Monmouth Employee to Compete in Mongol Derby

CS.bloodhorse.com - Full Article

25 July 2011

Last summer, when Sophia Mangalee read a story on Equidaily.com about the winner of the 2010 Mongol Derby, she was more than intrigued and entertained. She was inspired.

“I was 100% convinced from the minute I saw (the article) that I would do that race,” said Mangalee, 28, the marketing manager of Monmouth Park. “I thought about it for about a week before I applied, and every night I was having all these dreams of galloping my pony across the Mongolian steppe.”

Mangalee’s aspirations are coming to fruition sooner than she thought. After being accepted as one of the 26 entrants and one of only three Americans in the race, Mangalee began a year-long preparation for the biggest adventure of her life.

The Mongol Derby, a 1,000 km (about 600 miles) horse race across the wilderness of the Mongolian steppe is described on its website as “the longest, toughest horse race in the world.”

While Mangalee has been riding horses the majority of her life, she will have to get accustomed to the semi-wild Mongolian horses on which she will be traveling during her 10-day journey, which begins Aug. 6...

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http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/beyond-the-blinkers/archive/2011/07/25/monmouth-employee-to-compete-in-mongol-derby.aspx