The Basque jockey has struck again!
And it is now four Group I victories that Ioritz Mendizabal has in 2021 after winning the Critérium de Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine) with
El Bodegon
for a new Cross-Channel coach, the Englishman James Ferguson. At 47, the winner of the Prix de Diane and the Jockey Club is the French jockey to have won the highest level in France this year. " It's incredible ! In being successful, there is a little luck but also a lot of work. His relentlessness and his passion for his profession since his years have been rewarded today ”, confides Pierre-Alain Chereau, his agent for five years, who finds him these foreign mounts which rhyme with success. “I work in collaboration with Shippy Ellis, he explains. Ioritz speaks good English and has a very good relationship with foreign coaches. He is also serene and has confidence in his horses, while studying the races well beforehand. In any case, I can only be happy… ”
"The four Golden Whips he obtained are not nothing"
The notoriety of Ioritz Mendizabal has in any case crossed borders, as some turfists think, like Robert, 58 years old. "He deserves a statue across the Channel given the results he has with British horses," he says. The four Golden Rides (2004, 2008, 2009 and 2010) that he obtained are not nothing… He is a great jockey, knowing that it was harder for him to make a name for himself by riding a lot. province. Charles, another 71-year-old gambler, is also full of praise about the Basque: "He is underexploited in France. It's a shame because he's very talented. "For others, like Sébastien, 49, the arrival of the Covid was a godsend for Mendizabal:" He is under a lucky star.The fact that British jockeys were unable to travel to France at the start of the Coronavirus allowed him to make himself known to foreigners and to relaunch his career. "