World Champion 2018!
It is the world championships for female jockeys, the H.H. Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship to be precise. The qualification races take place all around the globe and are sponsored in their entirety by Abu Dhabi. Every year, the grand finale takes place in Abu Dhabi during the Sheikh Mansoor Festival in November. I already qualified for the final race with a win at St. Moritz, Switzerland early in the year.
For years, I have held the dream to win this championship once as, for lady riders, it is the one and only racing series to become world champion.
Of course, one needs a bit of luck in the draw, because all mounts are alloted. However, it is like with all things in racing - the race has to be ridden in the first place. I don't feel like writing too much about the race, except that I was sitting on a really good horse. For the moment, I am just super happy to have won. My gratitude goes to all who have helped on the way ... Asyyad and trainer Eric Lemartinel, Lara Sawaya and her entire team, all those who have cheered for me from home and on Facebook, etc.!
I almost forgot: Esther is world champion of the apprentices. Congratulations, Esther! You were the first to come on the track to congratulate me, and now we'll have a great trip home together ;-).
Two new world champions for Germany
Great success for Germany on Friday in Abu Dhabi/United Arab Emirates: after Lilli-Marie Engels has already secured her Fegentri champion title in 2018, Germany has two new World Champions in Esther Ruth Weißmeier and Rebecca Danz. Esther Ruth Weißmeier won the Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Apprentice Jockey World Championship with Jean de Roualles HARRAB at the Sheikh Mansoor Festival. Rebecca Danz triumphed in the saddle of Eric Lemartinels ASYYAD in the Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship. “It was the first time a team won both races, and the first time I had a jockey and an apprentice in the competition for Germany. The fact that they both won the title is outstanding,” reported Kai Schirmann, director of the Jockey School in Cologne, who works for the festival and always accompanies the riders. German Racing congratulates the two German lady riders on these great triumphs!
GERMAN DOUBLE IN THE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Winning their respective 86th races for Rebecca Danz and Esther Weissmeier not only earned them world titles but also helped them make it a German double on the big night.
In the HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship final race, Germany’s Danz on Asyyad led a top four sweep for trainer Eric Lemartinel in the colours of his main patron, UAE President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Asyyad under Danz won from Lemartinel’s daughter Marie on Bainoona with Mahfouz under Ireland’s Evanna McCutcheon and Jaahiz under UK’s Antonia Peck make it 1-2-3-4 for the French trainer. “Obviously we were very hopeful and the conditions of the race suited Asyyad so we though he was our best choice,” said trainer Lemartinel. “To have the first four is probably more than we could have hoped, but the jockeys have done well.”
“I am delighted with Asyyad winning under a very good ride and also, very proud of Marie who rode the second excellently.”
Danz added: “This is just brilliant and I am over the moon. To win here in Abu Dhabi, wearing these silks and representing my country is very special. I have to thank the horse’s connections and of course the HH Sheikh Mansoor Festival for this wonderful series of races.”
World Championships go to Germany
The German riders Rebecca Danz and Esther Weissmeier were both victorious in supporting races on the six-race card. Danz, 29, aboard Asyyad. triumphed for trainer Eric Lemartinel in the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Ladies Championship. Weissmeier, 21, was victorious on Jean de Roualle’s Harrab in the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Apprentice Jockey Championship half-an-hour earlier.
“It was an amazing race to win,” said Danz who took up the running on the home stretch to win from Bainoona by three and-a-half lengths. “I have been riding in Germany for 10 years and this is my fifth year riding in the Sheikh Mansoor bin Zayed Festival for Purebred Arabians. I have no words to describe winning this prize. The feeling of winning a big race is incredible.”
For Weissmeier, winning a race outside her native Germany, was her biggest achievement. “The trainer instructed me to be behind the lead horses, which I did, and when we turned the final corner I got space to go from the inside. He was flying from there,” she said.
Like Danz, Weismeier also rides professionally in Germany, but the Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Festival for Purebred Arabians permits jockeys who are under 25 to take part.
The 1600m HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Apprentice Jockey Championship (Prestige PA) was won easily by Harrab, saddled by Jean de Roualle for Yas Horse Racing Management and given a perfect rode by Esther Weissmeier, representing Germany and partnering her 86th career winner.
Content to stalk the leaders, in a nice position on the rail, the pair were in the perfect position to pounce when leader AF Noqoush drifted off the fence turning into the straight. Once in front, they were never going to be caught with the colt actually losing his maiden tag in the process on his tenth start and third in the UAE.
“Obviously it is a great feeling to come here and win and I was able to do exactly what the trainer told me,” Weissmeier said. “He told me to follow the leaders and, from our low draw, try and stay on the inside. He instilled me with a lot of confidence and I was obviously very lucky when my name came out of the hat on Tuesday to ride this horse.”
De Roualle added: “We knew we had a good chance, but in these races, you rely a lot on a good jockey and she has given the horse a great ride, following instructions perfectly.”
Then it was the turn of the women with ten contesting the HH Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship (Prestige PA), also over 1600m and in which Eric Lemartinel saddled six for his main patron, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
He promptly supplied the first four with Asyyad leading home the quartet under Rebecca Danz completing a notable double for Germany and, coincidentally like Weissmeier earlier, achieving an 86th career success.
It was apparent leaving the home turn that the Lemartinel battalion were going to dominate with eventual fourth, Jaahiz leading the way, but soon passed by Bainoona, the mount of Lemartinel’s daughter, Marie.
Briefly it appeared a memorable family triumph was in the offing, but then Danz and Asyyad loomed large and threw down a telling challenge in the final 200m. He actually crossed the line just behind stable companion Ras Esina, but, sadly, the latter had parted company with her unfortunate jockey, Nadia Ibrahim, after about 100m.
For the record, Lemartinel’s sixth runner RB Inferno was sixth, denied fifth by just a neck.
“Obviously we were very hopeful and the conditions of the race suited Asyyad so we though he was our best choice,” said trainer Lemartinel. “To have the first four is probably more than we could have hoped, but the jockeys have done well.”
“I am delighted with Asyyad winning under a very good ride and also, very proud of Marie who rode the second excellently.”
Danz added: “This is just brilliant and I am over the moon. To win here in Abu Dhabi, wearing these silks and representing my country is very special. I have to thank the horse’s connections and of course the organisers of this wonderful series of races.”
(09/11/2018)