Takashi Kodama

Surviving as a trainer is so hard in Ireland and it is very hard to win races but winning the Irish Cambridgeshire at the Curragh Racecourse was my best ever result as a trainer and I would say it is unbelievable. Our mission when running in the race was to finish in the first 10… that was my mission, so to win the race makes me very, very happy.

Elusive Time was so well this morning. After every race I let him out into the paddock and he was kicking and jumping and he nearly jumped out over the fence so he is very well and he is very different this year. I don’t know what has happened because nothing has changed for him but he just seems to be improving.

Elusive Time is a horse that always worked well but he always had a different small issue. It was his breathing, his joints, his suspensory or tying up and that is why he only ran a few times a year for the last two years but training wise nothing has changed but he just seems much more healthy, happy and sound.

I only have six horses here so Elusive Time is a superstar in my yard and everybody likes him here. I have three other horses ready to run but I’m just waiting for the ground to go softer and I hope they will run in September.

Elusive Time is entered for a handicap at Leopardstown on Irish Champions Weekend over seven furlongs. I was thinking he would get balloted out of the race anyway but after Sunday he probably will get a good enough rating. I’d love to run him. I know Ross Coakley said that seven furlongs is too short for him and I know that myself and my lads tell me that but still in all it is good to have runners at these meetings and on Irish Champion Stakes Day so I would love to run him.

I am in Ireland 20 years now and my path here is a very long story but before that I went to California to work at Santa Anita. I met Irish people there and lived with some of them there and those Irish people always said to me that if I wanted to get the really, really high standard of horsemanship that I shouldn't stay in the USA but I should come to Ireland. So that is why I came to Ireland and I started with Mr Con Collins.

Mr Collins was a great boss for me. I was there for four years and for the last two seasons he gave me the job of travelling head lad and that gave me great experience of Irish racing. The Collins family are very helpful people and working with Tracey and Sheena Collins was fantastic for me. They helped me so much and helped my family and even now they still do. Sheena Collins is my daughter’s godmother so we are very good friends still.

Mr Collins was a great personality, a great horseman, a great boss and I learned everything from him and then his two daughters and they are responsible for nearly everything I have now. We had some fantastic days and stories but those stories will remain private from everybody! He was the ‘King of the Curragh’.

In 2002 I took out my own licence but only for three seasons. I lost a lot and couldn't keep going so I finished training but I wanted to stay in Ireland and luckily Goffs Bloodstock gave me a job as a Japanese representative and Red Mills also gave me a job to promote their product to Japanese people and they were lucky jobs as it helped me meet more Japanese people and owners. So I met some owners who supported me to restart training so in 2010 I started back training and Pop Rock was my first winner at the Galway Races that year. That was a super day - the greatest moment in my life.

Now I am just happy to train six to eight horses and I also work as a racing manager to a big owner in Japan, looking after his mares, foals and yearlings and helping him with racehorses in France, America and Italy and that is why I don't have a huge a number of horses in my yard. I still work together with Goffs to help the Japanese buyer and I’m very happy doing that.

People in Japan really love horse racing. There is a lot of money in Japan horse racing and very big farms and it is a very big market. Japan is one of the biggest racing countries, the same as Ireland, England, Australia and America.

For me, my dream is to keep standing as a Curragh trainer for as long as possible. That is my dream. A few years ago I had an international dream and brought five horses to Dubai but now I just want to keep running my horses in Ireland and try to have as many winners as possible in Ireland, especially at the Curragh.

I know it is difficult so Sunday’s winner is helping my dream. Surviving as a trainer in Ireland is very difficult that’s why it is my dream to just continue doing that.