Bauyrzhan Murzabayev has never looked at a challenge he didn’t want to tackle head on and the man from Almaty in Kazakhstan will line up for a first crack in the LONGINES International Jockeys’ Championship hungry to showcase his talents on a new stage.
Murzabayev represents Germany in the Happy Valley spectacular on Wednesday evening (6 December) and that is where he will once again be based in 2024, after a one-year hiatus in which he sampled life in France at the invitation of 31-time champion trainer Andre Fabre.
“I think I learn new tracks and places pretty quickly,” says Murzabayev. “But if somebody had told me ten years ago ‘you will be riding in all these top races,’ I’m not sure I would have believed them.
“I’ve learned a lot in many different countries and many different styles of racing.
“Germany is just like home and I know many trainers and many owners, all of whom helped me to become champion.”
That his stay in France didn’t last longer is no reflection on Fabre’s level of satisfaction with a man he described on arrival as “a world-class jockey with good hands.”
It is rather a recognition that Murzabayev’s opportunities have not been as extensive as either man would have anticipated, in a jurisdiction where important owners retain their own riders, and where a couple of longstanding and important interests in the Fabre yard have sold up during the course of the season.
“I am very lucky to have spent a year riding for Andre Fabre, who for me is a great trainer,” says Murzabayev. “I learned a lot from him and it was a good experience.
“I’m very happy with how it went; I won 60 times including 12 black type races.
“It was a very good first step and I was maybe a bit unlucky to have fewer horses I could ride at the stable.
“But to stay in France, I think it would have taken a long time to become one of the very top jockeys and Germany offers me the opportunity to ride in more international races during the winter, like Japan or Hong Kong.
“Maybe I’ll try for a short-term licence in Hong Kong next year.”
A tally of 60 winners for the year from a standing start in France – Murzabayev only crossed the Rhine to join Fabre in late March – cannot be categorised as anything approaching failure, even for a man who was a three-time champion in the Czech Republic, before finishing all four of his seasons in Germany on top of the pile; twice for Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Andreas Wohler, before moving across Cologne to link up with Peter Schiergen.
It is a sign of just what a winning combination Murzabayev and Schiergen formed that the trainer has welcomed him back as stable number one for next year, while Arc-winning rider Rene Piechulek heads back to Munich and the base he has built up with partner Sarah Steinberg.
Murzabayev’s two seasons at the Rennstall Asterblute coincided with Schiergen winning back-to-back trainer’s crowns, having last been Germany’s champion in 2012.
“Peter Schiergen is not just someone I work with, he is like family to me,” says Murzabayev.
“When I left the stable, he wished me good luck but he always said, if you want to come back, you can.
“I think we can be successful together again and he’s a very good trainer, to win the Arc de Triomphe, the King George and several German Derbies.”
If you want to boil it down to its very simplest form, Murzabayev wins a lot of races, wherever he is.
And there can be no greater example of how quickly he adapts to new surroundings than his phenomenal first short-term stay on the Japan Racing Association circuit last winter, where he enjoyed a strike rate of nearly 25 per cent with 21 wins from 157 rides, including a 90-1 Grade 1 success aboard Dura Erede in the Hopeful Stakes.
Last weekend he was straight back into the groove at the start of a second stint in Japan, with three winners across the two meetings at Hanshin and Chukyo, and he expects to have a ride in every Grade 1 between now and the end of the year.
That ability to learn fast on the job in new surroundings, combined with an innate strength in the saddle, will make Murzabayev dangerous if the cards fall his way in the IJC, leading no lesser judge than Zac Purton to nominate Murzabayev as the man to beat.
Wherever the 31-year-old has taken his saddle he has been a success, and there should be no surprise if Happy Valley falls under his spell on Wednesday evening.
By Scott Brunton (HKJC)
