PDF(1,341kb)

2024 World All-Star Jockeys - outline and jockey profiles

• Outline
• Jockey profiles
• Past Results of World All-Star Jockeys
• Data Analyses of World All-Star Jockeys

2023 World All-Star Jockeys (closing ceremony)

The World All-Star Jockeys (WASJ) is an international event launched by the Japan Racing Association. Initially established in 1987 under the name “the World Super Jockeys Series,” it has welcomed more than 250 top-caliber jockeys from Europe, North America, South America, Oceania and Asia. Renamed the World All-Star Jockeys as a summer event at Sapporo Racecourse in Hokkaido in 2015, a team competition was added to the regular individual contest in which the overseas and NAR jockeys’ “Team WAS (World All-Star)” 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 24th (Sat.), while the remaining two will be held the following day. This year, the series will also be staged in celebration of the Asian Racing Conference which will be held at Sapporo between August 27 and September 1.

August 2024 The Japan Racing Association

The 2024 World All-Star Jockeys

Hong Kong

Chak Yiu Ho
	Date of Birth : May 25, 1990 ’22/’23 Season Record : 724 mounts, 96 wins / HK$ 160,209,308 ’23/’24 Season Record : 355 mounts, 41 wins / HK$ 87,405,490 Recent Career Highlights : ’23 Hong Kong Mile (G1, Golden Sixty) ’23 Jockey Club Cup (G2, Straight Arron) ’24 Premier Plate (G3, Galaxy Patch) Participation in the WASJ : 2nd
Photo: The Hong Kong Jockey Club

Hong Kong-born “Vincent” Chak Yiu Ho, though unable to race for two and a half months due to a fall in January, capped off the 2023/24 season seventh in the jockeys’ ranking with 41 wins, including the G1 Hong Kong Mile with his star mount Golden Sixty. After a stint in the U.K., he will fly to Japan to aim for his first champion title in the World All-Star Jockeys where he tied seventh in 2022.

After graduating from the HKJC Apprentice Jockeys’ School, he rode in New Zealand under trainer Lance O’Sullivan and won 44 races there. He started his career in Hong Kong in 2009 and claimed the Champion Apprentice title with 39 wins the following season. In 2014/15, he became the leading homegrown jockey with 33 wins, which included his first group-race title in the National Day Cup with Bundle Of Joy. Steadily accumulating wins, he has placed himself within the top ten on the leaderboard since the 2018/19 season. He registered his first G1 title in the Champions Mile with Southern Legend in 2020 and was ranked second in the 2022/23 jockeys’ premiership with a personal-high 96 wins. He scored his 500th career win in Hong Kong in March 2023, becoming the second homegrown jockey to do so after Anthony Cruz.

His accomplishments with three-time Horse of the Year Golden Sixty, with whom he has partnered since his debut, have captured the hearts of Hong Kong racing fans in the past five seasons. When the pair won the 2020 Hong Kong Derby, Ho became the fourth Hong Kong-born jockey to win the race since Cruz in 1995 while Golden Sixty became the second horse to sweep the Four-Year-Old Triple Crown since Rapper Dragon in 2017. The pair has also won ten G1 titles: the Hong Kong Mile in 2020, 2021 and 2023; the Stewards’ Cup and the Hong Kong Gold Cup in 2021 and 2023; and the Champions Mile between 2021 and 2023. Ho’s other G1 titles include the 2021 Queen Elizabeth II Cup with Japanese mare Loves Only You and the 2022 Centenary Sprint Cup with Stronger.

Ho participated in the 2011 Asian Young Guns Challenge in Australia where he was tied third and took part in the 2019 Shergar Cup, contributing to the victory of the “Rest of the World” team with a win. He has experience riding in Europe during the off seasons—he won his first race in the U.K. in 2018 and returned there the following year to score six wins. He also rode in Japan under short-term licenses in 2022 and 2023, during which he registered five wins including the 2022 Leopard Stakes (G3) with Kafuji Octagon.

Australia

Damian Lane
	Date of Birth : February 6, 1994 ’22/’23 Season Record : 195 mounts, 32 wins / AUS$ 5,019,115 ’23/’24 Season Record : 489 mounts, 88 wins / AUS$ 10,617,780 Recent Career Highlights : ’24 T J Smith Stakes (G1, Chain Of Lightning) ’24 George Ryder Stakes (G1, Veight) ’23 ATC Australian Oaks (G1, Pennyweka) Participation in the WASJ : 1st
Photo: JRA

Damian Lane enjoyed a successful 2023/24 season with 88 wins to become the champion jockey in the Melbourne Metropolitan Jockey Premiership for the first time while claiming two group one titles in Sydney—the George Ryder Stakes with Veight and the T J Smith Stakes with Chain Of Lightning. Well known to Japanese racegoers for his frequent stints in Japan, he will make his first appearance in the coming World All-Star Jockeys where he will showcase his proven skills.

Born in Bunbury, Western Australia, as the son of jockey-turned-trainer Michael, Lane debuted in June 2009 as an apprentice to his father. After registering more than 150 wins in Western Australia, he moved to Melbourne during the 2010/11 season to join the Matt Ellerton and Simon Zahra stable and notched his first group-race victory with Se Sauver in the 2013 Edward Manifold Stakes and his maiden G1 title with Trust in a Gust in the 2014 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes. He has ranked consistently within the top ten in Melbourne since the 2015/16 season, coming in second in 2017/18 and 2020/21.

Lane’s G1 titles in Australia include: the Australian Cup and the Makybe Diva Stakes in 2017 and the Memsie Stakes in 2018 with Humidor; the 2017 ATC Australian Derby with Jon Snow; the Toorak Handicap and the Mackinnon Stakes in 2017 with former Japanese-trained Tosen Stardom; the 2018 VRC Oaks with Aristia; the 2019 Golden Slipper Stakes with Kiamichi; the 2022 ATC Australian Oaks with El Patroness; and the Caulfield Cup and the Cox Plate in 2019, in which he partnered with Japanese contenders, Mer De Glace and Lys Gracieux, respectively.

Lane experienced a three-month stint in Hong Kong in 2015 and has been riding in Japan under short-term licenses every year since 2019, except for 2021. He has scored 147 wins out of 620 starts in JRA so far, including 14 graded wins, of which five are at the G1 level—the Victoria Mile (Normcore), the Takarazuka Kinen and the Arima Kinen (Lys Gracieux) in 2019, the Mile Championship (Serifos) in 2022 and the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby, Tastiera) in 2023. He also claimed the 2019 Teio Sho with Omega Perfume in NAR racing and the 2022 Hong Kong Vase with Japanese mare Win Marilyn. He has registered more than 1,600 career wins within and outside Australia.

Brazil

Joao Moreira
	Date of Birth : September 26, 1983 ’22/’23 Season Record : 285 mounts, 86 wins / BRL 1,857,279 ’23/’24 Season Record : 267 mounts, 70 wins / BRL 1,419,875 Recent Career Highlights : ’24 Grande Premio Brasil (G1, Obataye) ’24 Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas, G1, Stellenbosch) Participation in the WASJ : 6th
Photo: Porfírio Menezes

Joao Moreira, widely known as the “Magic Man” with numerous successes at a global scale, has been riding back in Brazil since the end of 2022 and was ranked eighth on the national leaderboard in the 2023/24 season with 70 wins out of 267 starts, which included two G1 victories in the Grande Premio Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Monanfan) and the Grande Premio Brasil (Obataye). He continues to ride actively overseas in Japan, Australia, Hong Kong, Uruguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Dubai, and has registered three G1 victories—the Golden Rose Stakes (Militarize) last September, the Gran Premio Ciudad de Montevideo (Pacholli) in January and the Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas, Stellenbosch) in April. The globe-trotting jockey will make his sixth appearance in the coming World All-Star Jockeys to aim for his second overall champion title since 2015.

Born in Curitiba in southern 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 secured four consecutive premiership titles between 2010 and 2013, during which he registered a record of 206 annual wins in 2012.

While setting various records in Singapore, his move to Hong Kong in October 2013 proved to be another great success. Moreira claimed the champion titles four times there in 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2020/21 and renewed the number of wins in a single season three times, his personal best reaching 170 wins in 2016/17. His 24 G1 victories in Hong Kong include five with Able Friend and four with Beat The Clock. He also guided Rapper Dragon to become the first horse to win all three legs of the Four-Year-Old Classic Series in 2017. He is recognized abroad as the winner of the Al Quoz Sprint, the Dubai Golden Shaheen, the Epsom Handicap and the Coolmore Stud Stakes in 2014, the Newmarket Handicap in 2015, the Oakleigh Plate in 2017 and the Sires’ Produce Stakes and the Champagne Stakes in 2023.

Moreira rode in Japan for the first time in the 2014 Yasuda Kinen and has ridden under short-term licenses in 2016, 2017, 2018, 2023 and this year. He has marked 185 wins in JRA races, 13 of which are at the graded level, including the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Cup with Lys Gracieux in 2018. He is also well appreciated in Japan for his successes with Japanese-trained runners abroad—the Champions Mile with Maurice (2016); the Hong Kong Vase with Satono Crown (2016) and Glory Vase (2019, 2021); the Queen Elizabeth II Cup with Neorealism (2017); and the 2017 Dubai Turf with Vivlos.

United Arab Emirates

Tadhg O'Shea
	Date of Birth : February 1, 1982 ’22/’23 Season Record* : 185 mounts, 29 wins / AED 7,984,779 ’23/’24 Season Record* : 179 mounts, 28 wins / AED 36,357,310 Recent Career Highlights : ’24 Dubai World Cup (G1, Laurel River) ’24 Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1, Tuz) ’22 Dubai Golden Shaheen (G1, Switzerland) Participation in the WASJ : 1st *thoroughbred racing alone
Photo: Emirates Racing Authority

Tadhg O’Shea, 12-time champion jockey in UAE, notched two G1 titles on Dubai World Cup night this year—his first Dubai World Cup and his second Dubai Golden Shaheen triumphs. The Irish native, who has been riding under JRA’s short-term license since April and has registered six wins from 129 mounts during his three-month stint, hopes to make use of his experience riding in Japan in his attempt to become the WASJ champion as a UAE representative against world’s top jockeys.

Born into a non-racing family in Dromahane, County Cork, Ireland, O’Shea chose to become a jockey at fifteen after two cousins having enrolled in a jockey school. Graduating from Racing Academy and Centre of Education, he became apprentice to trainer Michael Halford based at Curragh and debuted in 1998. Quickly tipped to become a potential star jockey after three apprentice titles between 2001 and 2003 and his first group-race victory in the 2001 Concorde Stakes (G3, Montecastillo), the young jockey successfully made it within the top ten jockeys in Ireland for five straight years beginning 2001 while given opportunities sponsored by the late Sheikh Hamdam bin Rashid Al Maktoum to ride in UAE where he continues to race during the winter. With increased mounts in England from 2006 and a significant success with Mizzna in the Kahayla Classic for Arabians on World Cup night in 2008, he was chosen to become second jockey for Sheikh Hamdan over four seasons.

Since claiming UAE’s champion jockey title for the first time in 2009/10, he has made a record of 12 champion titles with his latest in 2023/24. O’Shea’s titles in Purebred Arabians racing include the Dubai International Stakes in 2011, the H.H. Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Cup in 2016 and 2017, the President Of The UAE Cup in 2017, the UAE President Cup in 2020 and the Dubai Kahayla Classic in 2008 and 2019. Thoroughbreds and Purebred Arabian races combined, he rewrote the record in career wins, previously owned by Richard Hills, in March 2019 then reached a milestone 600 wins in April 2021. His first group-one victory in thoroughbred racing was with Switzerland in the 2022 Dubai Golden Shaheen.

Outside Ireland, Great Britain and UAE, he has experiences riding in various countries around the globe including France, Norway, Czech, Belgium, Germany, Italy, China, Singapore, Korea, Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia as well as Japan. He has also participated in the Shergar Cup, the high- profile international jockey event held in England, in 2019 and in 2021.

France

Delphine Santiago
	Date of Birth : February 28, 1979 ’23 Season Record : 476 mounts, 66 wins / € 1,037,025 ’24 Season Record : 199 mounts, 16 wins / € 253,110 Recent Career Highlights : ’17 Prix du Grand Camp (Listed, Mint Julep) Participation in the WASJ : 1st
Photo: Scoopdyga

Delphine Santiago is one of the pioneer female jockeys in France and the first French female jockey to reach a milestone of 700 career wins in June. She concluded the 2023 season with her personal-best 66 wins to place herself 12th on the national leaderboard and second among female jockeys behind Marie Velon who was an overall fourth in last year’s World All-Star Jockeys (WASJ). She will ride for the first time in Japan in the coming WASJ where she will aim to become the first female jockey to win the championship.

Born in Castres, Tarn in southern France, Santiago became interested in horses watching her father enjoy Western films. She enrolled in the AFASEC horse racing school in Mont de Marsan at the age of 14 and spent her holidays at Jean Guillemin’s stable where she gained experience and improved her riding skills. Making her debut in 1995, she won two races that year and seven the following year when she led the female jockeys for the first time to claim the Cravache d’Or title. She defended her title with 12 wins in 1997 and became the first woman to achieve the Champion Apprentice title.

Santiago consistently increased her number of wins after earning her professional license in 2000 and retained her Cravache d’Or title up to 2002. While suffering fractures in her spine in 2003, tibia and fibula in 2005 and ankle in 2007, she reclaimed the title in 2010 and 2013 as well as in 2017 when she set a record number of annual wins by a female jockey with 59 wins and placed herself 17th on the national leaderboard.

While unable to claim the female leading title in recent years due to a serious injury in 2020 and the rise of other female jockeys such as Mickaelle Michel and Coralie Pacaut, respective WASJ participants in 2019 and 2022, as well as aforementioned Velon, she remains competitive, ranking 27th overall with 47 wins in 2018, 26th with 50 wins in 2019 and 15th with 45 wins in 2022 (between March and October). Her accomplishments include a seventh aboard Mogadishio in the G1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp in 2014 and a victory in the listed Prix du Grand Camp with Mint Julep in 2017.

Outside her home country, Santiago participated in the International Jockeys Challenge in Saudi Arabia in February last year and has ridden four winners in Germany.

Hong Kong

Karis Teetan
	Date of Birth : June 3, 1990 ’22/’23 Season Record : 586 mounts, 56 wins / HK$ 84,861,500 ’23/’24 Season Record : 722 mounts, 86 wins / HK$ 143,056,185 Recent Career Highlights : ’24 Premier Cup (G3, Mugen) ’24 Sha Tin Vase (G3, Ka Ying Rising) ’22 Queen Elizabeth II Cup (G1, Romantic Warrior) Participation in the WASJ : 2nd
Photo: The Hong Kong Jockey Club

Hong Kong-based Karis Teetan concluded a fruitful 2023/24 season registering 86 wins, his second seasonal best following his record of 93 in 2019/20. He also finished second on the premiership leaderboard while scoring two G3 events, the Sha Tin Vase with Ka Ying Rising and the Premier Cup with Mugen. The winning jockey of the 2019 International Jockeys’ Championship at Happy Valley hopes to become the fourth Hong Kong-based jockey following Douglas Whyte, Zachary Purton and Joao Moreira to win the JRA’s international jockeys’ competition in his second World All-Star Jockeys (WASJ) participation.

Born in Mauritius, Teetan began riding from a young age in his homeland and entered the South African Jockey Academy at the age of 14 where he thrived to show great potential from the beginning of his career, grabbing the South African champion apprentice title of the 2007/08 season. He continued to fare well, placing himself within the top 10 in the jockey rankings over three seasons from 2010/11 to 2012/13. In 2012, he captured three G1 titles in South Africa—the Paddock Stakes with Thunder Dance, the Cape Derby and the Daily News 2000 with Jackson—along with two more in Mauritius and Zimbabwe. Teetan also represented South Africa in the 2008 Macau Apprentice Jockeys Invitation Races and the 2012 International Jockeys’ Invitational in Korea. With nearly 500 wins in his pocket, the Mauritian decided to follow the footsteps of fellow South African-based jockeys Douglas Whyte and Felix Coetzee and transferred to Hong Kong in 2013.

Teetan registered 50 wins in his first 2013/14 season in Hong Kong, finishing fourth in the rankings and, apart from 2014/15, has never failed to make the top five so far. He has accumulated major titles such as the 2015 Hong Kong Classic Cup with Thunder Fantasy, the 2018 Hong Kong Sprint and the 2020 Chairman’s Sprint Prize with Mr Stunning, the 2021 Champions & Chater Cup with Panfield, and the 2022 Hong Kong Classic Mile, the Hong Kong Derby and the Queen Elizabeth II Cup with Romantic Warrior. He broadened his horizons in 2016 when he claimed the Korea Sprint with Super Jockey in South Korea and the EW Barker Trophy with Lim’s Cruiser in Singapore.

The “Mauritian Magician” is not an unfamiliar face in Japan with a record of 8 wins out of 84 starts riding under short-term licenses in the summers of 2016 and 2017. He also steered Hong Kong raider Blizzard to fifth in the G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen in March 2018 and was an overall third in his first WASJ appearance in 2019.

JAPAN (NAR Representative; Hyogo)

Tomohiro Yoshimura
	Date of Birth : December 26, 1984 ’24 Season Record* : 495 mounts, 129 wins *NAR only Career Record : 20,055 mounts, 3,439 wins *NAR only Recent Career Highlights : ’24 Nishinihon Classic (Shimme Daisy) ’24 Kounotori Sho (Smile Mircha) ’23 Sonoda Kimpai (Smile Mircha) Participation in the WASJ : 2nd

Three-time NAR national champion jockey Tomohiro Yoshimura celebrated his 3,400th victory in the NAR racing circuit on May 1 this year. The thirty-nine-year-old jockey secured his ticket to participate in the coming World All-Star Jockeys as the NAR representative for the second time by capturing this year’s NAR Jockey’s Championship title, marking a win and an eighth in the two-race series held at Sonoda Racecourse on May 30.

Born and raised in an environment alien to racing, the Osaka native studied at NAR’s Racing Education Center and made his debut in April of 2002 as a registered jockey of the Hyogo Prefectural Racing Association. Steadily accumulating wins, he claimed his first major title in the Tokai Queen Cup with Hatsune Dogo in 2005. In the Hyogo area jockey rankings, Yoshimura has never finished out of the top five since 2012 and has reigned as the leading jockey since 2018.

Yoshimura’s annual wins exceeded 100 in 2013, 200 in 2017, and 300 in 2019. He has since continued to ride more than 300 winners every season while renewing the record of most annual wins in the Hyogo area in 2020 with a total of 353 wins. His dramatic progress in performance also led Yoshimura to become the NAR’s national champion and named the NAR Grand Prix Best Jockey (Races Won) in 2018, 2022 and 2023.

In his 22-year career, Yoshimura has notched numerous major titles in Hyogo and other NAR tracks: the Gifu Kin Sho (2016), the Shinshun Sho (2017, 2019-2022), the Hagakure Daishoten (2019, 2021, 2022), the Hyogo Daishoten (2019) and the Himeyama Kikuka Sho (2020) partnered with A Shin Nispa; the Hyogo Derby (2019) with Ban Rose Kings; the Kanazawa Sprint Cup (2020), the Sonoda Challenge Cup (2020), the Gold Soha (2020) and the Hyogo Winter Cup (2021) with Narita Minister; and the Sonoda Junior Cup (2022), the Nojigiku Sho (2023), the Hyogo Derby (2023), the Sonoda Autumn Trophy (2023), the Sonoda Kimpai (2023) and the Kounotori Sho (2024) with Smile Mircha.

Since his first opportunity to ride in JRA races in 2005, he registered his much anticipated first JRA victory in July last year with a solid performance at Fukushima Racecourse and secured another win in the last race on the same card. He also made his first JRA G1 challenge in the Japan Cup (Kurino Megami Ace, 18th) in November that year. Yoshimura’s first World All-Star Jockeys challenge was in 2019 where he marked a fourth, two sixths and a seventh, finishing an overall seventh.

JAPAN (JRA, Miho Training Center)

Norihiro Yokoyama
	Date of Birth : February 23, 1968 ’24 Season Record : 139 mounts, 11 wins / ¥ 718,905,000 Career Record : 21,341 mounts, 2,947 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’24 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby, G1, Danon Decile) ’24 Nakayama Kinen (G2, Matenro Sky) Participation in the WASJ : 10th

Norihiro Yokoyama will take part in this year’s World All Star Jockeys series—the first in nine years since the inaugural WASJ in 2015 in which he finished an overall tenth. Now in his 39th season as a JRA jockey, Yokoyama registered his 2,944th win on May 5 to exceed Yukio Okabe, now retired, and became the runner-up in career wins on JRA’s record book. The veteran jockey also made history three weeks later in becoming the oldest G1 and derby winner at the age of 56, when claiming this year’s Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) with Danon Decile.

The son of Tomio Yokoyama, a former G1-winning jockey, and also the father of active JRA jockeys, Kazuo and Takeshi, Yokoyama kicked off his career in 1986 and marked his first win at Tokyo Racecourse with Kioi God that April. He landed his first grade-race win in 1988 in the Winter Stakes (G3) and went on to capture his first G1 victory two years later in the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup with Kyoei Tap, which was just one out of eight graded stakes he marked that season.

He steadily accumulated wins and reached a milestone 1,000th career win (JRA races alone) in 2000, 2,000th in 2009 and 2,500th in 2014. He was ranked within the top ten on JRA’s national leaderboard between 1992 and 2012 and became the leader with 120 wins in 2010. He also earned the JRA Award for Best Jockey (Winning Average) title in 2010 and 2012.

Yokoyama’s 188 graded titles in JRA include 28 G1 victories such as the 1995 Mile Championship  and the 1996 Yasuda Kinen with Trot Thunder; the 1996 Tenno Sho (Spring) and the 1996 Arima Kinen with Sakura Laurel; the 1998 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) and the 1998 Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) with Seiun Sky; the 1999 Sprinters Stakes and the 2001 Yasuda Kinen with Black Hawk; the 2009 Tenno Sho (Autumn) and the 2009 Mile Championship with Company; the 2014 Takarazuka Kinen and the 2015 Tenno Sho (Spring) with Gold Ship; the 2009 Tokyo Yushun with Logi Universe; the 2014 Tokyo Yushun with One and Only; and the 2010 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) with Saint Emilion.

Among the eight World Super Jockeys Series and the one World All-Star Jockeys he has participated in so far, he has taken home the title twice in 1995 and in 2009.

JAPAN (JRA, Ritto Training Center)

Kohei Matsuyama
	Date of Birth : March 1, 1990 ’24 Season Record : 402 mounts, 47 wins / ¥ 1,021,895,000 Career Record : 12,391 mounts, 1,172 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’24 Keio Hai Spring Cup (G2, Win Marvel) ’24 Heian Stakes (G3, Mitono O) ’24 Hankyu Hai (G3, Win Marvel) Participation in the WASJ : 2nd

Kohei Matsuyama reached a milestone of 1,100 career wins (JRA races alone) last October and stands eighth on the national leaderboard as of June 23 with 47 wins, which include the G2 Keio Hai Spring Cup and the G3 Hankyu Hai with Win Marvel and the G3 Heian Stakes with Mitono O. The winner of JRA’s Most Valuable Jockey in 2023 was selected as one of the JRA representatives to participate in the World All-Star Jockey following 2022, in which he marked a win and a second to finish third overall.

Born in Hyogo Prefecture, Matsuyama was a member of the junior equestrian team at Hanshin Racecourse before enrolling in the JRA Horse Racing School. He won his debut race on his 19th birthday on March 1, 2009 and another race the same day, becoming only the second JRA jockey-school graduate to mark two wins on his debut day, after Yuichi Fukunaga in 1996. He finished his debut year with 36 wins and was named Best Jockey (Newcomer).

Matsuyama’s annual wins more than doubled to 74 by 2012, in which he landed his first graded title in the G3 Chunichi Shimbun Hai with Smart Gear. Since then, he has ranked consistently among the top 17 jockeys with at least 56 wins every year except in 2016 (47 wins for 23rd place). He won NAR’s top sprint title, the JBC Sprint, with Corin Berry in 2015 and registered his first JRA-G1 victory with ninth pick Al Ain in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) in 2017.

Never lower than eighth on the national leaderboard since 2018, Matsuyama rose to fourth in 2020 with 127 wins, reaching triple digits for the first time. That same year he swept the fillies’ Triple Crown—the Oka Sho (Japanese 1000 Guineas), the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) and the Shuka Sho—with Daring Tact, who became the first undefeated filly to do so. He added his name to the JRA record book as the fastest and youngest jockey to achieve 10,000 career rides on September 19, 2021 and rose to third that season with a personal-best 130 wins including his fifth G1 title in the Champions Cup with T O Keynes.

Last year, Matsuyama was ranked fourth with 113 wins, including six JRA graded titles, and was the leader in combined points for wins, earnings, winning average and rides in JRA, designated NAR and overseas races, which earned him the JRA Award title of Most Valuable Jockey.

JAPAN (JRA, Ritto Training Center)

Christophe Lemaire
	Date of Birth : May 20, 1979 ’24 Season Record : 272 mounts, 85 wins / ¥ 1,787,222,200 Career Record : 8,637 mounts, 1,883 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’24 Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks, G1, Cervinia) ’24 Spring Stakes (G2, Sixpence) ’24 Epsom Cup (G3, Lebensstil) Participation in the WASJ : 9th

Christophe Lemaire reached his 1,800th JRA win on January 7 in his 8,375th career start, the fastest in JRA history, and registered his latest G1 title in the Yushun Himba (Japanese Oaks) with Cervinia. Though unable to race for a month due to a fall at Meydan in March, he is the leader in races won on JRA’s national leaderboard as of the end of the first half of the season with 85 winners. He also became the fifth jockey to reach a milestone of 150 JRA-graded wins when claiming the Epsom Cup on June 9. The 2018 WASJ champion returns for the series this year in his bid to claim his second overall title.

Since debuting as a regular JRA jockey in 2015, the French native has led all jockeys in Japan six times and has 132 grade-race titles including 46 G1 victories. He has partnered with multiple G1 winners including Major Emblem, Satono Diamond, Soul Stirring, Rey de Oro, Almond Eye, Fierement, Gran Alegria and his most recent star mount, Equinox. In 2018 he registered 215 annual wins and annual earnings of 4.66 billion yen—surpassing long-standing records previously set by legendary Yutaka Take—while renewing another record with eight annual G1 wins. His JRA Award Best Jockey titles include six for Races Won (2017-21 and 2023), three for Winning Average (2015, 2016 and 2018), seven for Money Earned (2016-21 and 2023), five for Most Valuable Jockey (2017-21) and one Grand Prize (2018).

Born in Chantilly and the son of Patrice Lemaire, a leading jump jockey in the 1980s, Lemaire began as an amateur rider in 1996 at the age of 16 and turned professional after acquiring his license in 1999. He won his first G1 title in France in the 2003 Prix Jean Prat and was soon one of 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: 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).

JAPAN (JRA, Miho Training Center)

Keita Tosaki
	Date of Birth : July 8, 1980 ’24 Season Record : 378 mounts, 65 wins / ¥ 1,730,237,000 Career Record : 10,347 mounts, 1,502 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’24 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas, G1, Justin Milano) ’24 Lord Derby Challenge Trophy (G3, Parallel Vision) Participation in the WASJ : 9th

Keita Tosaki, a three-time champion jockey since switching to JRA from NAR eleven years ago, claimed his 12th career JRA-G1 title this season with Justin Milano in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas) while missing his much-awaited Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) title by two lengths and succumbing to second for the third time in the event. With three grade-race titles among 65 wins in JRA this season, he reached a milestone of 1,500 career JRA wins on June 16 and is currently ranked top in the eastern division while third on the national leaderboard. Tosaki’s best score among eight WASJ challenges so far is an overall second in 2017, but the 44-year-old aims 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 with Koei Sophia 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 as the four-time NAR leader in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012. Given opportunities on JRA mounts, Tosaki scored his first JRA grade-race win in 2010 in the Musashino Stakes with Glorious Noah. He followed this with his first JRA-G1 victory in the 2011 Yasuda Kinen with Real Impact.

After transferring to JRA racing in 2013, Tosaki quickly placed himself among the top five jockeys nationally with 113 wins, including a G1 title with Red Reveur in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies. His success continued in 2014, when he led the national standings with 10 wins more than the runner-up and capped his remarkable second season with a victory in the year-end Arima Kinen aboard Gentildonna. He defended his champion jockey title with 130 wins in 2015 and marked his personal-best 187 wins in 2016.

Tosaki has ranked in the top seven on the national leaderboard ever since, except for 2020, when he was absent from racing for five months due to injury. His other G1 titles include the 2015 and 2016 Victoria Mile and the 2015 Sprinters Stakes with Straight Girl, his first classic victory in the 2018 Satsuki Sho with Epoca d’Oro, the 2020 Champions Cup with Chuwa Wizard, the 2021 Shuka Sho with Akaitorino Musume, the 2023 Victoria Mile and Yasuda Kinen with Songline and the aforementioned Satsuki Sho. His JRA Awards include Best Jockey for Races Won titles between 2014 and 2016 and four Most Valuable Jockey (MVJ) titles in 2014-16 and 2022.

JAPAN (JRA, Ritto Training Center)

Yuga Kawada
	Date of Birth : October 15, 1985 '24 Season Record : 266 mounts, 84 wins / ¥ 3,044,567,600 Career Record : 12,360 mounts, 2,059 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’24 NHK Mile Cup (G1, Jantar Mantar) ’24 Kinko Sho (G2, Prognosis) ’24 Haneda Hai (Amante Bianco) Participation in the WASJ : 7th

Yuga Kawada continues to produce outstanding results this season. He registered his 2,000th career win in February, added a JRA-G1 title in the NHK Mile Cup with Jantar Mantar and won NAR’s Haneda Hai, the first leg of the newly-established dirt Triple Crown, with Amante Bianco. He also scored major runner-up efforts overseas with Ushba Tesoro in the Saudi Cup and the Dubai World Cup this spring. The 38-year-old will aim for his second champion title in the coming World All-Star Jockeys following 2019.

Born into a racing family—his father is a jockey-turned-trainer and his grandfather was a trainer at Saga Racecourse (NAR)—Kawada learned to ride at an early age and made his debut in March 2004. He registered his first win two weeks later at Hanshin Racecourse and concluded his first year with 16 wins. He racked up wins over the next few years and landed his first graded title in the 2006 Kokura Daishoten (G3).

His big break came in 2008, when he won his first G1 and classic title with Captain Thule in the Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2000 Guineas), among a total of 73 wins, including six grade-race victories. Kawada rose to ninth on the leaderboard with 83 wins in 2010 and he reached triple figures for the first time, placing third with 109 victories in 2011. Thereafter, he consistently ranked in the top seven, reaching second four times—2013, 2019, 2020 and 2021—before claiming the top spot with 143 wins while becoming the fourth Grand Prize winner by sweeping the JRA Award Best Jockey titles for Races Won, Winning Average and Money Earned in 2022. He continued to enjoy success in his 2023 season, sweeping the fillies’ Triple Crown with Liberty Island and ranking second with 151 wins.

Kawada’s other classic titles include the Kikuka Sho (Japanese St. Leger) with Big Week in 2010, the Yushun Himba with Gentildonna in 2012, the Oka Sho with Harp Star in 2014 and Stars on Earth in 2022 and the Tokyo Yushun with Makahiki in 2016, making him only the eighth jockey in history to claim all five classic races for three-year-old colts and fillies. Also among his 27 JRA-G1 career titles are three Yasuda Kinen and Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes and two Takamatsunomiya Kinen, NHK Mile Cup and Sprinters Stakes victories. Kawada won three G1 races overseas; twice with Loves Only You in Hong Kong and the U.S., the latter making him the first Japanese jockey to win a Breeders’ Cup title (Filly & Mare Turf) in 2021; and with Ushba Tesoro in the Dubai World Cup last year.

JAPAN (JRA, Ritto Training Center)

Yutaka Take
	Date of Birth : March 15, 1969 '24 Season Record : 269 mounts, 46 wins / ¥ 1,150,320,400 Career Record : 24,612 mounts, 4,509 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’24 Aoba Sho (G2, Sugar Kun) ’24 Tulip Sho (G2, Sweep Feet) ’24 Empress Hai (Listed, Awesome Result) Participation in the WASJ : 28th

Yutaka Take continues to produce impressive results as Japan’s longstanding top jockey. The legendary jockey reached a milestone of 4,500 career wins in JRA alone on May 12 and has not missed a year without a grade-race victory in 38 years since his debut. As of June 23, he is ranked ninth on the national leaderboard with 43 wins in JRA which include three graded titles. He has also finished third with 13th favorite Sekifu in the February Stakes and a second with fourth choice Namur in the Yasuda Kinen. His latest G1 victory was in the 2023 Arima Kinen with Do Deuce. He will aim for his third champion title following 1992 and 2022 in the coming World All-Star Jockeys.

The third son of 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. An 18-time champion jockey in 1989, 1990, 1992-2000 and 2002-2008, 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 classics 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 360 grade-race wins in JRA alone, among which 81 are at G1 level. Horses he guided to victories and subsequently won 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, nine Grand Prizes given to those that have dominated all three jockey categories in the same season and two Special Awards.

JAPAN (JRA, Ritto Training Center)

Ryusei Sakai
	Date of Birth : May 31, 1997 '24 Season Record : 382 mounts, 63 wins / ¥ 1,841,221,000 Career Record : 4,729 mounts, 459 wins Recent Career Highlights : ’24 Takamatsunomiya Kinen (G1, Mad Cool) ’24 Sakitama Hai (Listed, Lemon Pop) ’24 UAE Derby (G2, Forever Young) Participation in the WASJ : 2nd

Ryusei Sakai notched his fifth G1 title riding Mad Cool to victory in the Takamatsunomiya Kinen earlier this year and is fourth on the national leaderboard with 58 wins (JRA races alone) as of the end of the first half of the season. In addition to significant JRA wins, he also claimed major titles such as NAR’s Sakitama Hai partnered with Lemon Pop, as well as the Saudi Derby (G3) and the UAE Derby (G2) with Forever Young who went on to register a respectable third in the Kentucky Derby. The 27-year-old jockey will take part in the World All-Star Jockeys for the second time in hopes to perform better than last year in which he was an overall ninth.

Born in Tokyo as the son of a jockey-turned-trainer at NAR’s Oi Racecourse, Sakai graduated from the JRA Horse Racing School in 2016 and made his racing debut in March, riding for trainer Yoshito Yahagi who is well known for an array of overseas triumphs. The rookie made his grade-race debut in August in the Sapporo Kinen (16th) and concluded his first season with a total of 25 wins. In November 2017, Sakai set out to gain experience in Australia for a year and rode 16 winners during which he made his first G1 attempt in the 2018 Caulfield Cup (14th).

Back in Japan, Sakai claimed his first grade-race title in the 2019 Fillies’ Revue (G2, No One), the first of three graded victories he marked that season, and pocketed a total of 30 wins. He steadily improved his score to 42 in 2020 and 53 in 2021. He also grabbed two major NAR titles in 2020, one of which was the Japan Dirt Derby teamed with Danon Pharaoh. His much awaited first JRA G1 victory was in the 2022 Shuka Sho with Stunning Rose which was followed by the Asahi Hai Futurity Stakes triumph with Dolce More later that year. He capped off the season with 98 wins and ranked eighth on the national jockey leaderboard. He continued to improve, reaching a milestone of 400 JRA-career wins in December 2023 and was seventh marking three-digit 107 wins for the first time, which included two G1 wins, the February Stakes and the Champions Cup with Lemon Pop.

Under the expertise and guidance of Yahagi, the young jockey has shown impressive results overseas in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Great Britain, Australia and the United States, including victories in the Godolphin Mile in 2022 and the 1351 Turf Sprint in 2023 with Bathrat Leon as well as the aforementioned wins earlier this season. He also put in third-place efforts in the 2021 and the 2022 Prix de la Foret with Entscheiden.

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