As part of a small but growing number of female jockeys, Rosie Jessop’s defies stereotypes about women in the sport.
“There’s always a big thing about female jockeys and an attitude that we’re not as strong," she said.
"But I’m in the gym constantly and I have a personal training session each week. Some people forget and think if you’re lighter you’re weaker. I’m at the lightest I’ve ever been but I’m also the strongest I’ve ever been.”
Jessop is in the UAE this weekend to take part in the world’s richest Arabian horse race at Abu Dhabi Equestrian Club.
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More horse racing
Saeed bin Suroor looking to chalk up Godolphin's first win of the UAE racing season at Meydan
Farooq Racing ready to challenge for success in the UAE
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On Friday, Jessop will race against 10 other riders in the final of the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Ladies World Championship, riding Bushrah Al Reef, who is trained by Abdallah Al Hammadi.
Jessop, 28, who is representing Britain in the race, has had 69 winners in her racing career.
However, competing in the UAE will be a new experience for Jessop, who spoke to The National ahead of the race.
“I’m excited about it,” she said. “It’s another track to be riding out in, another country. It’s such a fantastic opportunity as well. It’s brilliant.
It’ll be pretty hot over there but I spent two seasons in Bahrain so I’m used to riding in extreme heat. I remember once riding in 30 degrees!”
The ladies’ championship in Abu Dhabi marks the pinnacle of a great year for Jessop, a professional jockey for trainer Sir Mark Prescott, who has had a lifelong passion for racing.
“Mum and Dad always had race horses, mainly point to pointers rather than the flat horses. So, I learnt to ride from there. The only thing I ever wanted to do was to go to the racing school and go to Newmarket, which I did when I was 16,” she explained.
“I’d done a month’s work experience for Sir Mark Prescott before I went. After I finished my nine-week course at racing school, I came straight out of there and went to him, where I’ve been for the past 13 years.”
Jessop follows a gruelling training schedule to stay at the very top of her game. Her daily routine, which begins in the small hours of the morning, goes some way in showing why she’s held in such high esteem by Newmarket’s longest serving trainer.
“I’m in Sir Mark’s at 4.30am every morning, I work there and go to the gym at lunchtime. Then I go back for afternoon stables as well, so I’d be there from 3pm till 6pm," she adds. “Then it’s in the gym again in the evening or try and socialise.”
Fitness is key to a champion jockey and something which Jessop takes very seriously. In a race like Abu Dhabi, where the horses are a complete unknown, knowing you are at peak strength is the only constant.
“Of the horses that I’ve ridden so far, about 90 per cent I’ve never seen in my life. I learn from videos to see I how they run.
"Other than that, you’re on and off them in five minutes. The only thing I can do is go there and be as fit and strong as I can.”
As well as strength, fearlessness is a vital attribute for jockeys in a sport in which few have never broken a bone.
“I’ve had a couple of falls on the track and a couple at home. Ligaments, bones, stuff like that ... it hurts!”
“The last fall I had on the racecourse was across the winning line so we were going pretty quick.
The horse in front of me came across and I clipped its heel and I hit the deck. [Jockey] Adam Kirby rang me when I was in hospital and said: ‘You need to just forget about it and the next time you go out there pretend it never happened.
"If you think it happened then you’ll never want to do it again’. You have to put it to the back of your mind.”
So what is the secret to winning a race like the Ladies World Championship? “It’s a combination of adrenaline and fitness. Whether you can pick your horse up and get it to finish.”
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cylinder turbo
Power: 240hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 390Nm at 3,000rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh122,745
On sale: now
A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
Match info
Wolves 0
Arsenal 2 (Saka 43', Lacazette 85')
Man of the match: Shkodran Mustafi (Arsenal)
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
At a glance
- 20,000 new jobs for Emiratis over three years
- Dh300 million set aside to train 18,000 jobseekers in new skills
- Managerial jobs in government restricted to Emiratis
- Emiratis to get priority for 160 types of job in private sector
- Portion of VAT revenues will fund more graduate programmes
- 8,000 Emirati graduates to do 6-12 month replacements in public or private sector on a Dh10,000 monthly wage - 40 per cent of which will be paid by government
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A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
From Europe to the Middle East, economic success brings wealth - and lifestyle diseases
A rise in obesity figures and the need for more public spending is a familiar trend in the developing world as western lifestyles are adopted.
One in five deaths around the world is now caused by bad diet, with obesity the fastest growing global risk. A high body mass index is also the top cause of metabolic diseases relating to death and disability in Kuwait, Qatar and Oman – and second on the list in Bahrain.
In Britain, heart disease, lung cancer and Alzheimer’s remain among the leading causes of death, and people there are spending more time suffering from health problems.
The UK is expected to spend $421.4 billion on healthcare by 2040, up from $239.3 billion in 2014.
And development assistance for health is talking about the financial aid given to governments to support social, environmental development of developing countries.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
MATCH INFO
Wales 1 (Bale 45 3')
Croatia 1 (Vlasic 09')
Three tips from La Perle's performers
1 The kind of water athletes drink is important. Gwilym Hooson, a 28-year-old British performer who is currently recovering from knee surgery, found that out when the company was still in Studio City, training for 12 hours a day. “The physio team was like: ‘Why is everyone getting cramps?’ And then they realised we had to add salt and sugar to the water,” he says.
2 A little chocolate is a good thing. “It’s emergency energy,” says Craig Paul Smith, La Perle’s head coach and former Cirque du Soleil performer, gesturing to an almost-empty open box of mini chocolate bars on his desk backstage.
3 Take chances, says Young, who has worked all over the world, including most recently at Dragone’s show in China. “Every time we go out of our comfort zone, we learn a lot about ourselves,” she says.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
A Long Way Home by Peter Carey
Faber & Faber
