AUGUSTE Rodin was out of luck in last Sunday’s Japan Cup (see page 37), but the experience left a big impression on Aidan O’Brien and Coolmore’s Tom Magnier.

It was Aidan’s first trip to Japan and he was accompanied by sons, Joseph and Donnacha. Asked to describe the experience, Aidan told Racing.com: “It’s absolutely unbelievable. You have to come here to believe it. The people are so respectful and the track and facilities are incredible. It’s an experience like we have never had before.”

After the Japan Cup, there was a retirement ceremony for Auguste Rodin, the first time this honour has been bestowed on a non-Japanese-trained horse. Tom Magnier told Racing TV: “Being by Deep Impact, Auguste Rodin has had an enormous following since he arrived out here. If he had won, the roof would have come off, but it didn’t go our way tactically [the race was run at a steady pace].”

Magnier added that the atmosphere at Tokyo Racecourse was unlike any other he had witnessed. “There’s 120,000 people at the track and they are all focused on the horses. The passion these people have for racing would make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck. You wouldn’t pick it up by watching the TV pictures, but we were blown away by it.

“My kids told me that I would never see anything like the atmosphere at a Taylor Swift concert, but I think that even if Taylor Swift was playing across the road, the Japan Cup would have outdone it in terms of passion and emotion.

“You saw it during the week, when John Stewart [owner of Goliath] was giving out merchandise to racing fans and thousands turned up.”