After much talk of great horses such as City Of Troy and Notable Speech, along with their lauded owners and trainers, the attention turns to the jockeys this weekend.
The Shergar Cup is back at Ascot with four teams of riders taking each other on in a points format. It’s that format which it seems alienates some punters from this day, though there are some major positives about this meeting.
The Strangest of Team Events
The Shergar Cup really does focus on the riders. It’s true, some regular punters don’t bother watching or betting on this meeting. They like to see the horse’s usual colours, rather than team colours and that is understandable.
The team structure is another area of conjecture. Teams in horse racing can, albeit in a lighter-hearted way than in football, produce something divisive that wasn’t there before.
One last rather confusing element to the team line-ups is how they’re decided upon. Three are made up of very disparate geographical regions, while one other is based only on gender. We can probably say that this wouldn’t happen in any other sport!
The very positive side to all of this is that the day focuses on the jockeys, rather than on trainers or the owners who have generously given up their colours for the day.
The 2024 Shergar Cup Line-Up
Each team contains three riders, one of which is the team captain. This is how the four Shergar Cup teams line up this year:
Europe:
Bauryrzhan Murzabayev (captain)
Alberto Sanna
Jose-Luis Borrego
Great Britain and Ireland:
Tadgh O’Shea (captain)
Billy Loughnane
Seamie Heffernan
Ladies:
Hayley Turner (captain)
Marie Velon
Saffie Osborne
Rest of the World:
Rachel King (captain)
Nanako Fujita
Rachel Venniker
There are six races on the card, all of them handicaps. ITV Racing will show all six, along with three races from Haydock Park where it’s Rose of Lancaster Stakes Day. The timings are:
- 1:35: Shergar Cup Dash (3yo+, 5f)
- 2:10: Shergar Cup Stayers (4yo+, 2m)
- 2:45: Shergar Cup Challenge (4yo+, 1m4f)
- 3:20: Shergar Cup Sprint (3yo, 6f)
- 3:55: Shergar Cup Classic (3yo, 1m4f)
- 4:30: Shergar Cup Mile (4yo+, 1m)
Format Continues to Evolve
Riding for GB and Ireland is a jockey seemingly set for the very top. After riding his first Royal Ascot winners this year, Billy Loughnane is on a sharp upward curve and the 18-year-old makes his first Shergar Cup appearance.
He is starring alongside established domestic riders Seamie Heffernan and Tadgh O’Shea, though the Shergar Cup format continues to change. This time around, there are an even number of male and female jockeys taking part, despite their being a ‘ladies’ team.
All three of the ‘Rest of the World’ team are also female, with Australia-based Rachel King very much the one to watch. Those in charge at Ascot however are now looking to determine a permanent format from next year after 25 years of the Shergar Cup.
As we’ve mentioned before, racing is not like football and what is not needed is a territorial team stance, such as Britain v Ireland and the likes. It’ll be very interesting to see how Ascot approach the format next year.