Yutaka Take
Yutaka Take was born on the 15th of March 1969 in Kyoto, Japan but now resides in Ritto, Shiga. Take is a Japanese jockey and has won numerous championships back home, winning the Japan Cup in 1999 on Special Week. His riding career started when he was eighteen years old at the Hanshin Race Course where he won his first race on Dyna Biship. In the United Kingdom he has successfully won the July Cup with Agnes World in 2000 and a year later the Falmouth Stakes with Proudwings.
Yutaka Take is the son of Kunihiko Take, commonly referred to as “a master” or “the Magician on Turf” who was a jockey but is now a trainer. Koshiro Take, his youngest brother also competes as a jockey. In 1987 Take was one of the first rookies to ride sixty-nine winners in only one season and the following year he became the youngest jockey to win 100 times as well as winning the GI race at Kikkasho. In 1995 he became the first Japanese jockey to compete in the Kentucky Derby on Ski Captain, finishing 14th.
Then in 2005 he rode Deep Impact, the second undefeated horse to win the Japanese Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing. Since then he has recently moved to Southern California circuit from Japan and is currently competing at Hollywood Park with the goal of riding in the U.S for a year or two. In addition to Japan and the U.S., Yataka Take has also ridden in countries like Dubai, Australia, France, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Germany and England.
Since 1989 all the way to 1999, Yutaka Take has been the leading rider in Japan more then ten times. He also became the youngest Japanese jockey to win 1,000 times in two years, as well as receiving the Grand Prize Jockey Award given to Japanese riders who represent their country in three categories, by the number of earnings, winning percentage and wins. He again broke another record when he became the first Japanese jockey to win an overseas graded stakes, more specifically the grade III Seneca Stakes on El Senor at Saratoga in 1991.