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| Rowan Anderson |
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Young, vibrant and hungry for wins.
Twenty year old hoop Victoria Alonso comes from a long line of athletes throughout her family tree and has been announced as the latest jockey to contest the Saudi Cup’s International Jockey’s Championship.
It will be the young jockeys first time riding in Saudi and makes her the second Spanish female jockey to compete in the contest in at King Abdulaziz Racecourse in Riyadh on February 24.
Her family is a sporting dynasty with six members of the family across three generations having played professional football, with three of them representing the Spanish national football team, while they have also played for Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid at club level.
Her cousin is ex-Chelsea and current Barcelona defender Marcos Alonso, while her father, Cesar Alonso, played football for Rayo Vallecano before turning to racing, first as an amateur jockey and then as a trainer.
She also has 55 career wins to her name in the saddle, finishing sixth in the Spanish jockey rankings last year
“I am very proud to be continuing my family’s involvement in top-level sport. Not only are most of them professional footballers but they are all big fans of horse racing and proud of me. I follow their achievements, as they do mine,” Alonso said.
“All my family are aware of what I do in horse racing and I have their full support. Both my parents will be there [at The Saudi Cup].”
Given the opportunity to ride as a participant in the IJC she was ecstatic with the announcement.
“Riding in the IJC at The Saudi Cup is a dream come true. I really want to savour this great experience riding against the world’s best jockeys and am ready to give it everything that I have. I want to thank all those people who have made it possible.
“The experience is going to be very exciting and totally unique on a professional and personal level, and I hope that it will launch me and give me some great international exposure.
She has ridden on both dirt and turf in Spain and France and has established a reputation and praise off the back of her ability to judge pace from any position in the field.
“I have continued to learn, picking up a lot of experience both in Spain and France. I am happy to have finished in the top six jockeys in Spain, even though I had less rides than any of the other top 10 jockeys.”
Her announcement only greatens the quality of talent in the contest after French rider Delphine Santiago was announced as the fourth female rider in this year’s IJC line-up. Santiago has forged a successful career in her native France that has seen her crowned the country’s leading female jockey 10 times.
With a line-up that already includes Frankie Dettori in the great man’s final riding year, Canadian Chantal Sutherland, the uber-talented Joao Moreira and last year’s winner Australian Caitlin Jones who will return to defend her title.
The International Jockeys Challenge features four handicap races, each run for $400,000, with a further $100,000 prize fund for the challenge itself.
The jockeys are made up of seven international female riders, five international men and two local men with the jockeys receiving 15% of prize money won in each of the four races.