Off four-win day, Kimura takes aim at Aqueduct stakes
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ARCADIA, Calif. – Winning four, or even five races, in a single day, was an occasional occurrence for jockey Kazushi Kimura at Woodbine from his rookie year in 2018 to 2024. He had five four-win days in 2023 alone.
Last Saturday, Kimura achieved the four-win milestone in the United States for the first time at Santa Anita.
“Sometimes, we have a good time,” Kimura said of the results. “I’m so grateful to have the wins.”
Saturday afternoon was not without some measure of disappointment, however. Kimura had ridden the 3-year-old Stark Contrast in all six of his starts from last August to March, including three stakes wins. On Saturday, Kimura was replaced by Flavien Prat, who rode Stark Contrast to an impressive win in the Grade 1 American Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs.
“The business is always up and down,” Kimura said.
Kimura has won four races in a day 12 times, and had two five-win days at Woodbine in October 2018 and October 2023.
The four-win achievement last Saturday lifted Kimura into third-place in the jockey standings at the current Santa Anita spring meeting, with nine wins. The season began on April 17 and runs through June 14. At the Santa Anita winter-spring meeting that ended on April 5, Kimura finished third with 38 wins, 12 fewer than leader Emisael Jaramillo.
Through Sunday, the most recent day of racing, Armando Ayuso led all riders at the spring meeting with 13 wins, closely followed by Antonio Fresu with 10 wins.
The rankings may change by the end of the weekend. Ayuso begins a three-day suspension on Friday for an incident in the ninth race on April 19 when his mount, Robin Olds, was disqualified from second to fourth for causing interference.
Ayuso’s lone mount this weekend is Surfin U.S.A. in the Grade 3 Senorita Stakes for 3-year-old fillies on Saturday. The Senorita Stakes is a designated race, exempt from routine suspensions.
Fresu is booked to ride 18 of the 26 races at Santa Anita from Friday through Sunday. Kimura has four mounts at Santa Anita on Friday and five on Sunday, but is riding at Aqueduct on Saturday.
Among his three mounts at Aqueduct, Kimura rides Dry Powder in the Grade 2 Ruffian Stakes for fillies and mares, and Trendsetter in the Grade 3 Peter Pan Stakes for 3-year-olds. Both races are worth $200,000.
Kimura rides Dry Powder for the firs time in the Ruffian Stakes at a mile.
Kimura has ridden Trendsetter in his last two starts – a third-place finish in the $245,000 Rushaway Stakes on the synthetic track at Turfway Park on March 21, and a win by 2 1/4 lengths at 32-1 in the Grade 3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland on April 11. Both races were run at 1 1/16 miles. The Peter Pan Stakes is run at 1 1/8 miles.
“Last race, everything went smoothly,” Kimura said. “Keeneland is his home ground. We had confidence he could handle the distance.”
Trendsetter, trained by Ben Colebrook for Davant Latham, is part of a field of six in the Peter Pan Stakes. Trendsetter was offered at the Keeneland horses of racing age sale on April 24, but was listed as not sold for $725,000.
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