NHK's documentary program "Document 72 Hours" (NHK General) will air "Run! Wandering Local Horse Racing" on May 8th at 10 PM. The setting is Kasamatsu Racecourse in Gifu Prefecture, a small-scale racecourse with aging buildings, but still attracting a considerable number of visitors. The program will feature encounters with people who are betting not just money, but also their dreams and pride.
The sound of hooves, like an earthquake, echoes throughout the Kasamatsu Racecourse in Gifu Prefecture. Compared to central horse racing, there are fewer horses and less prize money; it's "local horse racing." Yet, people still make the effort to come here.
There are men who boast, "It's only in gambling that you lose," American tourists who have come to see the statue of Oguri Cap, the legendary racehorse that debuted at Kasamatsu, and people who have come to cheer on horses that were unable to perform well in the Japan Racing Association and have been transferred here. What kind of hopes and dreams do people entrust to horses that gallop past like a whirlwind?
The program is a documentary that places a camera in one location each time and observes the various human dramas that unfold there for 72 hours. It listens to the stories of people who meet by chance and captures a glimpse of "the present."
