YUTAKA TAKES TO EUROPE Top Japanese jockey Yutaka Take is set to ride in Europe this year. The 34-year-old, who partnered 10 winners during a stint in California in 2000, will be based in France and is due to move to Chantilly in March. Patrick Barbe, a bloodstock agent who represents Japan`s Yoshida family in Europe, told the Thoroughbred Times: 'Yutaka always wanted to try his luck in Europe some day. He felt that France was the best place to do this. 'He will remain freelance. 'This is a great opportunity for French racing. Yutaka Take is a huge media star in Japan and every move he makes is widely covered by the national Press over there.' Take has ridden more than 1,400 winners during his career and became the first Japanese jockey to win a Pattern race in Europe when he won the Prix Moulin at Longchamp on Teruya Yoshida`s Ski Paradise in 1994. But he is probably best known in Britain for his ill-starred partnership with White Muzzle. Take was slated by trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam after finishing an unlucky-in-running sixth in the 1994 Prix de l`Arc de Triomphe on the four-year-old and also attracted a mountain of criticism in the British Press.
