaki Fujiwara at Ritto Training Center. His dam, Little Dipper, is a half sister to Bye Bye Bernie, winner of the 2015 Nearctic Stakes (G3T) at Woodbine. Dragon Welds was bought at the Ocala Breeders' Sales Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training by T B Bloodstock, on behalf of Yoshio Kubota, for $150,000. Dragon Welds started three times so far this year and won all of them, including the April 15 Tokyo Sprint at Oi Racecourse.
The total purse of the Korea Cup is 1.6 billion KRW (approx. US$1.13 million) and the Korea Sprint is 1.4 billion KRW (approx. US$989,854).
