South African, 22 year old Byeronie Epstein, has won the 2015 Mongol Derby in spectacular fashion. Beginning the day five stations from the finish it looked like the race would certainly go into the 8th Day. Byeronie and 17 year old Elise Poitrinal (France) had other ideas though and reaching HS 27 with less than three hours until the course closed reached the decision to ride on.
Given that the changeover would take half an hour this was a brave tactic; arriving at the finish line half an hour after the course closed would have given them a three hour penalty. Even if they finished in time, presenting a horse with heart rate over 56 bpm after an hour would have cost them a penalty too.
Byeronie picked a spectacular horse from the last Urtuu though which carried her much of the stage at 24 kph, meaning a later riding penalty was never a question. She couldn’t have chosen a better horse as it boasted an unrivalled 21 Nadaam medals (top five finishes in seasonal equine festivals).