Kimura picks up mount on Japan shipper Mandarin Hero in Santa Anita Derby

Kazushi Kimura, the leading rider at Woodbine the last two years who has spent recent months at Santa Anita, has been booked to ride the Japanese import Mandarin Hero in the Grade 1 Runhappy Santa Anita Derby on April 8.

Kimura’s California agent, Brandon O’Bryan, confirmed the booking earlier this week.

Mandarin Hero arrived in Southern California on Wednesday and was housed at a quarantine facility near Los Angeles international airport on Thursday. The colt is scheduled to be transferred to Santa Anita on Friday.

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Kimura is tentatively scheduled to exercise Mandarin Hero at Santa Anita on Tuesday, according to O’Bryan and track officials.

Mandarin Hero, by Shanghai Bobby, has won 4 of 5 starts, all in dirt races in Japan, and is the lone shipper for the $750,000 Santa Anita Derby, which is run at 1 1/8 miles.

Mandarin Hero won his first four starts, including a stakes at about a mile at Ohi Racecourse in his final start of 2022 in November. Mandarin Hero was second by a neck in a stakes at about 1 1/8 miles at Ohi on Feb. 23 in his lone race this year.

Through Thursday, Kimura has won 10 races from 99 mounts at the winter-spring meeting at Santa Anita, including three stakes. His most notable win was an upset victory aboard Gold Phoenix in the Grade 1 Frank Kilroe Mile on March 4.

Kimura, 23, is scheduled to ride at Santa Anita through April 9 before returning to Woodbine in preparation for that track’s opening day on April 22.

The Santa Anita Derby has a projected field of six, including the first three finishers of the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes, Practical Move, Geaux Rocket Ride and Skinner; the maiden race winner I Don’t Get It; and the maiden Dazzlemesilver.

National Treasure might join the field, according to Tom Ryan, the racing manager for co-owner SF Racing. National Treasure was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Keeneland last November and has not started since a third by a length in the Grade 3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita on Jan. 8.

National Treasure, who is also under consideration for the Grade 1 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on April 8, was withdrawn from the San Felipe because of a tender foot.

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Curatolo to recover at home in France

Jockey Ryan Curatolo continues to recover from a fractured collarbone sustained in a spill at Santa Anita on Feb. 20, and is traveling to his home country of France to visit family.

His agent, Mike Ciani, said he doesn’t know if Curatolo will return to the U.S.

Curatolo was unseated when Big Talker collapsed and died in early stretch of an allowance race. The California Horse Racing Board listed the cause as sudden death.

Curatolo, 30, won 55 races in 2022, but has only one win this year. A finalist for the Eclipse Award as the nation’s outstanding apprentice of 2011, Curatolo has ridden in the Middle East and Asia in the last decade. He began riding in Southern California in the fall of 2021.

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