Star female jockey Nanako Fujita retires following suspension

Jockey Nanako Fujita, a 27-year-old woman who is a rising star in the horse racing world, retired from the sport after being suspended for using a smartphone for outside communication on the day before a race, the Japan Racing Association (JRA) said Friday.
Under JRA rules, jockeys are required to stay in a designated room on the day before a race and are banned from communicating with others outside the racecourse as a measure against match fixing and to ensure fairness.
But the JRA said Thursday that Fujita, who belongs to a stable run by Yasuhiro Nemoto, used a smartphone inside the room on multiple occasions through April 2023, which the association described as “severe delinquency” and suspended her until a JRA panel decides her punishment.
“I’m sorry for causing trouble over this,” Nemoto said, according to Sports Nippon. “I lent her my fountain pen, and she wrote (the letter) while she cried her eyes out.”
Nemoto said Fujita had already reported her smartphone usage to the JRA and had received verbal warnings when similar cases surfaced last year, according to the report. She was given a fresh reprimand because of recent media coverage of the case, he said.
Fujita made her debut in 2016 and was the JRA’s first female jockey in 16 years and the seventh in the organization’s history. In 2019, she became the first female jockey to win a major JRA race. She has won a total of 166 races in her career.
Similar incidents have happened before. In May 2023, Seina Imamura, a female jockey, and five other jockeys were suspended for 30 days for using smartphones in the designated rooms. Two others were suspended earlier this month for similar reasons.
Fujita first thought of becoming a jockey when she watched a horse race live on TV when she was a fifth grader. She went on to study at the JRA’s Horse Racing School. Fujita married a JRA official in July.
Racehorse betting is a large part of public gambling in Japan.