Jockeys riding in the race were keen to win it as the prize was a profile about themselves on our site.

Born on September 4th, 1979, Ivan rides at 53kgs/8 stone 5lbs and comes from a family deeply entrenched in Spanish racing history.

Ivan has 4 other cousins that are all jockeys and they have often all ridden in the same race.
His father was the only Spanish jockey to ride in the Arc de Triomphe---something Ivan would like to also acheive.

His first ride was on Balsamo in Madrid and after about 15 attempts he rode his first winner on Fantastica.
To date he has ridden 54 winners of which 10 have been in France.

He considers his best Spanish wins were aboard the filly, Kantia, in the 1999 Kutxa and 2000 Gobierno Vasco--Spain's championship race over a mile.

In the latter, breaking from the inside stall he sat very patiently until he slowly angled the filly to the outside at the top of the 500 home straight.
Ivan hit the front on the filly in the final 100 yards pushing her out with hands and heels.

It was a great riding performance as his mount had also won a big race only 7 days earlier and connections had trusted Ivan with their supplementary entry.

Ivan rates Suances and Kantia as the favourite horses he has ridden, Olivier Peslier as his favourite jockey and Madrid as his favourite track.

He considers that his greatest strength is his sense of pace.
He demonstrated this when winning a 100,000 francs handicap in Toulouse on Matapang in a 3-way photo where he beat top French jockeys, Alain Junk and Alain Badel.

His ambitions are to continue riding, to become Champion Jockey and to one day ride in the Arc de Triomphe.

In the summer of 2001, Ivan took a fall which left him out of racing for the remainder of the year. However, he is OK now and is reported to riding 3 lots a day at the track in Madrid in a come-back bid.

Ivan can be booked for rides on his mobile:
+ (34) 639 61 00 48