The sun certainly isn’t setting this year on the star jockey from the Land of the Rising Sun.
Last year, Kazushi Kimura became the first rider from Japan to win the Woodbine jockey title. He recorded 138 victories, a resounding 54 more than second-place finisher Rafael Hernandez.
This season, the native of the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido has not missed a beat and is proving that his success in 2021 was no fluke. After Saturday’s races at the Etobicoke track, Kimura has recorded 39 victories this season, 13 more than Justin Stein, who is in second place with 26 wins.
Kimura, who won the final race in Saturday’s program on the Jamie Attard-trained Patio Party, also has won the most stakes so far this year with four. That’s one more than Rafael Hernandez, who captured Saturday’s feature race, the Stella Artois Fury Stakes, aboard Moira.
Kimura moved to Canada in 2017 as a teenager with no job, no prospects and very little knowledge of the English language. Two years later, he captured both the Eclipse Award as the top apprentice jockey in North America and the Sovereign Award as Canada’s top apprentice rider. Hernandez finished as the top jockey at the Rexdale track in 2020 after perennial leader Eurico Da Silva retired following the 2019 season, and then Kimura won in 2021.
The personable Kimura has won most of the top stakes races at Woodbine, but has yet to win the Queen’s Plate, though his countryman Daisuke Fukumoto won Canada’s most prestigious race in 2020 with the one-eyed wonder Mighty Heart.
Kimura also has seven wins, 10 seconds and four third-place finishes in 40 starts at Presque Isle Downs (fifth place overall) near Erie, Pa., this season where he races on the dark days at Woodbine.
Meanwhile, Mark Casse, the winner of the Sovereign Award as Canada’s leasing trainer the last 11 years in a row (and 14 times overall), is pulling away in the trainer standings at Woodbine in 2022 with 34 wins, 17 more than Kevin Attard, who is in second place. Casse is on pace to set a Woodbine season record. He has also won three stakes races this season. Casse, who runs horses throughout North America, won 110 races at Woodbine last year, 54 more than second-place finisher Attard.
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MOIRA HOLDS OFF FURIOUS CHARGE IN THE FURY
It was an intoxicating victory for Moira in the $125,000 Stella Artois Fury Stakes on Saturday afternoon at Woodbine, as the Kevin Attard-trained filly held off the hard-charging Pioneer’s Edge to win the seven-furlong sprint by a head. The Fury Stakes, for three-year-old fillies foaled in Canada, is a key prep on the road to this year’s $500,000 Woodbine Oaks on July 24, at Woodbine.
“She was getting tired at the end, as I kind of expected her to,” said Attard of Moira, who made her season debut in the Fury crossing the line in 1:22.81. “I was a little nervous her going (seven furlongs). But this is just a stepping stone, it’s not the ultimate goal.
“This race is going to do wonders for her,” added Attard. “She’s a very special horse. She showed talent from the get-go and I think the sky’s the limit.”
Moira, with Hernandez in the saddle, mounted a four-wide rally from near the rear of the seven-horse field to assume command in the stretch, holding off Pioneer’s Edge, who rallied in the final furlong to finish second. Hernandez recorded three wins on Saturday.
“Today was an important step to get her ready for the Oaks,” Attard said. “That’s the ultimate goal right now. We needed to get her to the races. We were a little behind the 8-ball (this season). A lot of these fillies have already run, and we were making our first start. It was important getting a race into her, and winning makes it extra special. I’m ecstatic the way she ran. I think she’s going to move up of this race dramatically. I’m looking forward to the Oaks.”
Moira returned $6.50 and earned $75,000 for the partnership of X-Men Racing, Madaket Stables and SF Racing.
In one of the intriguing twists of horse racing, Justin Stein rode Moira in her two races last year as a two-year-old — a win in the Princess Elizabeth Stakes and a second in the Grade 3 Mazarine Stakes. In Saturday’s Fury Stakes, Stein was on the Josie Carroll-trained Pioneer’s Edge, who nearly caught Moira at the finish line despite a bit of a rough trip. No reason why Hernandez was given the ride on Moira over Stein on Saturday, whether it was a jockey decision or an ownership decision. Everyone was tight-lipped. One thing for certain though, Pioneer’s Edge, who has a win and second in two career starts, looks like a filly with a bright future.
AROUND THE TRACK
The Woodbine horse racing community is getting together on Monday, June 20 to host the ‘Backstretch Baseball Tournament’ at Paul Coffey Park in Malton to raise money for injured jock Sheena Ryan, who suffered serious injuries in a training accident in the backstretch last month and had to undergo surgery at Sunnybrook Hospital … Told It All, a 30-1 long shot in the fifth race on Saturday — a $108,700 optional claiming race for three-year-olds and up — had a great charge under jockey Daisuke Fukumoto in the stretch to beat favorite Swot Analysis by a head. Told It All, a five-year-old gelding with four previous wins in 17 starts, is trained by Suzanne Drake. Told It All paid $62.90 for the win.
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