The Shergar Cup – Ascot
This Saturday sees the 22nd Shergar Cup competition at Ascot. Named after the Aga Khan’s great Derby winner of 1981, the competition has been running since 1999 and is one of the highlights of the Racing schedule in August. Four teams will compete against each other, with teams of riders from Great Britain and Ireland, Europe, the Rest of the World and a team of Female riders taking part. Points are scored for finishes in the top 5 in each race with both a team and individual trophy awarded for the highest scorers at the end of the 6-race card. Races are run over a variety of distances between 5-furlongs and 2-miles, with each jockey allowed 5 rides throughout the day. Runners are allocated by the handicapper to ensure a fair distribution of abilities across each team, with the Jockeys wearing their team silks rather than those of the owners.
Each year the captain of the winning team is presented with a silver trophy of Shergar, which was donated to the competition by the horse’s owner the Aga Khan, whilst the leading rider receives a silver saddle.
History
The first Shergar Cup was held at Goodwood in 1999, with 2 teams from Europe and the Middle East. The first competition was won by a European team captained by Pat Eddery, with Mick Kinane landing the leading rider’s prize. It was switched to Ascot in 2000, though the initial meetings struggled to attract the necessary number of runners, but after the courses was remodelled in 2005, the competition was expanded to four teams and the entries improved. The Shergar Cup has been in its current format since 2012, when the teams from Great Britain and Ireland merged and the team of female riders was introduced.
Since the competition expanded to 4 teams, Great Britain and Ireland hold the record for the highest number of points, with 156 (2006) and 132 (2022). The individual riders record is shared by Gerald Mosse (2008) and Neil Callan (2022) who both amassed 50 points from their 5 rides on the day.
Leading Teams and Jockeys
Although the makeup of their team has changed a couple of times, Great Britain and Ireland have won the competition 8 times, which puts them ahead of the Rest of the World team with 7 and Europe with 4 wins. Since joining the competition in 2012, the female rider’s 20team have won 3 of the 10 contests held. Frankie Dettori is the leading team captain in the Shergar Cups history with 4 wins (2001, 2003, 2004, 2014) although he has never won the individual jockeys competition. Four Jockeys have managed to win the Silver Saddle on more than once occasion, with Hayley Turner (2018, 2019), Gerald Mosse (2008, 2013), Richard Hughes (2002, 2009) and Fran Berry (2010, 2017) each winning it twice.
2023
Frankie Dettori will return to captain the European team for the final time this year and he will be joined by Olivier Peslier and Bauyrzhan Murzabayev who are both based in France. Luke Morris will lead the home team with Tom Marquand and Declan McDonogh, whilst Hayley Turner will lead the girls’ team of Hollie Doyle and Saffie Osborne. Following an injury to Vincent Ho, the rest of the world team will now be captained by legendary Brazilian rider Joao Moreira, with Japanese rider Kazuo Yokoyama and Matthew Chadwick, who is based in Hong Kong, in support.
The first race gets underway at 1:35 on Saturday.
