5 days ago
The unorthodox appeal of the Shergar Cup
With DJs and MCs inviting the crowd to dance on the parade-ring steps as if they were on a beach in Ibiza, and hectoring them into shouting 'Yay' or 'Neigh' to racing quiz answers, Ascot was a different place last Saturday – Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup day. Grimacing traditionalists would have been stamping on their Panamas. But the traditionalists don't come. Shergar Cup day, a series of team races between groups of three jockeys representing Europe, Asia, Great Britain and Ireland and the Rest of the World, is aimed at a different crowd and it simply doesn't matter that it's as artificial as a plastic Gruffalo. It's an informal bouncy event which attracts a younger, less racing-fixated audience. Yes, some of them come for the post-racing concert, but on Saturday plenty flocked eagerly to the stands to engage in the contests on the track. Taking place in the void between Glorious Goodwood and York's Ebor meeting, the Shergar Cup has earned its position in the racing calendar.
Part of its appeal is the chance to view the styles of leading international jockeys not other-wise seen in Britain. This year the Rest of the World team included two superstars from the red-hot crucible that is Hong Kong racing: Hugh Bowman and Karis Teetan. The Silver Saddle for the most points earned went to Bowman. He names as his hero one of mine: his fellow Australian Darren Beadman who quit the saddle when he found God, but went back to riding after being urged by the 12-times Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Bart Cummings to take a second opinion. As he rode on, the realistic Beadman noted: 'Nowhere in the Bible does it say that gambling is wrong. It says you have to be a wise steward of your money. People say that alcohol is a sin but what was the first miracle that Jesus performed? He turned water into wine.'
The other member of the Rest of the World team was America's Katie Davis, who walked the course beforehand in her bare feet. On grass, she said, 'I like to ground myself, dig my heel in and really feel what it's like'– not a practice I suspect that many British jockeys will follow at Catterick in November. Davis took phone-coaching about riding Ascot from her hero Frankie Dettori, whom India's Suraj Narredu on the Asian team named as his idol too.
Having won the Stayers race on Fireblade, Narredu – cheered on by 15 members of his family and an Indian TV crew – entered the spirit of the occasion by performing a Dettori flying dismount. Had he ever done that before, I asked him. 'No, that was the first time I've ever attempted anything like it. But I didn't do too badly did I?' You'd give him seven out of ten for execution, ten for effort for trying at all. Narredu was unlucky in the opening sprint when the blindfold remained entangled with his slow-starting mount for 50 yards, wrecking their chances. All credit to him for not letting that affect his confidence as in the two-mile second race he timed his challenge perfectly on Fireblade to win the Ride of the Day award. But then he has ridden more than 2,000 winners back home.
It was the Asians, on the card for the first time – replacing what used to be the Ladies team – who won the day, and nothing I suspect would have delighted Ascot more. Racing director Nick Smith, who's done so much to make the course a key hub of high-class international racing, was delighted at the Indian influx and the attraction of two top Japanese riders in Mirai Iwata and Ryusei Sakai: 'Stimulating interest in Asia is crucial.' He's clear about the Shergar Cup being 'a bit of fun, a one-off' – and admits that in early days the marketing probably irritated the racing media by overdoing things: 'It was never going to be the Ryder Cup.'
There are, mind you, a number of people who'd like to see the Ladies team reinstated to encourage female racegoers. Women riders didn't always like the distinction and have certainly proved they are as good as the men. But given what the Lionesses have done for women's football, could there ever be a change of heart? 'It was an oddity to have three teams based on regions and one on gender,' says Nick. 'But it is up to what the public wants. Nothing is for ever.'
It has to be said, though, that there was some criticism by trainers this year of the overall standard of riding. To maintain appeal, the sponsors may need to attract some rather better-known names for the Europe team than this year's representation of Per-Anders Graberg from Sweden, Dario Di Tocco from Italy and Delphine Santiago from France.
My own apologies, meanwhile, to two popular British veterans, Jimmy Quinn and Franny Norton. A laptop blooper in the latest Turf column had them retiring not in their fifties, as they did, but in their seventies.
