By Duane Fonseca
Francois Herholdt returned to the winning enclosure in the UAE after 20 years Sunday night, with a 100% strike rate that saw him rake in two wins in as many rides and was quick to declare “that’s one off the bucket list”. “I’ve raced across the world and I’ve never ridden at a place as beautiful as Meydan,” said Herholdt, whose last win at a Dubai track was at Nad Al Sheba.
“To win here under the lights is awesome.” Herholdt won two of the three co-feature events on the seven race card. After turning up the surprise winner of the Lincoln Navigator with Rashed Bouresly’s Invincibly, who beat a number of highly favoured names in the 1800m handicap on turf, he guided Celtic Voyager to a narrow triumph in the Lincoln Presidential 1200m handicap on turf, a race that drew the night to a close, and one that brought rookie Emirati trainer and Godolphin’s Masar programme graduate Mohammed Mardood a first win as trainer.
“I’m very happy for Mohammad. It’s his first winner and all the owners are here,” Herholdt said.
“Let’s hope this will open the door for more winners for him. He [Celtic Voyager] jumped out a little sluggish but when I asked him for an effort he shot through.” For South African Herholdt, 2023 is a year at the end of which he is planning to bid farewell to a sport that has served him well and taken him to numerous racing jurisdictions around the world.
“I’ll be honest this is my last stint as a rider and it was a good opportunity as a jockey to spend the next two months in Dubai,” Herholdt said. “This is like my farewell tour and I am thrilled to have won at Meydan and obviously a great team effort with Rashed Bouresly and then Mohammed to have brought him his first winner is surely nice.
“This will be my last season riding as a jockey and I don’t want to sound greedy, but would like more and we’ll take it as we can. I’ve got a very good opportunity in China as a riding master and I wanted one win here to tick it off the bucket list and now I have two. Meydan is just a beautiful place to be and this was just something nice!”
