Katsumi Minai

Katsumi Minai is the kind of career that rewards patience — the man didn't taste his first Grade 1 win until he was 35, riding Tamamocross in 1988, and yet he just kept going. As a JRA jockey from 1971 to 1999 he racked up over 1,500 wins across more than 13,000 rides, which tells you everything about consistency over flash. He got to sit on Oguri Cap and Narita Brian, two of the most mythologized horses in Japanese racing history, and in 1994 he had an almost absurdly good season — five Grade 1 wins, the JRA Special Prize, the Japanese Pro Sports Award, the whole sweep. Then he switched to training in 2000, promptly won the inaugural Japan Cup Dirt with Wing Arrow, and quietly kept stacking wins until retiring in 2023. Fifty-plus years in professional racing without ever needing to be the loudest name in the room. There's something genuinely cool about that.

Katsumi Minai (born January 17, 1953) is a Japanese former jockey who later became a horse trainer. He is associated with Japanese horse racing, having worked in both riding and training capacities. Details of his career record, agency affiliation, and personal background have not been publicly disclosed.

Name (English)

Katsumi Minai

Name (Japanese)

南井克巳

Reading

みない かつみ

Born

January 17, 1953 (age 73)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Capricorn / Snake (巳)

Origin

Japan

Occupation

Jockey / Horse Trainer

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%8D%97%E4%BA%95%E5%85%8B%E5%B7%B3

Tags

• Jockey
• Horse Trainer

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.