Abu Dhabi: The news of female jockey Michelle Payne’s success in the Melbourne Cup has spread like wildfire across the racing fraternity. A winner of Australian leg of the HH Shaikha Fatima Bin Mubarak Ladies Championship (IFAHR) two years back, Payne has now gone on to win the biggest race Down Under and has given a lot of hope for female jockeys like her who are aiming to make it big competing with their male counterparts.
The Australian’s accomplishment was also a huge shot in the arm of Shaikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship and American Kelsi Purcell, who will be the only female jockey to ride on Sunday in the world’s richest race for the Pure Arabians, is also be looking for inspiration from the former’s success.
“It’s really awesome that she won. It not just an inspiration for me but for women jockeys in general,” said Purcell, who will be starting from gate 10 on four-year-old colt Paddy’s Day in the €1.2 million (Dh4.85 million) Shaikh Zayed Bin Al Nahyan Jewel Crown featured race on the night.
“In United States, there are 1200 riders and out of that there may be only a 100 women. So this success of Payne is a huge boost and it encourages ladies like me to work harder and gives us a feeling that we can do the same like the men,” said the 33-year-old.
Purcell has ridden Paddy’s Day 12 times in 14 career starts and is clearly aware of his strengths. However, this is for the first time that the horse has travelled out of America and has never raced on turf. Despite this being unfamiliar territory, Purcell was confident of Paddy’s Day would run a big race. The horse will be one of the leading contenders from the American quartet – RB Rich, RB Frynch Broad and So Big IS Better– having won 12 times and finishing second and fourth in the other two starts.
“He is still the baby of the race. He has always campaigned very hard and owner Scott Powell has done a great job in managing him. We have travelled a lot of places – California, Texas, Denver, New Mexico and back. It is the first time for me in Abu Dhabi and hopefully we pull it off here.”
So Big Is Better beat Paddy’s Day by a neck in their last meeting in September but prior to that Paddy’s Day has beaten Mark Powell trained 11-year-old grey son of Burning Sand four times.
Jockey Travis Wales who will be onboard So Big Is Better was upbeat about his chances saying, “I have lot of respect for other horses and it’s going to be a great challenge. I just hope that I manage to represent US as well as possible,” said Wales, who will be starting from gate three.
The home challenge will be led by Manark, the Kahalyla Classic winner trained by Erwan Charpy and ridden by Dane O’Neill in the popular silks of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Minister of Finance.
There is also challenge from across the border from Qatar’s Kalino trained by Alban de Mieulle and ridden by crack French jockey Olivier Peslier for owner Shaikh Abdullah Bin Khalifa Al Thani.
