Yutaka Take has achieved a graded stakes win for the 36th consecutive year on the Japan Racing Association circuit. On Jan. 15 the 52-year-old guided longshot Ruby Casablanca to victory in the Aichi Hai (G3) at Chukyo Racecourse. The 5-year-old King Kamehameha mare started with odds at 117-10 as the seventh choice in a field of 16 runners.
Born March 15, 1969 as the son of former jockey and trainer Kunihiko Take, Yukata Take began race riding in 1987 and has won a graded stakes every year since. He has secured the title of JRA's leading jockey 18 times in his career.
The Aichi Hai marked Take's 4,321st win on the JRA circuit, which includes 347 graded stakes. He holds the lead as the JRA's winningest rider over Yukio Okabe with 2,943 wins. Take has also won 170 races on the National Association of Racing circuit in Japan.
Take made his first trip to the United States in 1989 and has won 21 races on U.S. soil, including the 1991 Seneca Handicap (G3T) at Saratoga Race Course with El Senor. Take was based in France in 2001-02 and won eight European group races during that time, including the 2001 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp Majestic Barriere (G1) with Imperial Beauty.
The JRA has 25 grade 1 stakes and Take has won 24 of them, missing only the Hopeful (G1) at Nakayama.
