US expat Kate Hunter, back on home turf as part of the team with Japan’s UAE Derby winner Crown Pride, talks to Amanda Duckworth
On the afternoon of May 4, 1996, Nick Hunter was looking for a way to entertain his daughter. Upon realizing it was the first Saturday in May, he sat her down to watch the Kentucky Derby, and she loved it.
The next year, remembering her enthusiasm for the Run for the Roses, he turned on the coverage long before the horses went into the starting gate. She soaked up every minute, learning the back stories of the horses and their people. Then, she picked her horse. His name was Silver Charm, he won, and Kate Hunter was hooked for good.
Now, 25 years later, Hunter may very well be the one on TV, translating for the connections of Crown Pride, who is trying to become the first Japanese horse to win the famed race.
In 2016, American-born Hunter started her own company, Marugai Racing, and she is the Japan-based representative for Churchill Downs, Keeneland, the New York Racing Association, the Breeders’ Cup World Championships, and the Triple Crown races, among others.
The go-between
Japan’s recent success at the Breeders’ Cup as well as in Saudi Arabia and Dubai is well documented. Often times after a Japanese runner has claimed another prize on the international stage, it is Hunter who viewers around the world see acting as a translator between the winning connections and broadcasters. Although that’s the most visible part of her job, it’s just a small part of it.
Behind the scenes, Hunter’s role is all-encompassing. She works as a go-between for race organizers and Japanese participants, which requires a lot of paperwork and more than a little hands-on work. Hunter, who can be found doing everything from attending meetings with CEOs of racetracks to holding the shank while a horse gets a bath to collecting the laundry, takes it all in stride.
“I want to make it smooth for everybody, on both sides, so they can focus on what they are here to do,” Hunter said. “Whether that’s setting up for the Breeders’ Cup because they are an organizer or it’s enjoying themselves leading up to the Kentucky Derby because they own the horse, I don’t want anyone having to worry about the paperwork involved.
“I also find doing the little things very important. It might not technically be what I am hired to do, but if me getting the food or cleaning the laundry means they can focus on taking care of their horse, it is absolutely worth it to me to help.
“Basically, I do half of what a groom would be doing and half of what an administrative assistant would be doing, but I am doing it in two languages. I love getting to spend time with the horses who travel internationally. If you need help mucking stalls or need your horse to be held while you wash him, I can do that. Being with the horses is my happy place, and I enjoy helping people achieve their dreams.”
Finding her home
It has been an improbable journey for a kid who lived in Nashville, Tennessee, and grew up in a family that had nothing to do with horses. Although the state borders Kentucky, it is not exactly a hotbed for those looking to make it in the Thoroughbred industry.
“I give my dad credit for remembering how excited I was watching Grindstone win the Derby,” said Hunter. “He made a point of having me watch all the coverage the next year. He actually took me up to Louisville to see Silver Charm’s last race in the Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs a few years later. There’s a picture of me with Pat Day signing something of mine on that trip, and I look like I am a girl in love. Now, hopefully, I get to help the first Japanese-bred, Japanese-trained horse win the Kentucky Derby.”
As Hunter was discovering her love of horse racing, she also had a growing interest in Japan after anime caught her attention. She attended Earlham College in Indiana, where she majored in Japanese Studies, and she was studying abroad at Waseda University in Tokyo around the same time Silver Charm arrived in Japan to take up stallion duties there.
This sparked a thought in her that perhaps she could merge two of her passions, but it would take time to put the pieces together. After graduating from Earlham in 2006, Hunter took a job in Tennessee working for a car parts company as a spare parts coordinator and bilingual administrative assistant.
She hated it.
Looking back, Hunter admits it would have been a good job if she had been a different person, but she wanted more.
“I was unhappy, and I remember sitting in my bed thinking, ‘Surely there is something out there that I can do between the two countries and horse racing, enjoy it, and be happy,’ ” Hunter said. “At the time, I didn’t actually know it could happen, but that one little thought turned out to be exactly what I am doing now.”
Assistant language teacher
In 2008, Hunter quit her job and went back to Japan to be an assistant language teacher in Chiba, which is part of the greater Tokyo area. Although originally she was going to go for only a few years before returning home, it was a position Hunter kept until 2013 when she went to work for a Japanese Thoroughbred farm.
After class, Hunter would ride her bike to nearby racetracks to catch the last few races of the day, and she traveled to see more of the Japanese racing industry in her free time. This led to her starting a racing blog and taking photos to send back to American publications. “The Japanese admire hard work, and you have to earn their trust,” said Hunter.
“I got permission for the very first time at a racetrack to enter the backside and take photos because a trainer had seen me there every day for two months. He told them to let me come inside. He talked to me a little bit and then asked me to photograph his son, who was a jockey. He saw me every day doing the work and trying, and he respected that. I realized that was going to be the best way for me to get in with Japanese racing.”
When she had saved enough money, Hunter made the first of multiple journeys to Hokkaido to visit with Silver Charm at the JBBA Iburi Stallion Station. In many ways, that trip has come full circle, as Hunter continues to visit Silver Charm—who is now the oldest living winner of the Kentucky Derby and enjoying his retirement at Old Friends in Kentucky—whenever she is back in the United States.
“I went up for the first time and spent a full two days with him in 2009, and the farm people thought I was crazy,” said Hunter. “The next year I came back, and this time they invited me in for tea and cake, and they were asking me a bunch of questions.
“What’s really cool is a few years later, I was working for a breeding farm in Hokkaido that sent a mare to the JBBA to be covered by Empire Maker. I was like, ‘Hi guys! Remember me? I am legit now! I am not just a crazy fan anymore!’ Now, I actually work for them, too. For Japanese sales, when foreigners come to buy horses, I work for the JBBA to help translate for them.”
After three years working for a breeding farm, Hunter started Marugai Racing. The name and logo are a wink to Hunter’s own place in Japanese racing.
“If a horse is bought somewhere else, but they are a legally registered Japanese racehorse, when they run, they have that symbol next to their name because they are foreign-bred but local,” explained Hunter.
‘I see myself like a marugai racehorse’
“Marugai is not really a word in Japanese, rather it is a Japanese racing term they made up to describe that mark next to a horse’s name. ‘Maru’ is circle and ‘gai’ is outside person. I was born in America, but I am a permanent resident of Japan, so I see myself like a marugai racehorse.”
Hunter has lived in Japan for the better part of 14 years, and she received permanent residency in 2019. It’s a process that takes 10 years, and several prominent Japanese horsemen wrote letters of recommendation to the government on her behalf. One of them was Shadai Farm’s Teruya Yoshida, the owner and breeder of Crown Pride.
“He wrote a letter basically saying how important I was going to be to the future of international racing for the Japanese,” said Hunter. “His father bought Sunday Silence and started the whole Japanese boom. His family did all that, and then he helped me. Now, I am here helping him with his Kentucky Derby horse.”
Should Crown Pride become the first Japanese horse to win the Run for the Roses, the pride Hunter would feel will be immense. Her family realized she was not coming home in the spring of 2010 when she got the first of her two cats, and winning on the first Saturday in May would be a fitting tribute to her parents’ faith in her when Hunter decided to make her livelihood half a world away.
“When I got Edie, my parents pointed out that getting a pet was a commitment, and I said, ‘Well, I might be committing to Japan for a while,’” said Hunter. “They were okay with that because they saw I was finding myself. I obviously didn’t have it all figured out yet, though, and it took a bit longer than I would have liked to get there.
“I wish it could have been faster so my dad could have seen it. He passed away at the end of 2010, but my mom told him not to worry about me, that I had figured it out. I do feel like I have been able to live up to my mom’s high praise at my father’s deathbed, so I am very happy about that.”
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