Teams for tomorrow’s Shergar Cup
THE Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup is the world’s premier jockeys’ competition, a unique event where three top riders in each of four teams – Great Britain & Ireland, Europe, Rest of the World and The Girls - battle against each other in a thrilling six-race showdown at Ascot Racecourse in England.
Dual Melbourne Cup winner Kerrin McEvoy, who knows Ascot well after his stint with Godolphin, leads the Rest Of The World for the second time, following third place in 2015.
New recruits
His teammates are two new recruits to the Cup – South African Anthony Delpech and Keita Tosaki, Japan’s champion jockey.
Both jockeys are riding Britain for the first time.
Canada’s Emma-Jayne Wilson, who captained and inspired The Girls to a famous victory in 2015, is back and will team up again with Britain’s most successful female jockey ever, Hayley Turner, who will be riding in a record 11th Cup.
They will be joined by newcomer in Michelle Payne who made history in 2015 and became a worldwide sensation when the first female rider to win the Melbourne Cup, the race that stops Australia, on the 100/1 chance Prince of Penzance.
Payne missed out on the Cup last year because of injury.
Turner, a familiar face on At The Races and ITV Racing since retiring from race riding at the end of 2015, has returned to the saddle on occasions in 2017 and recently revealed she will be riding in France this winter to take advantage of a 2kg allowance for female jockeys.
Wilson, Canada’s most successful female rider having ridden nearly 1,400 North American winners, returns for her sixth Cup appearance.
Team Europe is captained by Netherlands-born Adrie De Vries, who has ridden all around the world and earlier this year won the G2 Dubai City of Gold on Godolphin’s Prize Money at Meydan. He has enjoyed a winner at Ascot and is joined by Cup debutant Alexander Pietsch, the German Champion Jockey in 2015 and runner-up in 2016.
It will be Pietsch’s first Cup appearance, but the second time riding at Ascot having partnered Agenor (13th) in the Queen Alexandra Stakes at Royal Ascot 2016.
The team is completed by Italy’s Umberto Rispolli, a dual champion jockey in his homeland who is now a Hong Kong regular.
Champion jockey
Dual British champion jockey Jamie Spencer, making his fifth Cup appearance, leads the Great Britain and Ireland team. He is vastly experienced at Ascot and has enjoyed 24 Royal Ascot victories.
The team also consists of Britishbased Fran Berry and Hong Kongbased Neil Callan.
Both have participated in the Cup previously, with Berry the leading jockey at the 2010 event.