A whirlwind Day 1 of the 2024 Mongol Derby comes to a close, leaving in its wake several slightly bruised jockeys, a lost Vet Card somewhere between the start line and HS1, and some thrilling sporting drama. Typically the first day of any Derby is pretty hectic, but this one was a rollercoaster for the ages. Emerging victorious from the fray, 7 of our intrepid riders have bedded down for the night at HS3, the rest of the field spread out behind them all the way back to just shy of HS2. Sleeping soundly tonight in the comfort of HS3 are Almira Zakiyeva (AZA), Josh Edwards (JED), Lola Day (LRD), our 2014 Derby champion Sam Jones (SJO) and team New Zealand Brydie Black (BBL) and Emma Watson (EWA). But they’re by no means shot of the rest of the field. Camping out alone and just a few kms out of HS3, Gideon Kotkowski (GKO) has ridden a stormer to keep himself within touching distance of the lead. A slow start by the leaders in the morning could see him leaping up the rankings, assuming his horse is still there by his side when he wakes. And the rest of the field are hardly a station behind. It’s all to play for.

A world away back at the comforts of start camp, the riders enjoyed one final evening of Mongolian entertainment and ritual last night. There’s no better way to encourage bold riding than roping in tiny children to show you how it’s done, so we hosted a mini Naadam horse race last night to get our jockeys inspired. Naadam races in Mongolia are always ridden by children aboard trained racehorses, their light loads helping the horses to reach their full potential. Both girls and boys compete, and tack and safety gear are entirely optional. Some of our riders handed the mini champs their prizes, before our grown up jockeys received the traditional blessing of their Derby bridles, a Mongolian rite to hopefully ensure a smooth race.

Leaping out of bed raring to go this morning now they’d seen what the Mongolian racehorses are capable of in expert youthful hands, the riders had one last obstacle to clear before thundering out onto the steppe: the gear weigh-in. To be allowed off the start line, every rider’s gear (apart from the stuff they’re physically wearing) must weigh in at 5kg or under. This includes all your food, clothing and luxury items like anti-chafing cream to last you the whole 10 days. It’s no mean feat. Cue the usual gasps and sobs as Maggie and her scales of doom sent many a rider scuttling back to their gers to rethink their priorities. Gianna Aycock (GAK) nailed it in one and hit 5kg bang on, leaving her fiancé Colby Coltrain (CCO) convinced the scales were fixed. Terje Gilje (TGI) was initially miles off the mark and desperately decanted his suncream while Marieke Schnebeli (MSC) resorted to prayer, but Josh Dales (JAD) made it all look easy and has even managed to squeeze in some gifts for the herder kids he meets along the way. Mongolian families require nothing in return for feeding and hosting you overnight, but bringing a thoughtful gift for their children goes a very long way.

With the scales satisfied, the moment had come. To the start line (after several last minute panicked trips to the loo). The riders gathered around the horse lines, and drew their first horse numbers of the Derby. Throughout the race, riders will select their next horse by a random lottery, pulling numbers out of a hat. Lest we forget, those nice chilled ponies from start camp training had been swapped out for a brand new bunch of fresh equine athletes: the tension was palpable as each rider approached and tacked up their first horse, with the help of our herders. Proving their consummate horsemanship and skills learnt over the past couple of days, things went off generally very smoothly. Even before drawing her first horse GAK was in heaven, declaring the excitement was “amazing – even if you did the Derby again it will never be like the first time!” Her draw of horse did nothing to stunt her enthusiasm, judging by her expression on mounting. Hannah Morgan (HMO)’s horse was filling up the tank right until the last minute, while Margaret Holloway (MGO) received a personal milk blessing, thought to bring luck and safe riding. She also gave us a hint of her game plan: keep it level. “You can lose in the first three days, but you can’t win.” Wise words.

The crew were starting to mutter that maybe this would be the smoothest ever start to a Derby, until Sophie de Rouet’s (SDR) horse entered the mix. Not at all in the mood to be ridden today, he danced quite persistently out of reach. Deciding to live to ride another day, SDR sensibly elected to redraw and picked out a more cooperative chestnut. Although riders are expected to give whatever they draw off the line a chance and can’t refuse a perfectly nice piebald because they fancy a palomino, they are allowed to ask permission to redraw if they feel their horse is feeling a little too spicy, or has a vet problem. As you can probably tell from the photos, the crew were pretty quick to agree with SDR a swap was a sensible decision. Happily, she got along swimmingly with her second draw, a sweet little chestnut who happily bore her to HS1 in good time.

With SDR safely mounted, the moment had come. The riders lined up between the flags, race founder Tom risked his life as usual by standing directly in their path, and the countdown began. Dead silence on the steppe: the only sound the snorts of nervous horses and the riders’ heartbeats, audible from inside the vehicles around the start line. Tom yelled ‘GO!’ and shut his eyes and hoped for the best, as the 42 brave Derby riders of 2024 thundered past him and out onto the steppe in a cacophony of whoops and hollers. The race was on.

No sooner had the crew breathed a collective sigh of relief for a calm start when trackers began to ping – the road to HS1 may have been a beautiful one of lush rolling hills and convenient tracks, but it certainly wasn’t smooth. Shelby Van Weelden (SVW) came back down to earth with a bump shortly after lift off, and had to wait for her errant steed to be returned to her before she could remount and move on. And move on she did: earning the name “freight train”, her mount propelled her back up the field at such incredible pace that she hardly lost any ground at all by the time she arrived to HS1 safe and sound in 8th place. Shortly afterwards, news broke that Corrina Leeflang (CLE) had also parted company with her horse, who had seen an opportunity to join the wild herds surrounding him and seized it. He was corralled by our crew and returned to CLE, who gamely mounted up again and continued on her way. But luck was not on her side: her mount, who she insisted was “lovely but a bit spooky”, shortly afterwards shied dramatically at a bit of cardboard on the ground, and dumped her once again. This time, CLE decided to accept a ride on a more reliable beast (a crew car) to take her to HS1. This meant she incurred a 2 hour penalty for accepting outside help, which she sat out once she had reached HS1. Happily, the supercrew had tracked down her flighty mount and retrieved all of her tack.

She wasn’t alone: Billy Crouch (BCR) had also found himself on foot, after his horse had stumbled in a hole and sent him flying. His horse and tack were found, but his steed had mysteriously managed to ditch his saddlebag – containing most of his 5kg of kit for the remaining 27 horse stations of riding – somewhere on the steppe. It did not look good. Just as BCR was contemplating life in one pair of underpants for 10 days’ hard riding, his guardian angel rode into the station: Claire Morgan (CMO), who’d had a fairly steady leg aboard a rather calm pony, had spotted his lost luggage and stopped to pick it up. Overjoyed with relief, BCR displayed the kind of sportsmanship and camaraderie we expect from our exceptional riders on the Derby: when he pulled a naadam trained racehorse for his next leg, he immediately donated his draw to CMO as a thank you. Steppe karma. CMO, BCR and CLE then rode out of HS2 together.

For others, the leg proved a perfect opportunity to hit the gas and get racing. ACE took an early lead, reaching HS1 just ahead of AZA. The two vetted through quickly, but not before Augustus Read (ARE), Missy Morgan (MMO), Bert Read (BRE), Charles Read (CRE) and Lola Day (LRD) had arrived to join the party. Ross Colbert (RCO), SVW, Grey Godsal (GGO) and Grace Neuhaus (GNE) had also rolled up to HS1 by the time ACE was up and running on her new mount, just two minutes before AZA blasted out to give chase. But the gap was narrow: the chasing pack were wasting no time messing around at HS1, and were dashing around stuffing food in their mouths before mounting up to hunt the leaders down. All were riding beautifully, and had managed their horses perfectly: not a single vet penalty was incurred by any of our riders at HS1 today, a serious testament to their horsemanship and masterful pacing. Normally, we see a few as riders take some time to get used to Mongolian horses, and get a little over-excited by the chaos of the start line. Not these cool contestants.

While everybody avoided a vet penalty, poor old GGO was whacked with maybe the most painful penalty of them all: a 2 hour penalty for a lost vet card. Vet cards are precious things, and riders are required to keep careful track of them to make sure we effectively monitor everybody’s riding and have correct vet data on all of our Derby horses. GGO’s seems to have fluttered away in the breeze when he took a peek at his map. A hard penalty to swallow. Luckily, he bounced back like a champ on what looked like a serious mover to gun out of HS1 after sitting out his 2 hours, and has made it to HS2 along with the second half of the field tonight.

Shortly afterwards, the rest of the field arrived and descended upon HS1, always the busiest vet check of the Derby before the field thins out. Fred Berry (FBE) had had a less eventful ride than others, finding his steady but rather slow grey so quiet he required no reins: he was spotted by crew members gleefully yelling “Look mom, no hands!”. GNE had pulled a bolter off the start line: she’d made it there fast, but had a brief few moments of panic as her horse’s heart rate kept falling then rising again for the vet check. Luckily, he quietened down and snuck through. Kelly Westlake (KWE) was full of praise for her excellent horse who’d taken great care of her, while Gideon Kotkowski (GKO) had been hoping for something a bit more lively. He consoled himself by refuelling liberally at HS1 before picking out his next steed. Alliances were forming: Kiwis BBL and EWA, both experienced endurance riders, had teamed up to help cool off each others horses. Mongol Derby Academy 2023 graduates and firm friends Bindi Boshammer (BBO), Sarah Delia (SDE) and Yolande Steyn (YST) had been planning to stick together from the start. The teamwork was paying off: they all rode great legs to make it to HS1 in good time.

JDA injected some drama into proceedings at HS1, when his lottery draw turned out to be the firiest horse on the line. Undaunted, JDA brushed aside the herder’s warnings, and declared he wanted the challenge of a proper Mongolian firecracker. Some spirited sidestepping and twirling later, he had managed to tack up: the crew waited with baited breath as he confidently swung up, and disappeared out of the station in the blink of an eye. What a rider. He made it safely to HS2, the horse having proved himself to be a perfect mount once he’d worked off his nerves.

While the majority of our riders were rolling into HS1, the race continued up at the front. AZA had closed the gap between herself and ACE, and the two walked into HS2 side by side. Both again vetted through easily, and were hustling hard to make the most of the 3 hours of riding time left in the day: AZA was spotted sprinting to the long drop before mounting back up. Standard Derby riding hours are 7am to 7pm, to ensure riders aren’t riding in the dark, spreading the field out too far for our teams to keep watch of them all, or endangering their horses. Early or late riding is heavily penalised, and the clock becomes a major tactical player. The chasing pack were keeping the pressure on: AZA and ACE had barely dismounted and caught their breath before GNE, ARE, CRE and SJO had descended on HS2. SJO had ridden an absolute blinder from HS1 to propel herself from a humble 29th on arrival at HS1 to joint 3rd by HS2. Her striking dun horse, she assured us, deserved all the praise: it’s for horses like him that she came back to have another crack at the Derby 10 years later. Shortly behind the chasers, GAK and CCO rolled in, followed by BRE and LRD.

The next leg could be a crucial one: the last stretch of the day, riders would have some big decisions to make about whether to push for the relative safety and relaxation of HS3 overnight and risk a potential late riding penalty, or ride more conservatively and hope to find somewhere to camp out on the steppe. Sleeping overnight at a horse station is by far the safest option: you’re fed, you have a dry ger to sleep in, and you’re not responsible for a horse overnight as they are returned to the herders’ care. Camping out on the other hand presents all kinds of risks: you have to look after your horse, ensuring it has food and water. Your steed may well have perfected the art of galloping while wearing hobbles, making it capable of pulling off a houdini during the night and leaving you high and dry come the morning. You may find a welcoming family happy to take you in and feed you, but you may also find yourself out under the stars at the mercy of the steppe weather gods, belly rumbling in protest. It’s a gamble, but one that could just clinch you the Derby. How would our riders play it?

AZA and ACE wasted no time in getting down to business, and headed out in a bid to reach HS3 before the 7pm cut off. The rest of the gang followed suit, and were soon flying after the leaders (in GAK and CCO’s case, once the general direction of travel had been agreed on).

By HS3, we’d had a predictably unpredictable Derby shake up. Tragedy had struck for ACE: the hillier terrain between HS2 and HS3 proved too much for her horse, so she had taken the wise and admirable decision to get off, loosen the girth and let him walk up there. Horsemanship award of the day in the bag, she now spends the night camped between HS2 and HS3 in the company of RCO and KWE. Karma has played her second card of the day today, in ACE’s favour: the trio are camped out with a generous family in an extraordinarily beautiful spot by the river. RCO’s only regret: that he didn’t pack his fishing rod to net some fresh supper.

Meanwhile up ahead, the battle for the lead continues. AZA did make it into HS3, but so did BBL, EWA, LRD, SJO, JED and MMO, who’ve all ridden exceptional days to give themselves a strong advantage for Day 2. EWA got a 2 hour vet penalty when her horse’s heart rate failed to come down to 56bpm within 30 minutes of her arrival, and BBL made it in at 19:05, meaning she rode 5 minutes too long. As every minute of late riding past 7pm until 7:30pm gets you a two minute penalty, she has 10 minutes to serve in the morning. EWA won’t be able to draw her horse until 9am, once she starts serving her 2 hours at 7am. But, for BBL, there’s a kicker: riders with no penalties are free to gallop out of wherever they slept the night before at 7am on the dot. This means they’re normally allowed to get up and prepped and – if they’re at a horse station – draw their horses ahead of time, around 6:30am (although nothing is ever guaranteed on the steppe: if the horses roamed too far last night, the herders might not have them there on the line until 7:30AM. Welcome to Mongolia). So, her ger buddies tonight will (in theory) be heading out by 7am, having had plenty time to tack up. BBL on the other hand won’t be able to even draw her horse until 07.10, meaning she may actually end up losing quite a bit more time on them. So were those 5 minutes of extra riding time worth it?

Maybe not: things could really hinge on GKO, out camping on the steppe within touching distance of HS3. Outside of a horse station and with no penalties to serve, he can get up whenever he likes to get his horse ready in plenty time to kick off at 7am. Assuming, of course, it’s still there when he wakes up.

With the rest of the field bunched up behind them very tightly indeed, we’re already looking forward to another thrilling day on the steppe tomorrow. Will AZA cling on to her lead, or will we see a new trailblazer on Day 2?

A little further back, the rest of the riders have been having adventures of their own. Ying Jiang (YJI) took a tumble from her pony close to a nearby town. Her mount trotted off to check out the bright lights, where he was captured by a good citizen. The herder promptly ventured out to the steppe himself to look for his captive’s rider, before scooping YJI up and reuniting her with her city slicker pony. She hopped back on and continued none the worse for her adventure, and is now safely back out to the wilderness at HS2.

Annabelle Heffron (AHE), MSC and MGO are having a girls’ night out on the steppe, having found another glorious riverside campsite. Event Manager Erik was dispatched to check on them and their horses, and reported excellent low heart rates and happy riders. Riders can’t escape a vet check in the evening by camping out: wherever possible, HQ scrambles nearby crew members to go check up on them and make sure they and their horses are safe and sound. Monica Erickson (MER) is spending the night out alone on the open steppe, gazing longingly at HS2 a mere 4km away and literally within eyeshot. Her mount today was in no hurry to go anywhere, so he’s hobbled and grazing the night away while MER prays the weather stays favourable (and her hobbles stay strong). Nobody likes waking up soaked or horseless, after all. GNE and BRE have been more fortunate: while BRE has been separated from his brothers, he and new riding buddy GNE have lucked out with a deluxe ger setup overnight, complete with beds, fresh cream and airag. Not to mention some nice solid hitching posts for horses: a Derby camper’s dream.

Unfortunately for CLE, her bad luck didn’t end at HS1. Although she rode out of HS2 with a new horse, he also dumped her on another two occasions, meaning she has astonishingly survived a total of 4 falls today. As she parted company with her horse the second time, she had to accept another crew carry forward to make it to HS2, which means she is now in Adventure Category. Adventure Category is there to ensure that riders who have missed out part of the course for various reasons are still allowed to return ride as much of the race as possible, but are no longer part of the competitive category of racers riding for official placings. She is one tough cookie, and has elected to ride again tomorrow to enjoy as much of the remaining Derby course as she can. What a trooper: still a huge grin on her face, she’s living the steppe dream making friends with the ger dog at HS2 tonight alongside crew member Anda.

As the sun sets on our happy campers, we leave you with KWE caught in the lens at the exact moment she realised what she’s let herself in for. See you tomorrow for the lowdown on Day 2.

Photo credits: Kathy Gabriel, Tulgaa Skizz, Tamara Gonzalez 

Day 1 Close of Play

HS3: AZA, BBL, EWA, JED, LRD, MMO, SJO

Between HS2 – HS3:  ACE, AHE, ARE, BRE, CRE, CCO, GAK, GKO, GNE, JDA, KDU, KWE, MGO, MSC, RCO, SVW

HS2: BBO, BCR, CAS, CLE (Adv Class), CMO, EGI, FBE, GGO, HMO, MHA, PDA, SDE, SDR, TGI, YJI, YST

Between HS1 – HS2: MER

Adventure Class: CLE

Penalties

Vet Penalties: BCR (2 hrs), EWA (2 hrs), MHA (2 hrs), YST (2 hrs)

Late riding: BBL (10 mins)

Outside assistance: BCR (2 hrs), CLE (2 hrs)

Lost vet card: GGO (2 hrs)