Riders. The unprecedented rise of Szczepan Mazur: jumped to the top in two years!
He won the first race at the age of 16 in Partynice on 12 June 2011, and in Służewiec on 23 July. He became a senior apprentice on 1 October. He ended the 2011 season with 15 wins on his account, and became an apprentice jockey as soon as on 26th May of the following year (25 wins). He won the Derby and Oaks in this role, and when he was elected the Rider of the Year 2012, he was already a jockey candidate. He won his hundredth race on 17 August this year on Belmondina, trained by Adam Wyrzyk. The Title of Champion in 2013 was actually his because his rival Aleksander Reznikov left for the U.S. after the Great Warsaw Race, and Anton Turgaev lost too much to make a fight. And due to the widely known fact that fortune favours better, he started on Patronus and won in the Great Warsaw Race instead of famous British jockey Kieren Fallon. He won the Title of Champion with 76 wins on his account (30 more than previous year). He will open the next season with 137 wins on his account.
Szczepan Mazur and Esponna
Similarly, Aleksander Reznikov has recently made a brilliant riding career in Służewiec (in the years 2003-2004), but compared to Mazur, he was a few years older and had four wins on his account on the track in Pyatigorsk. The father of victories gained by Szczepan Mazur is the trainer Adam Wyrzyk, who backed Szczepan when he was still a senior apprentice. He hired him and let him ride on his best horses. Their first notable and jointed success was the victory of Hard Work in the race for the price of Ruler Stakes. Then came the victories of Natalie of Budysin in the Derby and Oaks and many others. Wyrzyk was chosen the Trainer of the Year 2012 and Mazur was chosen the Rider of the Year 2012. In this season, when he did not ride in his stable, he was literally in demand by other trainers. What will be the immediate future of the youngest jockey in the history of Służewiec? There are opinions that he should go abroad if he wishes to develop. Such opinion is shared by Andrzej Walicki, for example. For now, the interested himself talks about it in very general terms, perhaps because he has no definite plans yet. He is taking the secondary school-leaving examination next year, but it results from his recent statement given to the editor Wojciech Zieliński that he is ready to resign from taking the examination if it interferes with his racing career.
Piotr Piątkowski and Camerun
The main and sole rival to the title Jockey of the Year 2013 is Piotr Piątkowski (7th in the championship, 23 wins), who won, riding on Camerun, the following awards: Widzów, President of the Totalisator and St. Leger, and the Derby on Patronus. Moreover, he was the first one on the sprint Inheritor in the race for the Jaroszówka Award and the second on Impact in the Arabian race for the Europe Award.
Anton Turgaev on Wares
Once Reznikov left, the most dangerous rival of Mazur in the championship was Anton Turgaev. He tried to reduce the difference of dozen or so victories to the very end, but he was no longer able to threaten the eighteen-year-old. The Russian led Wares this year to success in races for the Michałów and Trial Awards. Sensationally, he also won the Deer Leap Award on Samareto.
Marek Brezina
Marek Brzezina won four big races (Iwno, Kozienice, Korabia and Neman), but its overall position in the hierarchy of riders is significantly decreased by a quite distant (12) place in the championship: 15 wins in 175 starts (8.6 percent).
Viktor Popov
Victor Popov, who had both better and poorer races alternately, took the fourth place (36 wins). After all, this is though his best result in the championship. He made the biggest surprise by winning the Award of Efforta on Greek Sphere, expected to be the last one.
Wiaczesław Szymczuk
The fifth Szymczuk (28) won 20 races fewer than last year. He began the season with a strong domination because he won the Golejewko Award on Lucky Peter with the wide margin (6 lengths). Then, he did not ride on too many good horses.
Błażej Giedyk and Kalahari Dream after the victory in Criterium
From among the young riders, Błażej Giedyk, coming from a racing family (his grandfather Adam Turczyn was an equerry first, and then a trainer), definitely stood out; he took the high, seventh position in the championship (17 wins). He offered the biggest sensation by winning the Criterium on Kalahari Dream. If Giedyk follows Szczepan Mazur, it will be largely due to the trainer Małgorzata Łojek who hired him and gave a chance to ride most of the horses in her stable. Other trainers also noticed Błażej’s gift for riding, so he should not have any problems with getting a degree of jockey candidate next year. The Italian jockey Stefano Mura managed quite well in his first season in Służewiec, winning 23 times, but in as many as 243 starts (9.3 percent).
Stefano Mura
Last year’s champion Piotr Krowicki (61 wins) started in Służewiec only 25 times this season and won 4 times (16 percent). In hurdle races, Rumen Panczew was the best again, winning six times in this competition. To sum up the riding season, one cannot fail to mention the Czech jockeys, who have supported our more than small riding teams for several seasons. Tomasz Lukasek, Vaclav Janacek, Martin Srnec, and the youngest of them Milan Zatloukal are so famous here that they come to derive benefit therefrom. When the opportunity occurs, they do not refuse to ride on weaker horses because our trainers are confident that they will be properly “ridden out”.
Islander
Championship 2013
1 Mazur S. 76 64 401 19.0
2 Turgaev A. 67 58 349 19.2
3 Reznikov A. 58 36 228 25.4
4 Popov V. 36 35 242 14.9
5 Szymczuk W. 28 34 252 11.1
6 Mura S. 23 36 247 9.3
7 Piątkowski P. 23 26 180 12.8
8 Kabardov A. 17 23 263 6.5
9 Giedyk B. 17 18 133 12.8
10 Zahariev E. 16 14 110 14.5
11 Mazurkiewicz A. 15 33 230 6.5
12 Brezina M. 15 23 175 8.6
13 Panczew R. 13 8 48 27.1
14 Lukasek T. 13 6 56 23.2
15 Reznikova-Wróblewska 11 18 132 8.3
(…)
19 Janacek V. 7 0 16 43.8
26 Srnec M. 4 4 28 14.3
32 Zatloukal M. 3 3 14 21.4
