Eurico Da Silva from Canada skillfully guided fourth-pick Le Grand Frisson to a close but awesome nose victory in the fourth leg to claim the champion title with 47 points. Finishing Day One in seventh by accumulating 16 points from a tenth and a third in the first two legs, he was tied ninth with Mirco Demuro, still 27 points behind Keita Tosaki and Yuichi Fukunaga after finishing 11th in the third leg. Da Silva’s first JRA win in the fourth leg brought him on top with a margin of only two points between Keita Tosaki and Yuichi Fukunaga—tied second—who added one point each by finishing 11th and 13th, respectively, in the last leg. 2015 Champion Joao Moreira, though advancing from 10th at the end of Day One to third after the third leg, retreated to fourth, while defending champion Mirco Demuro was 13th overall.
“I’m out of words—I’m so happy. It took a lot of work to be here. I’m 42 and this came late in my career so I’m just happy to be here with the talented jockeys. It’s a dream come true. I’m also grateful to the Japanese people and the JRA for how they have treated me but most of all, I’m grateful to the fans. They have so much passion and are so excited about the races. My next goal is to go back to Canada and claim the jockey championship for the fifth time”, commented Eurico Da Silva on his overall victory of the series.
Meanwhile, Team JRA, who was ahead by 48 points after Day One, was able to fend off the strong charge by Team WAS to claim the team title for three consecutive years with a margin of 28 points.