Eclipse and Sovereign Award winner Kazushi Kimura earned his second consecutive Woodbine jockey crown at the recently concluded Woodbine Thoroughbred meet with 152 wins. Overall his mounts earned $8.9 million (CDN).
Born in Hokkaido, Japan, Kimura joined the Woodbine jockey colony as a 19-year-old apprentice in 2018. He finished his first Woodbine campaign sixth in the standings with 89 wins and his mounts totaled more than $2.3 million in earnings which earned him an Eclipse Award as North America's outstanding apprentice jockey. He also took home the Sovereign Award as top apprentice in both 2018 and 2019, and was Canada's outstanding journeyman rider in 2021.
This year, Kimura won 15 stakes–six graded–at the Toronto oval, including the GI E.P. Taylor with Rougir (Fr) (Territories {Ire}) and the GII King Edward aboard Filo Di Arianna (Brz) (Karakontie {Jpn}).
Rafael Hernandez, who finished second with 122 wins, led the way with 17 stakes victories, including the Queen's Plate (to be known starting in 2023 for the first time in more than 70 years as the King's Plate) with the Kevin Attard-trained Moira (Ghostzapper).
Mark Casse topped the trainer leaderboard for the 14th time, saddling 119 winners and banking $9.9 million (CDN) in purse earnings. Casse-trained runners recorded 22 Woodbine stakes victories–13 of them graded.
Al and Bill Ulwelling were the leading money-winning owner of the meet for the first time with $1.6 million (CDN) in purses. Bruno Schickedanz led all owners with 45 wins.
Epilogue and Who's the Star led all horses with five wins each at the meet.
Live Thoroughbred racing will return to Woodbine next spring. Visit woodbine.com throughout the winter for news, notes, features, and other coverage of Woodbine-based horse people.
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