 Like his countryman, Oscar Urbina, born in the Basque country but altogether a different type of jockey. Spent a period at Kildangan Stud in the early 1990's learning the trade.
At about 5ft 10" , he is "skyscraper tall" for a jockey but manages to keep his weight down to 53.5 kgs. Goes about his business in a quiet and industrious manner and has worked really hard to rise up the the ranks. He fully deserved to finish 4th in 2001.
Riding a lot for Jean-Claude Rouget and in the SW of France, Ioritz has a very effective strike rate although he will need to increase the amount of rides if he is ever to lift the Cravache d'Or.
In 2002, Ioritz seemed to have read ther above comment and produced a brilliant effort to finish 2nd in the table.
In 2003, he improved once again, winning his first group race and finished 2nd again to Soumillon whilst getting 200 fewer rides.
Particularily good with two year olds.
Ioritz Mendizabal
Statistics sourced from FranceGalop.com
| Year |
Wins |
Rides |
Position |
| 1992 |
23 |
117 |
42nd |
| 1994 |
30 |
88 |
36th |
| 1995 |
24 |
139 |
38th |
| 1999 |
56 |
379 |
14th |
| 2000 |
64 |
368 |
11th |
| 2001 |
96 |
388 |
4th |
| 2002 |
99 |
525 |
2nd = |
| 2003 |
165 |
821 |
2nd |
|
