By Margaret Ransom
Chuwa Wizard – Photo Courtesy of Erika Rasmussen and Dubai Racing Club
Chuwa Wizard, a 6-year-old son of King Kamehameha, was the Japan Racing Association’s (JRA) dirt champion of 2020 and will be making his second start of 2021 after a ninth-place finish in the Saudi Cup, which followed a win in the Champions Cup (G1) at Chukyo, which was a Saudi Cup “Win & You’re In” event. He will Japan’s lone representatives in this $12 million race.
Chuwa Wizard has won or placed in a total of 11 black-type events throughout his career, and in addition to the Champions Cup, he captured the Heian (G3) at Kyoto and was second in the Tokyo TV Hai Okai (G2) at Chukyo. He also won last year’s JBC Classic and Kawasaki Kinen, the 2019 Diolite Kinen and the 2018 Nagoya Grand Prix.
Chuwa Wizard, who was bred in Japan by Norther Racing, is out of the Durandal mare Chuwa Blossom. He is owned by Shinobu Nakanishi and trained by Ryuji Okubo.
Chuwa Wizard has been training in Dubai for the past couple of weeks after shipping to Meydan following the Saudi Cup.
Trainer: Ryuji Okubo
Jockey: Keita Tosaki
Owner: Shinobu Nakashani
Age: 6 (horse)
Career record: 19-10-3-4
Career earnings: $4,838,789
Top Equibase speed figure: N/A
Pedigree: King Kamehameha—Chuwa Blossom, by Durandal (Japan)
Color: dark bay/brown
Running style: Stalker/mid-pack runner
Notes: Most recently ran a disappointing ninth in the Saudi Cup and now makes his second attempt in Dubai after shipping to the Middle East a year ago in the days before the race was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. He then spent seven months sidelined and returned in 2021 at King Abdulaziz Racetrack last out in what was his first start of the year… before the Saudi Cup his only unplaced finish was a fourth in last year’s Champions Cup, which was formerly known as the Japan Cup Dirt, at Chukyo… he was his late sire’s 12th group 1 winner and 80th black-type winner overall…
California native and lifelong horsewoman Margaret Ransom is a graduate of the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program. She got her start in racing working in the publicity departments at Calder Race Course and Hialeah Park, as well as in the racing office at Gulfstream Park in South Florida. She then spent six years in Lexington, KY, at BRISnet.com, where she helped create and develop the company’s popular newsletters: Handicapper’s Edge and Bloodstock Journal.
After returning to California, she served six years as the Southern California news correspondent for BloodHorse, assisted in the publicity department at Santa Anita Park and was a contributor to many other racing publications, including HorsePlayer Magazine and Trainer Magazine. She then spent seven years at HRTV and HRTV.com in various roles as researcher, programming assistant, producer and social media and marketing manager.
She has also walked hots and groomed runners, worked the elite sales in Kentucky for top-class consignors and volunteers for several racehorse retirement organizations, including CARMA.
In 2016, Margaret was the recipient of the prestigious Stanley Bergstein Writing Award, sponsored by Team Valor, and was an Eclipse Award honorable mention for her story, “The Shocking Untold Story of Maria Borell,” which appeared on USRacing.com. The article and subsequent stories helped save 43 abandoned and neglected Thoroughbreds in Kentucky and also helped create a new animal welfare law known as the “Borell Law.”
Margaret’s very first Breeders’ Cup was at Hollywood Park in 1984 and she has attended more than half of the Breeders’ Cups since. She counts Holy Bull and Arrogate as her favorite horses of all time. She lives in Pasadena with her longtime beau, Tony, two Australian Shepherds and one Golden Retriever.