ioritz mendizabal
Resurgent
success
Liz Price chats with jockey Ioritz Mendizabal, who is enjoying a brilliant season in 2021 and happily admits that he has benefitted from the pandemic
I
ORITZ MENDIZABAL is a name that just rolls off your tongue. That is, if you are Basque. For everyone else it is a bit of a challenge and it takes Aidan O’Brien, who is very meticulous when it comes to names, two attempts before he gets it right. “Ioritz is a very intelligent jockey,” he says after Mendizabal, who was born in Saint Sebastien, Spain, but who is based in the south-west of France, won the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains on board St Mark’s Basilica. Back in May, O’Brien might have struggled to pronounce the name of the Basque jockey, who was enjoying only his second ride for the Ballydoyle team after finishing second on Lope Y Fernandez in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat last year. Since then though, O’Brien has had ample opportunity to practice his eloquence as Mendizabal has continued to guide his horses to one important victory after the next, offering him not only a first success in the Prix du Jockey-Club (G1) again on board St Mark’s Basilica, but also a first victory in the Prix de Diane Longines (G1) where he timed his ride on Joan Of Arc to perfection. “He is very intelligent and such a nice
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