Caitlin Jones is hard at work preparing herself both mentally and physically for her upcoming defence of the Saudi Cup International Jockeys Challenge title which she won at the King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh last year.
This year’s Saudi Cup International Jockeys Challenge will take place on Friday, February 24.
The timeframe aspect of Jones preparation has brought some pressure to bear on the South Australian based rider, given that she has not ridden in a race since September 17 at Morphettville due to a back injury.
Jones has been back riding work for the last couple of weeks with trials now pencilled in for February 6 before a scheduled return to competitive race riding on February 11.
As Jones found out last year, participation in the Saudi Cup International Jockeys Challenge is worth its weight in gold in terms of experience alone, but the financial rewards are also substantial.
The International Jockeys Challenge features four handicap races, each run for US$400,000 with the jockeys receiving 15% of prize money won in each of the four races.
A further US$100,000 will go to the winner to the Jockeys Challenge
The Jockeys Challenge line-up is made up made up of seven international female riders, five international male riders and two local male riders. All jockeys will have a ride in each of the four races as all races will have fourteen runners … with five emergencies listed to ensure that outcome.
Two races will be staged on dirt and two on turf, with the distances ranging from 1200m to 2100m.
Apart from Jones who has been invited back to defend her crown, other riders already confirmed for the Jockey Challenge showdown are Frankie Dettori, Joao Moreira and Canadian Chantel Sutherland.
“This will be one of my final chances to share a weighing room with some of the world’s greatest jockeys, and I look forward to seeing who else I’m going to come up against,” said Dettori. “Joao Moreira has been confirmed, as has last year’s winner Caitlin Jones, so the competition already looks pretty fierce!”
And we’ll leave the last word to Jones, who only got a late call-up for the event last year but, as defending champion, was the first jockey in this time. She had this to say about her upcoming Saudi adventure.
“I couldn’t be happier to have been asked to come back and try to retain my title – it would be pretty cheeky if I managed it, wouldn’t it?”
*The Saudi Cup International Jockeys Challenge takes place on day one of the two day Saudi Cup Festival. The main feature of the Festival is the Saudi Cup itself, which takes place on day two (February 25) with the race being contested for an amazing prize-money pool of US$20 million.
