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The Jockey’s Championship held at King Abdulaziz racecourse, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Friday was always going to be a tight tussle for supremacy.

As it so happened the result was determined in the early stages with United States representative Luis Seaz holding a narrow lead throughout the competition.

This was not the first time Saez had ridden at the meeting. The Panama born jockey rode at the inaugural Saudi Cup meeting in 2020 and also finished second at last years' fixture riding Casa Creed in the 1351 Turf Sprint, a race both he and the horse were to finish in again this year (what was the result then of last year and this year?). Over his career, he has ridden more than 2600 winners.

After the four races, Saez was crowned the victor with one winner and two seconds.

"It's super exciting, I want to say thank you to everybody for this magnificent moment - my family, well everybody, I'm pretty happy. I rode the horses like they told me…when you break from the gate, when you are in a good position, be kind, be confident and try and win the race".

"This place is very special for me, I really love this course, I love the dirt, I love everything here, the people, I feel like this is home here."

Winning the opening Round on Wajaab placed Saez in a strong position – everyone else had to do the chasing.

In Round 2 it was British representative Joanna Mason, again applying front-running tactics which enabled her to win by three lengths, whilst Round 3 saw Bauyrzhan Murzabayev from Kazakhstan (now based in Germany) to score and it was Japanese representative Yuga Kawada winning the final leg.

Overall, Luis Saez with his win and two seconds secured the Jockey's Championship from Yuga Kawada with Joanna Mason in third.