He’s been likened to Crocodile Dundee and now central Queensland’s Will Comiskey has a first place finish in the world’s most epic horse ride within his grasp.
Nicknamed Dingo, after his home town, Will is currently at horse station 27 on the Mongol Derby, the last station before the finish, alongside Canada’s Heidi Telstad, a lawyer – and these two have been riding together for most of the race.
With them is New Mexican cowgirl, Marcia Hefker-Miles.
Closely following are Courtney Kizer, a Texan showjumper and UK ‘Riding for Rangers’ team Tatiana Mountbatten, a professional dressage rider and 499th in line to the throne, and her team mate, Kenyan-based Venetia Phillips, who have stuck together like an Olympic duo throughout the race.
Behind these and also set for a top 10 finish are Shannon Nott, an Aussie bush doctor, UK rider and Qatar Racing’s David Redvers, who has made steady progress as the race has progressed, and two more Brits, Alice Newling and Alexandra Hardham.
The race is set to finish around 10 am local time today – with the leaders having just 40kms to go.
It will be the battle of the fittest, best horses but mainly the best horsemanship. In the past, two people who came in first had horses that didn’t recover in time and so received time penalties, putting them back in second place.
A Facebook group following the race, Aussies going Mongol Derby, has been keeping Australian supporters up to date and entertained with commentary, saying they “all expected both Dingo (Will) and Heidi to be competitive; he's a rodeo king, she's just completed Tevis Cup.
“What we maybe didn't expect was to see them together. She's a Canadian barrister with precision-tooled eyebrows. He's a Dingo in jeans...I'm getting a whiff of....Crocodile Dundee.”
Of the 41 riders who set out, 14 have now retired due to injury and general knackered-ness. Some of those hospitalised earlier on in the week are currently en route to cheer on their team mates at the finish.
Team Household Cavalry (was 5, one in hospital, so now 4) perhaps summed up the race yesterday with this: “600kms ridden and a combined count of 20 falls, 4 days to go.”
You can still follow the race via twitter https://twitter.com/mongolderbylive or if you use the + arrows on the tracker you can home in and hover your mouse over the blue dots so you can see exactly where the riders all are and how far they have travelled at http://www.theadventurists.com/mongol-derby-live-dashboard/