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2018 World All-Star Jockeys - outline and jockey profiles

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2017 World All-Star Jockeys (closing ceremony)

The World All-Star Jockeys (WASJ) is an international event launched by the Japan Racing Association. Formerly called the World Super Jockeys Series since its establishment in 1987, it has welcomed more than 230 top-caliber jockeys from Europe, North America, Oceania and Asia. The event is held on the last weekend of August at Sapporo Racecourse in northern Japan.

This year’s event welcomes six outstanding jockeys from the United States, New Zealand, Ireland, France, Brazil and Hong Kong in joining one NAR (National Association of Racing; local public racing) jockey and seven JRA jockeys in their bid for the title. A team competition was added to the regular individual contest in 2015, in which the overseas and NAR jockeys form “Team WAS (World All-Star)” and compete against “Team JRA” to attain the most points as a team.

The first two of the four-race series will be conducted on August 25th (Sat), while the third and fourth will be held the following day.

August 2018 The Japan Racing Association

The 2018 World All-Star Jockeys

United States

Rafael Bejarano
	Date of Birth : June 23, 1982 '17 Season Record : 674 mounts, 125 wins / $ 7,280,393 '18 Season Record : 313 mounts, 43 wins / $ 2,272,426 Recent Career Highlights : '17 Gold Cup at Santa Anita Stakes (G1, Cupid) '17 Santa Margarita Stakes (G1, Vale Dori) '16 Chandelier Stakes (G1, Noted and Quoted) Participation in the WASJ : 2nd

A native of Peru, Rafael Bejarano is a polished rider who has collected a total of 60 G1 titles among more than 3,900 career wins in North America. The 2004 champion jockey suffered a broken left wrist earlier this year but has claimed 43 wins in 313 starts so far this season which include his second Wilshire Stakes (G3) and third Cougar II Handicap (G3) title. He is making his second appearance in Japan in hopes of landing his first win and bettering his fourth-place overall finish marked in the 2005 World Super Jockeys Series.

Born in Arequipa, Bejarano trained at the Peruvian national riding school in Lima and debuted in 2001. After promptly claiming the apprentice title in his debut season, he immigrated to the United States in 2002 and raced mainly in the mid-west and then on the east coast where he registered a total of 81 wins that year. He claimed his first grade-race win in the 2003 Kentucky Cup Juvenile Stakes (G3) and his total wins more than tripled to 260, ranking him in tenth. In 2004, he captured his first two G1 wins, the Stephen Foster Handicap on Colonial Colony and the Breeders’ Futurity with Consolidator, and hoarded 455 wins to become the champion jockey in wins. Apart from 2014, he continued to register more than 200 annual wins up to 2015. In earnings, he was ranked eighth in 2004 and never gave up his seat in the top ten up to 2015 while his personal best was when he was second in 2008.

Bejarano has tallied a total of five Breeders’ Cup titles—2005 Filly and Mare Turf (Intercontinental), 2007 Distaff (Ginger Punch), 2011 Juvenile Sprint (Secret Circle) and 2013-14 Dirt Mile (Goldencents), while a runner-up in the 2005 Belmont Stakes is so far his best effort in several Triple Crown challenges. With his most successful mount Ginger Punch, he went on to claim five other G1 titles between 2007 and 2008. He also registered three G1 victories including the 2010 Kentucky Oaks with Blind Luck.

In 2016, he captured five G1 titles—the Triple Bend Stakes (Lord Nelson), the Del Mar Futurity (Klimt), the Chandelier Stakes (Noted and Quoted), the Shoemaker Mile Stakes (Midnight Storm) and the Santa Margarita Stakes (Tara’s Tango)—and rode 125 winners out of 674 starts the following season which featured two G1 victories, the Santa Margarita Stakes (Vale Dori) and the Gold Cup at Santa Anita Stakes (Cupid).

New Zealand

Samantha Collett
	Date of Birth : November 21, 1989 '16/'17 Season Record : 857 mounts, 80 wins / NZ$ 1,254,366 ’17/’18 Season Record : 1,173 mounts, 132 wins / NZ$ 2,555,764 Recent Career Highlights : ’18 Championship Stakes (G2, Azaboy)     ’17 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (G2, Xpression)     ’17 Stewards Stakes (G3, Carnival) Participation in the WASJ : 1st

Samantha Collett just concluded the season at the top of the jockey rankings for the first time with a total of 132 wins, becoming the third female jockey to claim the New Zealand premiership after Lisa Cropp and Lisa Allpress. Although still out of reach of a G1 title, the energetic rider’s two G2 victories and four G3 wins were highlight achievements that contributed to her prosperous 2017/18 campaign. Collett unquestionably earned a ticket to follow her father’s footsteps in representing New Zealand in the international jockeys’ competition in Sapporo this summer.

Collett is the daughter of Jim Collett—a famed jockey-turned-trainer in Matamata of the northern island who competed in the 1995 and 1997 World Super Jockeys Series held at Hanshin and finished fifth and fourth, respectively—and Trudy Thornton, who is still a successful jockey boasting more than a thousand career wins including her G1 Zabeel Classic victory last year.

Collett made her debut in 2006, registering 26 wins, and doubled the score to 53 the following season. She never marked less than 30 wins for five consecutive seasons from 2008/09, and steadily enhanced her performances by racking up more than 50 every season after 2013/14, which placed her within the top 20 in rankings. Seeing no limits in her progress, she jumped up to sixth with a total of 80 wins in 2016/17.

Her major breakthrough at group-race level came when she led Sir Slick to victory in the 2009 Tauranga Stakes (G3) and the 2010 Awapuni Gold Cup (G2), not to mention turning in a good runner-up effort in the 2009 New Zealand Stakes (G1) and a third in the 2010 Easter Handicap (G1). Other outstanding accomplishments include the 2010 Metric Mile (G3), the 2014 Wakefield Challenge Stakes (G2), the 2014 Spring Sprint (G3), the 2017 Avondale Cup (G2) and the 2017 Cuddle Stakes (G3). In 2015, she rode winner Red Striker, trained by her father, in the listed Hallmark Stud Handicap.

This series is her third overseas challenge, having raced in the Australian G1 Doncaster Mile with Sir Slick in 2009 (17th) and in Macau under the One Day Visiting Jockey License in 2013.

Ireland

Shane Foley
	Date of Birth : March 11, 1988 ’17 Season Record : 509 mounts, 44 wins / € 1,016,055 ’18 Season Record : 320 mounts, 30 wins / € 898,728 Recent Career Highlights : ’18 Irish 2,000 Guineas (G1, Romanised)     '18 Gallinule Stakes (G3, Platinum Warrior)     '17 York Stakes (G2, Success Days) Participation in the WASJ : 1st

Shane Foley, a known figure in Japan for his recent stints, pulled off a surprise win this season on board seventh choice Romanised in the Irish 2000 Guineas and collected his second classics trophy. He also landed another title in the G3 Gallinule Stakes with Platinum Warrior and currently stands at sixth in the jockey rankings with 30 wins out of 320 starts as of July 31. The freelance rider, who ended his twelve-year association as first-pick jockey for trainer Michael Halford last season, is en route to his first World All-Star Jockeys challenge.

Born in the south-eastern county of Kilkenny, Foley rode his first horse at the age of 15 and decided to seek a career as a jockey influenced by his friends and mentors. After graduating the Racing Academy & Centre of Education, he became apprentice to Michael Halford and debuted in 2007. In 2009, Foley finished runner-up to fellow Michael Halford-apprentice Gary Carroll with 33 wins in the Champion Apprentice rankings and sustained an injury the following year when he once again had to settle for second behind Joseph O’Brien with 23 wins.

In every flat racing season since 2011, Foley has never surrendered his top-ten position in the jockey rankings and marked his personal best in 2015 at third with 64 wins. He has also ridden enthusiastically during Ireland’s winter all-weather season, reaching the summit of the jockey rankings of 2012/13 and 2014/15, while traveling to Dubai where he claimed the G3 Al Shindagha Sprint in February 2014.

Capturing his first group-race win in the 2010 G3 Phoenix Sprint Stakes with Snaefell, Foley tallied nine more group-race titles before his much-awaited group-one victory in the 2016 Irish 1000 Guineas with third-favorite Jet Setting, holding off heavy favorite and subsequent Horse of the Year Minding by a head. With another significant mount, Success Days, he scored three G3 wins between 2015 and 2016, along with the G2 York Stakes in England last year.

In early 2016, Foley rode in Japan for a couple of months under a short-term license during which he claimed the G3 Keisei Hai with Prophet. He completed another short-term campaign the following winter and has registered a total of 15 wins out of 247 starts in Japan.

France

Ioritz Mendizabal
	Date of Birth : May 2, 1974 '17 Season Record : 667 mounts, 63 wins / € 1,504,350 '18 Season Record : 475 mounts, 49 wins / € 1,159,935 Recent Career Highlights : ’17 Prix Messidor (G3, Taareef)     ’17 Prix Bertrand du Breuil (G3, Taareef)     ’16 Prix Daniel Wildenstein (G2, Taareef ) Participation in the WASJ : 6th

Four-time champion jockey Ioritz Mendizabal is currently tenth on the leader board and is in full throttle to exceed his 2017 performance in which he finished 14th with 63 wins despite a setback due to an injury from a spill. He is a familiar figure for his stints in Japan in the early 2010’s and five World Super Jockeys Series appearances, especially the 2008 version in which he was the overall champion, marking two seconds and a third in the four-race series. He is in Japan for the first time in five years with high hopes of taking home the title once again.

The French-based Spanish native started his racing career with Michel Laborde after attending apprentice school at Mont de Marsan in France. Following his first win in 1990, Mendizabal went on to join the eminent Jean-Claude Rouget stables in 1991 from where he made a steady ascent in the rankings, joining the top 10 with 95 wins by 2001. In 2004, he notched 220 wins to land his first champion jockey title, breaking rival Christophe Soumillon’s record of 207 annual wins set the previous year. He reigned as champion with the most races won for three consecutive years from 2008 and never ranked out of the top ten from 2001 to 2016.

After his first group-race win in the 2003 Prix de Psyche (G3) with Commercante, he claimed his first G1 victory in the Prix Saint-Alary with Ask for the Moon the following year. He successfully claimed multiple French-G1 titles: the 2006 Prix Saint-Alary (Germance); the 2008 Prix du Jockey Club and the 2009 Prix Ganay (Vision d’Etat); and the 2010 Prix de l’Opera (Lily of the Valley). He has also captured major titles abroad including the 2008 Arlington Million (Spirit One) in the U.S. and the 2014 Grosser Dallmayr-Preis (Lucky Lion) in Germany.

Besides his five World Super Jockeys Series challenges, Mendizabal has ridden many winners in Japan while racing under JRA’s short-term licenses for three years from 2011, during which he registered his first grade-race victory in the Fantasy Stakes (G3) and was runner-up in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (G1), both in 2011 on board I’m Yours. He also rode runner-up Sky Dignity in the 2012 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger, G1) and guided Rulership to a third-place finish in the Tenno Sho (Autumn) (G1) the same year.

Brazil

Joao Moreira
	Date of Birth : September 26, 1983 ’16/’17 Season Record : 711 mounts, 170 wins / HK$ 207,249,728 ’17/’18 Season Record : 660 mounts, 134 wins / HK$ 162,786,520 Recent Career Highlights : ’18 Stewards’ Cup (G1, Seasons Bloom)     ’17 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1, Neorealism)     ’17 Dubai Turf (G1, Vivlos) Participation in the WASJ : 4th

Joao Moreira, widely known as the “Magic Man”, marked 134 wins in the 2017/18 season, which included the G1 Stewards’ Cup with Seasons Bloom in January. Though his fourth consecutive champion title was interrupted by Zachary Purton by only two wins, he has accumulated more than 100 annual wins for four straight seasons. He will aim to capture his second WASJ title—his first being in 2015—in his fourth successive challenge this year.

Born in Curitiba in the southern part of Brazil, Moreira began his jockey career in 2000 based in Sao Paulo where he rode more than 1,000 winners. Relocating to Singapore in 2009, the Brazilian jockey finished third in the jockey rankings with 69 wins that year and secured four consecutive premiership titles between 2010 and 2013—he registered a record of 116 annual wins in 2010 and further renewed the number to 206 in 2012. He also accomplished a feat of scoring a perfect eight wins out of eight starts on September 6, 2013.

While renewing various records in Singapore, his move to Hong Kong in October 2013 proved to be another great success. He was ranked second in the jockey rankings of the 2013/14 season with 97 wins despite missing the first month. He climbed to the top with 145 wins the following season, renewing the record of 114 wins set by 13-time champion Douglas Whyte in 2005/06, and further improved the number to 168 wins in 2015/16 then 170 in 2016/17.

While marking 14 G1 wins in Hong Kong including the 2014 Hong Kong Mile and the 2015 Champions Mile on board Able Friend, with whom he has claimed five G1 victories, he is also recognized abroad as the winner of the Al Quoz Sprint, the Dubai Golden Shaheen, the Epsom Handicap and the Coolmore Stud Stakes in 2014 as well as the 2015 Newmarket Handicap and the 2017 Oakleigh Plate. He is also well appreciated in Japan for his successes with Japanese-trained runners including the 2016 Hong Kong Vase with Satono Crown and the 2017 Queen Elizabeth II Cup with Neorealism in Hong Kong as well as the 2017 Dubai Turf with Vivlos.

Moreira rode in Japan for the first time in the 2014 Yasuda Kinen, finishing sixth with Glorious Days. He has also ridden in Japan under short-term licenses in August 2016 and 2017, marking 38 wins out of 130 starts as of July 22.

Hong Kong

Chadley Schofield
(©The Hong Kong Jockey Club)	Date of Birth : February 16, 1994 '16/'17 Season Record : 422 mounts, 31 wins / HK$ 38,737,750 '17/'18 Season Record : 410 mounts, 38 wins / HK$ 55,103,300 Recent Career Highlights : '18 Hong Kong Classic Cup (Singapore Sling)     '17 Ladies' Purse (G3, Nassa)     '17 Centenary Vase (G3, Supreme Profit) Participation in the WASJ : 1st

South African jockey Chadley Schofield has just completed his third season in Hong Kong, ranking fifth in the jockey standings, his personal high, with 38 wins. His victory in the Ladies’ Purse with Nassa and his achievements in the Hong Kong 4-year-old Series with Singapore Sling—winning the Classic Cup and finishing second in both the Classic Mile and the Derby—contributed to his best season in Hong Kong so far. The aspiring 24-year-old rider is in full gear to broaden his horizons in Japan this summer.

Son of jockey Glyn Schofield, who debuted in South Africa and is presently based in Sydney, Australia, Schofield made his debut in Sydney in 2010 and went on to score three wins that season. He made a name for himself when he became champion apprentice of 2011/12 season in Sydney and ranked 10th on the leader board with 39 victories. Relocating to the Melbourne district the next season and mainly riding for trainer David Hayes, he scored 41 wins to notch the champion apprentice title there as well, becoming the first apprentice to land two apprentice titles in the two regions while he surged to fifth in the Melbourne standings.

In the following 2013/14 season and at 19, he became the first apprentice in nearly 40 years to win the prestigious Cox Plate on board Shamus Award, the first maiden galloper in history to claim the title. It was his first group-one triumph which he backed up with three more that year—the Newmarket Handicap (Lankan Rupee), the Champagne Stakes (Go Indy Go) and the Queensland Derby (Sonntag). In 2014, Schofield and his father became the first father and son, since George Moore and Gary Moore in 1968, to ride in the same Melbourne Cup—Glyn and Chadley still occasionally race against each other.

JAPAN (NAR Representative; Hokkaido)

Masaaki Kuwamura
	Date of Birth : March 26, 1987 '17 Season Record* : 622 mounts, 107 wins *NAR only '18 Season Record* : 235 mounts, 50 wins *NAR only 'Career Record* : 7,375 mounts, 990 wins *NAR only Recent Career Highlights : ’18 Hokkai Yushun (Katsugeki Japan)     ’18 Grand Chariot Mombetsu Sprint     (Katsugeki Raiden) Participation in the WASJ : 1st

Three-time Hokkaido champion jockey Masaaki Kuwamura who continues to excel within NAR’s Hokkaido district and stands as the current leader will be making his first challenge against the top jockeys from the JRA circle and abroad. He became the first Hokkaido-based jockey to win the season’s NAR Jockey’s Championship title with two wins, a fourth and a sixth in the four-race series, which automatically placed him as the NAR representative in the coming WASJ. He will no doubt gain plenty of support from the Hokkaido locals in his bid to claim yet another big title.

Born in central Tokyo, Kuwamura aspired to become a jockey with the influence of his father, a big horse-racing fan. Failing the entrance test to JRA’s Horse Racing School, he worked as a farm hand in Hokkaido before enrolling in NAR’s Racing Education Center. He debuted as a stable jockey for Hokkaido’s Mitsuharu Nakamura in 2005 and scored 18 wins in his first season. He was retained by Hideo Shimizu the following year during which he registered 16 wins. He landed his first major victory in the 2009 Eikan Sho with Onoyu while riding for Hideki Kadokawa with whom he has partnered to this day since 2007, the same year in which he made it into Hokkaido’s top ten jockeys (8th).

Kuwamura has turned in consistent results every year since his move to Kadokawa’s yard and has been listed within the top six every year, among which he became the leader in 2013, 2016 and 2017—his personal best being 105 wins. He has also registered wins on other NAR tracks outside Hokkaido such as Iwate, Urawa, Funabashi, Oi and Kawasaki.

He has won numerous major titles: the Breeders’ Gold Junior Cup, the Sunrise Cup, the Hokkaido Nisai Yushun in 2009; the Edelweiss Sho in 2012; the Eikan Sho, the Floral Cup, the Edelweiss Sho, the Hokkaido Nisai Yushun in 2015; the Hokuto Hai, the Hokkai Yushun, the Eikan Sho, the Innocent Cup and the Floral Cup in 2016.

His first opportunity to ride in JRA races came in 2006 and his first JRA win was in 2008, his only win yet out of 80 JRA starts, while he is noted for his fourth-place finish with long-shot Tiny Dancer (12th favorite) in the 2015 Hakodate Nisai Stakes (G3).

JAPAN (JRA, Ritto Training Center)

Yuichi Fukunaga
	Date of Birth : December 9, 1976 ’18 Season Record : 415 mounts, 62 wins / ¥ 1,563,459,000 Career Record : 16,401 mounts, 2,110 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’18 Tokyo Yushun     (Japanese Derby, G1, Wagnerian)     ’18 Kawasaki Kinen (K T Brave) Participation in the WASJ : 9th

Two-time JRA champion Yuichi Fukunaga celebrated his first Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) victory this year on board Wagnerian, the Deep Impact colt with whom he has partnered since its debut; the long-awaited triumph came in his 23rd season and 19th challenge for the trophy. After the pair was favored but defeated to seventh in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas), Fukunaga altered racing tactics and kept Wagnerian up in good striking position from the beginning which successfully led to a half-length Derby victory. He also claimed an NAR title early this season, the Kawasaki Kinen with K T Brave, and currently stands at fifth in the JRA standings.

Following the footsteps of his father, former jockey Yoichi Fukunaga, he made an impressive debut in 1996, winning his first two career starts, and was named JRA’s Best Jockey (Newcomer) with 53 wins. After capturing his first grade-race win the following year, he claimed his first G1 victory in 1999 with Primo Ordine in the Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas). He was ranked among the top twelve jockeys, claiming over 80 annual wins since 2000, and has been within the top five from 2010 with over 100 wins. Finally emerging to the top in 2011 and 2013, he won the JRA Award in Winning Average in 2011 and in Races Won and Money Earned in 2013. Fukunaga became the eighth jockey in JRA history to reach a milestone of 2,000 career wins in July last year.

Among his 128 grade-race wins, 21 are G1 victories including seven classic titles—the Oka Sho (1999 Prix Modine,2005 Rhein Kraft), the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) (2004 Daiwa el Cielo, 2005 Cesario, 2007 Robe Decollete), and the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) (2013 Epiphaneia), not to mention his Tokyo Yushun triumph this year. Titles won overseas include the 2001 Hong Kong Mile (G1), the Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1) in 2002 and 2003 with Eishin Preston, the 2005 American Oaks Invitational Stakes with Cesario and the Dubai Duty Free with Just a Way in 2014.

The 41-year-old jockey hopes to top his personal best of finishing second in 2014 and 2017 in his ninth JRA international jockey’s competition this year.

JAPAN (JRA, Ritto Training Center)

Christophe Lemaire
	Date of Birth : May 20, 1979 '18 Season Record : 421 mounts, 97 wins / ¥ 2,144,337,100 Career Record : 4,543 mounts, 837 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’18 Yasuda Kinen (G1, Mozu Ascot)     ’18 Yushun Himba     (Japanese Oaks, G1, Almond Eye) Participation in the WASJ : 5th

Christophe Lemaire represents the JRA as the Most Valuable Jockey of the 2017 season. The French native has continued to rack up G1 victories from early this season; major titles include the fillies’ classic-double with Almond Eye in the Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) and the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) as well as the Yasuda Kinen with Mozu Ascot. He and Mirco Demuro are in a duel for the premiership with about 30 more than the rest of the JRA jockeys in races won and a clear advantage in money earned and winning average. Lemaire, who reached a milestone of 800 wins in May, aims to improve on his sixth-place finish last year in JRA’s international jockeys’ contest.

Born in Chantilly as the son of Patrice Lemaire, a leading jump jockey in the ‘80s, Lemaire began as an amateur rider in 1996 at the age of 16 and started riding professionally after acquiring his license in 1999. He landed his first G1 title in France in the 2003 Prix Jean Prat and was soon among the top jockeys at home and a rising star internationally with G1 titles in France, England, the UAE, Australia, Hong Kong and the United States. Lemaire began racing in Japan from 2002 under short-term licenses, during which he scored five G1 victories in the Arima Kinen (2005 Heart’s Cry), the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup (2008 Little Amapola), the Japan Cup Dirt (2008 Kane Hekili, 2013 Belshazzar) and the Japan Cup (2009 Vodka).

Lemaire debuted as a regular jockey in 2015 after passing his JRA exam. Despite not starting until April, he still managed to notch 112 wins to be placed fourth on the leaderboard in his debut year and register the highest winning percentage to become JRA’s Best Jockey (Winning Average). He won 13 grade-race titles including four G1 victories in 2016, earning his first Money Earned title as well as his second award for Winning Average. He led all jockeys with 199 wins in 2017 to land his first JRA Award for Races Won while claiming his second consecutive title for Money Earned with 14 grade-race victories including four G1 titles. During the same season, he became the first jockey since Olivier Peslier in 2001 to win three G1 titles in three consecutive weeks. His Oaks-Derby double in a single season with Soul Stirring in the Yushun Himba and Rey de Oro in the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) marked the first in 42 years and only the fifth jockey to accomplish the feat.

JAPAN (JRA, Miho Training Center)

Keita Tosaki
	Date of Birth : July 8, 1980 '18 Season Record : 522 mounts, 70 wins / ¥ 1,697,309,000 Career Record : 6,161 mounts, 893 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’18 Satsuki Sho     (Japanese 2000 Guineas, G1, Epoca d’Oro)     ’18 Epsom Cup (G3, Satono Arthur) Participation in the WASJ : 6th

Keita Tosaki, a three-time champion jockey since switching to JRA from NAR five years ago, captured his first classic title aboard seventh pick Epoca d’Oro in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) followed by another impressive 1/2-length second in the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby). Tosaki, who also just missed the Yasuda Kinen by a neck with Aerolithe, has racked up five grade-race titles among 67 wins (JRA only) which place him as the top jockey of the eastern area and third on the national leaderboard. His best score among five WASJ challenges was an overall second last year but he will be aiming for an even better position as WASJ champion this year.

Tosaki’s career began in 1998 at Oi Racecourse as a stable jockey for trainer Kazutaka Katori. He rode his first winner in April that year, scored his 100th win in 2002 and landed his first major title in the Twinkle Lady Sho in 2005. In the following year, he nearly doubled his wins to 123, then rose to third in NAR’s national jockey rankings with 212 wins in 2007, the year when he scored his first JRA win at Hanshin Racecourse. This began a remarkable string of success for the four-time NAR leader of 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 who was given more opportunities on JRA mounts. He scored his first JRA grade-race win in 2010 in the Musashino Stakes with Glorious Noah followed by his first JRA-G1 victory in the 2011 Yasuda Kinen with Real Impact.

Transferred to JRA racing in 2013, Tosaki quickly placed himself among the top five jockeys nationally with 113 wins in 2013 including a G1 title with Red Reveur in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies. He was leading jockey by a comfortable 10-win margin in 2014 with 146 wins and led by nine again to defend his title with 130 wins in 2015. He reached a personal best of 187 wins for his third champion title in the following year but was second to Christophe Lemaire with 171 wins last year. His major career titles include the 2014 Arima Kinen with Gentildonna, the 2015 and 2016 Victoria Mile and the 2015 Sprinters Stakes with Straight Girl.　Besides being JRA’s Best Jockey (Races Won) between 2014 and 2016, he was also named the Most Valuable Jockey based on his wins, winning average, earnings and mounts in designated NAR and overseas races in all three seasons.

JAPAN (JRA, Miho Training Center)

Hironobu Tanabe
	Date of Birth : February 12, 1984 '18 Season Record : 474 mounts, 55 wins / ¥ 1,024,256,000 Career Record : 9,692 mounts, 767 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’18 Chukyo Kinen (G3, Greater London)     ’18 Queen Cup (G3, Tetradrachm)     ’18 Keisei Hai (G3, Generale Uno) Participation in the WASJ : 3rd

Hironobu Tanabe, now a regular in the upper rankings of the national leaderboard, claimed NAR’s year-end Tokyo Daishoten (G1) last year and got off to an excellent start this year, collecting ten wins in the first two weeks. He continues to consistently accumulate wins thereafter and is currently ranked sixth with 55 wins. While still without a G1 title this year, he has so far registered three graded wins in the Keisei Hai with Generale Uno in January, the Queen Cup with Tetradrachm in February and the Chukyo Kinen with Greater London in July. He has also ridden eighth-pick Generale Uno to a respectable third in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) in April. This year’s World All-Star Jockeys being his third participation and second consecutive challenge following his eighth-place finish last year, Tanabe hopes to exceed his third-place finish in 2014.

Influenced by his father who was a horseracing enthusiast, Tanabe entered the JRA Horse Racing School and made his debut in March 2002 for trainer Kazuo Konishi. He landed his long-awaited first win in his 63rd JRA start in August and went on to score eight wins that year.

After hovering at 10-20 annual wins for the next six years, he gradually improved his score, marking 33 wins in 2009 and 37 in 2010. With requests from established stables starting to come in, he more than doubled his annual wins and concluded the 2011 season with his personal high of 88 wins and was seventh in the national rankings. He also landed his first grade-race victory in the Antares Stakes (G3) with Gold Blitz in April that year.

Though his wins dropped to 52 in 2012, he established himself as one of the top jockeys after bouncing back with 88 wins (ninth) in 2013 and capturing his first G1 title when causing a major upset victory in the February Stakes with the least favorite Copano Rickey in 2014. He also upset heavily favored Maurice in the 2016 Yasuda Kinen with eighth-pick Logotype in a gate-to-wire victory. He marked 75 wins, which included his personal-best six graded titles, and was ranked 10th in the national leaderboard in 2014. He was 11th with 77 wins in 2015, seventh with 86 wins in 2016 and eighth with 84 wins last year.

JAPAN (JRA, Ritto Training Center)

Mirco Demuro
	Date of Birth : January 11, 1979 '18 Season Record : 397 mounts, 97 wins / ¥ 1,988,521,000 Career Record : 4,815 mounts, 870 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’18 Osaka Hai (G1, Suave Richard)     ’18 Japan Dirt Derby (Le Vent Se Leve)     ’18 Flora Stakes (G2, Satono Walkure) Participation in the WASJ : 5th

Mirco Demuro continues to impress the Japanese racing circle in his fourth season as an official JRA jockey, currently a close second in wins and earnings while besting in winning average. He already has claimed nine grade-race titles this year including a G1 title in the Osaka Hai with Suave Richard. Having ridden in Japan over a 16-year span in a number of short-term riding stints, he has established new records as one of the first foreign JRA jockeys, already reaching his 800th career win on March 4.

Debuting in Italy in 1994 at age 15, Demuro became a champion apprentice with 79 wins in the following year. He was the leading jockey in Italy for four consecutive years between 1997 and 2000, including as Italy’s first teenage champion. His first group-race victory came in 1998 in the Premio Primi Passi (G3) and his first G1 title was in the Gran Premio del Jockey Club in 1999.

From early in his career, Demuro sought success at the international level and rode in numerous countries. He started riding in Japan under a short-term license in 1999 and found his riding skills were well appreciated. Given opportunities on talented mounts, he landed 31 grade-race titles including 10 G1 victories between 2001 and 2014. He captured his first two classic titles with Neo Universe in 2003 in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) and the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby), and rode Screen Hero to victory in the 2008 Japan Cup. Demuro also gave Japanese racing a historic first success in the Dubai World Cup with Victoire Pisa in 2011.

Debuting as a JRA jockey in March 2015, he has since claimed 51 graded titles including 15 at G1 level with highly acclaimed runners such as 2015 Satsuki Sho-Tokyo Yushun winner Duramente, 2016 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas) victor Jeweler and 2016-17 Sprinters Stakes champion Red Falx. He tied Yutaka Take (2005, 2006), Katsumi Ando (2007), Kenichi Ikezoe (2011) and Yasunari Iwata (2012) with six G1 victories in a single season but became only the first to accomplish the feat on six different horses in 2017. He became a JRA Award winner for Money Earned in 2015 and for Winning Average last year.

He has participated in the WASJ four times and was overall champion with two wins and two fifths in the four-race contest in 2016. He was 13th last year.

JAPAN (JRA, Miho Training Center)

Hiroyuki Uchida
	Date of Birth : July 26, 1970 '18 Season Record : 551 mounts, 48 wins / ¥ 1,040,708,000 Career Record : 9,884 mounts, 1,152 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’18 February Stakes (G1, Nonkono Yume)     ’18 Meguro Kinen (G2, Win Tenderness)     18 Negishi Stakes (G3, Nonkono Yume) Participation in the WASJ : 9th

NAR-turned-JRA veteran jockey Hiroyuki Uchida claimed his first JRA-G1 victory in four years in this year’s February Stakes with Nonkono Yume, beating the race favorite by a neck margin. Uchida, who reached a milestone of 1,100th JRA win in November last year, is currently ranked 10th in the national leaderboard with 46 wins (JRA only) including three graded titles.

Debuted as an NAR jockey in 1989, Uchida was counted among the top jockeys by 2000 and became the NAR national champion for the first time in 2004 with 385 wins—a title he retained for the following three seasons. In 2006, he set a record of 524 annual wins—463 in NAR and 61 in JRA—the most in Japanese horseracing history. During his career as an NAR jockey, he claimed over 120 wins in JRA races, which included his first JRA-G1 victory in the 2007 NHK Mile Cup with Pink Cameo.

Uchida transferred to JRA on March 1, 2008 where he continued to perform well, finishing second in the jockey rankings with 123 wins that year. He concluded the 2009 season on top of the rankings with 146 wins out of 975 starts. While ranking second with 118 wins the following year, he achieved the most wins by combining his NAR victories to receive the JRA Award for Best Jockey (Races Won) for two consecutive years. He continues to be ranked within the top 10 every year since, except for 2011 and 2014.

While claiming eleven JRA-G1 titles including the 2008 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) with Oken Bruce Lee, the 2010 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) with Eishin Flash and the 2013&14 Victoria Mile with Verxina, he is best known for his partnership with Gold Ship with whom he won the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas), the Kikuka Sho, the Arima Kinen in 2012 and the Takarazuka Kinen in 2013.

He has participated in JRA’s international jockeys’ competition eight times—once as an NAR jockey and seven times as a JRA jockey. Uchida, who claimed the “Japan Jockey’s Cup” title at NAR Morioka Racecourse, fought between the best jockeys from JRA and NAR in July, hopes to replicate the feat in this year’s World All-Star Jockeys.

JAPAN (JRA, Ritto Training Center)

Yutaka Take
	Date of Birth : March 15, 1969 '18 Season Record : 297 mounts, 44 wins / ¥ 1,025,292,900 Career Record : 21,130 mounts, 3,983 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’18 Procyon Stakes (G3, Matera Sky)     ’18 Hankyu Hai (G3, Diana Halo)     ’18 Tokyo Shimbun Hai (G3, Lys Gracieux) Participation in the WASJ : 24th

Yutaka Take continues to produce impressive results as Japan’s longstanding top jockey and has not missed a year without a grade-race victory in 32 years since his debut. While having yet to capture a G1 title this year, he finished second with Lys Gracieux in the Victoria Mile and has just 17 wins to reach a milestone of 4,000 career wins in JRA alone. He will make his bid to become the overall champion for the second time—his first was in 1992—in JRA’s international jockey championship series.

The third son of the late trainer Kunihiko Take, Yutaka started riding at 10 and has continued to renew practically every record available. He debuted in 1987 and immediately stood out with 69 wins. A champion jockey for 18 years, including from 1992 to 2000 and 2002 to 2008, he exceeded 200 wins for three consecutive years starting in 2003, culminating with a record 212 wins in 2005. By 2007, he had become the youngest to reach a number of milestones including an unprecedented 3,000th win.

His first G1 and Classic win was with Super Creek in the 1988 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) and his first Derby title came with Special Week 10 years later. Take became the first JRA jockey to ride a G1 winner overseas when he claimed the 1994 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp with Andre Fabre-trained Ski Paradise. He also rode the first Japanese-trained G1 winner abroad when guiding Seeking the Pearl to victory in the 1998 Prix Maurice de Gheest. He has 24 wins overseas at group-race level including seven G1 events in the United Kingdom, France, Hong Kong and Dubai combined.

Take celebrated his 100th G1 (NAR and overseas included) victory when claiming the Mile Championship with Tosen Ra in 2013. He has a record of 327 grade-race wins in JRA alone, among which 75 are at G1 level. Horses he guided to victories and subsequently won them Horse of the Year titles include Inari One, Oguri Cap, Air Groove, Deep Impact, Vodka and Kitasan Black. Since his first JRA Award title as a newcomer in 1987, he has won 18 jockey titles for Races Won, 16 for Money Earned, 11 for Winning Average and nine Grand Prizes, given to those that have dominated all three jockey categories in the same season.

Past Results of World All-Star Jockeys

*Iwata replaced USA's Victor Espinoza.

[NOTE] ER=Excluded from Running (by stewards) / FF=Fail to Finish / N=None to ride / S=Scratch

Data Analyses of World All-Star Jockeys