JRA vs NAR Local Racing

The two systems side by side

Where you can bet: racecourses and off-course venues

The JRA side of Japanese racing is the one most visitors meet first. There are 10 JRA racecourses, spread from Hokkaido in the north to Kyushu in the south, and on any racing day two or three of them hold live cards⁷. The JRA also runs 37 off-course betting facilities called WINS, and the 10 racecourses that are not hosting live racing that day double as off-course betting shops⁴. That means on a Saturday you can walk into a track that has no live card and still bet the full day's racing from the other venues.

Racing is mainly conducted on Saturdays and Sundays, with a handful of national holidays added through the year¹. A normal card is 12 races, starting around 10:00 and finishing around 16:30². On a racing day the JRA spreads its meetings so that at least one track from the eastern group (Tokyo, Nakayama, Fukushima, Niigata) and one from the western group (Kyoto, Hanshin, Chukyo, Kokura) is racing². If you are in Tokyo, that usually means Nakayama or Tokyo is live; if you are in Osaka, it is Kyoto or Hanshin.

NAR local racing works differently. It is run by regional racing bodies rather than a single national operator, and you buy tickets through the official windows of the local organizer: the racecourse itself, off-course betting offices, or an at-home voting system by telephone or internet⁵. Local meetings are not on the same weekly rhythm as the JRA and the tracks are spread across the country, so the practical question is always which local track is racing near you that week.

One important crossover: local horse racing tickets generally cannot be bought at JRA racecourses or WINS, with a few exceptions⁶. If you want to bet NAR, go to a local track or a local off-course office, or use the JRA's online service that carries selected local races. That service, JRA Net Voting x NAR Racing, is open to Immediate PAT members and A-PAT members only; ARS members and JRA Direct users cannot use it⁶.

For a wider look at how the two systems sit alongside the rest of the region, see horse racing in Asia.

Bet types and ticket minimums

The JRA offers nine bet types as of 2025: win, place, bracket number quinella, horse number quinella, quinella place (wide), exacta, trio, trifecta and the multi-race bet WIN5⁴. Some JRA materials count eight types and treat WIN5 separately, so do not be surprised if a sign at the track lists eight⁸. Either way, the four you will use most as a first-timer are win, place, quinella and exacta.

Buying a ticket comes down to four decisions⁹. That is the whole form. You mark the race, mark the type, mark the number, and enter the amount.

1. Which racecourse and race
2. Which bet type
3. Which horse number or bracket number
4. How much money

The minimum is 100 yen for all types of bets at almost every JRA facility, with the exception of several WINS off-course betting facilities that set their own minimum². On the betting form, 100 yen is entered as "1" in the amount box⁹. The legal floor is lower: JRA regulations allow tickets with a face value of 10 yen, and the payout is calculated with 10 yen as the unit, so a 10 yen payout multiplied by 10 becomes the usual 100 yen payout¹⁰. In practice you will be buying in 100 yen units.

Two rules catch people out. First, once a bet is placed it cannot be canceled or changed at all⁹. Second, changes to the race after sales start, such as a horse being withdrawn, a number change or a track condition change, are not grounds for a refund, so check your ticket before you buy³. If you want the mechanics of each bet type in more detail, see horse racing bet types and win and place bets.

NAR tracks sell a similar menu. The JRA's online service for local racing carries win, place, exacta, quinella, wide, trifecta and trio, plus bracket quinella show⁶. It does not carry bracket quinella single or the multi-race bets (five-race and seven-race multi-win, and triple exacta)⁶. Ban'ei racing, the heavy-draft racing in Hokkaido, is not sold on that service at all⁶.

Takeout and payouts: the 25 percent deduction

Every pari-mutuel pool has a deduction taken before winnings are paid, and in Japan that deduction varies by bet type. JRA payout rates are 80.00 percent, 77.50 percent, 75.00 percent, 72.50 percent and 70.00 percent depending on the bet type³. In plain terms, the simpler the bet, the smaller the bite: the highest rate goes to the straightforward pools and the lowest to the most complex combinations. The 25 percent figure people quote is the middle of that range, and it applies to some of the most popular bet types.

Local racing sits in the same territory. At Nagoya Racecourse, the payout rate is 75.0 percent for place bets and for horse number quinella¹². So whether you are at a JRA track or a local one, expect to be playing into a pool where roughly a quarter of the money stays with the operator.

There are two JRA schemes that push money back the other way. JRA Plus 10 pays back 110 yen, adding 10 yen, when the normal payout would come in under 100 yen per 100 yen staked, on win and place bets¹⁰. JRA Premium pays the normal payout plus an added 5 percent on target races and bet types¹⁰. Both are worth knowing about because they change what a small winning ticket is actually worth.

Odds on the board are provisional. They are calculated assuming the winning ticket is one unit per race, and they can differ from the final odds depending on refunds and other results³. If you are betting late, the number you see is a guide, not a promise.

Refunds are handled promptly. With a UMACA card, refunds go back to the card balance; with telephone and internet betting, refunded amounts are added back to your betting limit³. If you are weighing up which account suits you, see official online horse racing betting accounts in Asia.

Minimum runners: which bets are sold when

Not every bet type is available in every race. The three-horse bets, trio and trifecta, need at least four runners in the field to be sold. When a race is cut down to three runners or fewer, those tickets come off the board and only the simpler types remain. This is the same principle you see across the region, and it is worth checking the field size before you plan a combination bet.

Field size also matters for how ties are settled. If two or more horses tie for first, one is treated as first, one of the rest as second and one of the rest as third³. If two or more tie for second, one is treated as second and one of the rest as third³. If two or more tie for third, one of them is treated as third³. That matters most for place and combination bets, where the number of paying positions is fixed by the rules rather than by how many horses crossed the line together. For the full picture on how these are paid, see dead heats in horse racing.

Scratchings have their own refund logic. If two or more horses in the same bracket are scratched, all combinations involving that bracket are refunded; if one horse in the bracket remains, only that bracket is refunded; if two remain, no combinations including that bracket are refunded³. If you have already bought in, see scratched horses and refunds.

Prize money: from 5.8 million yen to 500 million yen

The gap between the two systems shows up most clearly in the purses. In JRA racing, the largest first-place purse is 500 million yen, paid in both the Japan Cup and the Arima Kinen (The Grand Prix). The smallest is 5.8 million yen, for races restricted to winless three-year-olds and two-year-olds⁴. That is the full span of central racing in two numbers.

NAR's richest races are a step below. The largest first-place purse in local racing is 100 million yen, shared by the JBC Classic, the Kawasaki Kinen, the Tokyo Derby and the Tokyo Daishoten⁴. Those are the races that draw the best local horses and the biggest local pools.

JRA races are also divided into classes by horse age and prize money earned, with Grade 1 at the top. Below that sit Open, GII, GIII, Listed, open handicaps, and then the win-based classes: three-win (under 16 million yen), two-win (under 10 million yen), one-win (under 5 million yen), and maiden or unraced races⁸. When you read a racecard, the class tells you roughly how good the field is. For how the grades work across the region, see race grades explained.

Jump racing is a smaller world within the JRA. Steeplechases are held at eight racecourses, excluding Sapporo and Hakodate. Nakayama, Tokyo, Kyoto and Hanshin each host two in spring and autumn, Kokura and Niigata one each in summer, for 10 graded jump races in total⁸.

What the JRA does not cover

The cleanest way to think about it: the JRA covers central racing and designated overseas races, and it reaches into local racing only through a specific online service with a limited menu.

That service, JRA Net Voting x NAR Racing, carries mainly dirt graded races plus other local races that are on the published sales list. Not every local race can be bought through it⁶. There is no previous-day sales for local racing on the service⁶. Sales normally do not run on Mondays and Fridays because of system maintenance around JRA race days, though they do run on certain public holidays, defined in principle as holidays immediately following a JRA race day, with no sales the day after⁶.

The betting cutoff differs too. On the local racing service, bets close two minutes before the scheduled post time, compared with one minute before for JRA races⁶. If you are used to the JRA rhythm, that extra minute is easy to miss.

At the track level, the split is physical. Local tickets generally cannot be bought at JRA racecourses or WINS except at a few facilities⁶. Some local venues do the reverse and sell JRA racing: DASH Yokawa, for example, sells all races of the full JRA schedule, with no JRA betting on substitute or continued race meeting days¹³. Nagoya's off-course operation stops local racing sales after 17:00 on JRA sale days¹⁴. If you are planning a day out, check which product the venue actually sells before you travel.

Weather cancellations and restructured meetings

Japanese racing takes weather seriously, and the rules are clear enough that you know where you stand.

If a JRA meeting is canceled, the JRA postpones the scheduled races to an alternate day². If the forecast is for heavy snow or a typhoon, the JRA holds a meeting in the morning and decides whether racing will go ahead². That is why a card can be called off on the morning of the meeting rather than the night before.

When a JRA meeting is canceled, local racing sales move to the substitute JRA race day, in the priority order of the pre-set substitute-day priority sales venues⁶. If a local meeting itself is canceled for a natural disaster or similar reason, in principle there are no sales for the substitute meeting⁶.

For bets already placed, the refund rules are straightforward. If a race is stopped or moved to another course after tickets were sold, tickets for the void race are refunded³. If the stewards judge a race invalid for obstruction or other causes, tickets for that race are refunded³. Horses that do not reach the goal are void and the race is treated as canceled, with tickets refunded³. If the stewards judge the start invalid, the race is rerun immediately, unless a horse is judged unable to start, in which case it is not rerun³.

Restructured meetings are the JRA's way of putting abandoned races back on. If a race meeting is canceled, the JRA postpones the scheduled races to an alternate day¹⁵. If you had a bet on an abandoned race, the refund comes through; if you want to bet the rescheduled version, it is a fresh race on a fresh day.