ETOBICOKE, Ontario – At the halfway point of 109-day Woodbine meet, Justin Stein is battling for leading rider honors with Rafael Hernandez, who many regarded as the heir apparent to the now-retired perennial leader Eurico Da Silva. Through Sunday, they were tied with 74 wins apiece. Stein’s success is something that even he was surprised by, because it was only last year when he came out of a three-year retirement and moved back to Toronto from his native British Columbia. “It’s unbelievable, very surreal,” Stein said. “The people who believed in me here helped me believe in myself. I’ve been riding a nice string of horses. They’re all live. I’m able to get them into position, and they carry me the rest of the way. I’m so stoked, just having fun. I’m riding each race to win. I don’t think about the next race until it’s time to ride that race.” Stein said he and his agent, Neil Wilson, have gotten to the point where they can pick and choose their mounts. :: 2020 Queen's Plate: Get odds, comments, analysis, and news for the 161st running of the Queen's Plate at Woodbine on Saturday, Sept. 12 “He doesn’t commit until he knows it’s time to,” Stein explained. “That’s the beauty of doing as well as I have. He gets phone calls all day, from the top guys with the top horses. It feels like when I was an apprentice in Vancouver getting all the business. I’m really pumped. I’m so happy I made the decision to move back. I’ll never leave. This is where it’s at.” Stein, 40, gave credit to his fiancée, Jenn Tompkins, who recently gave birth to their son Benjamin. “She’s helped me a lot,” Stein said. “She knows so much about the game. Her parents were both jockeys. She’s been around it longer than I have. She sees stuff and has input, and we can discuss it.” The highlight of Stein’s first Woodbine stint was a Queen’s Plate victory on Strait of Dover in 2012. He’s booked to ride the Sid Attard-trained Dotted Line in Saturday’s $1 million Queen’s Plate and said he loves his chances on the Plate Trial third-place finisher. “I think Sid’s done as amazing job with him,” Stein said. “He’s taken his time with the horse, and I think he’s peaking. Each time I get on him, he’s improved just a little bit more. I have a lot of confidence in him.” Stein said leading the Woodbine jockey standings at year’s end is definitely on his bucket list. “I’ll be honest, I want it bad,” Stein stressed. “I can taste it, but I don’t let that goal get in the way of doing my job race by race. It’s like an endurance race.”