The Ladies Lead The Line Again

This weekend saw the return of the unique team racing event, the Shergar Cup at Ascot. The event, which has been held since 2000, has seen the very best jockeys go head to head in the Ryder Cup-style format.
Last year, the Ladies stormed to victory led by Hayley Turner, who was looking for a repeat victory. Not since team Europe in 2014 has a team retained the Shergar Cup title.

In the Dash, Holkham Bay was held up in midfield before travelling strongly and was not for catching, awarding maximum points to the Rest Of The World (ROW) and a win for South African jockey Rachel Venniker.
GB and Ireland were also on the board grabbing second and third spots and ROW also gained five more points for fourth, with the ladies sneaking into fifth.

Next up was the stayers race where Ranch Hand led into the home straight and was beginning to tire, but under a determined Hayley Turner drive, he fended off Beamish. This put the ladies in second with GB and Ireland’s second putting them only four points in front.

Next up was the challenge handicap, which was won by Insanity in a race where most horses took a keen hold when running down the hill to Swinley Bottom. Staying on well was Rachel King, as she and rival Dream Harder for Team Europe battled hard to the line to get a second win on the board for the ROW, who were now level on points with GB and Ireland after they clinched fourth and fifth.

Now it was the sprint, as odds-on Jaraaf lived up to his short price and won going well clear of Ventura Capital and Thunder Blue in the final furlong.
A win for GB and Ireland put them in the lead with 55 points, to ROW’s 38, Europe’s 37 and the Ladies well behind on 30.

It looked to almost be a three-way tie by the end of the Shergar Cup Classic as Going Remote battled hard to hang on to first place ahead of Champagne Prince and Houston. With Europe two points ahead of GB and Ireland and seven ahead of Rest Of The World, it looked like a poor title defence from the Ladies team but Turner wasn’t having any of that as it came down to the final race down the straight mile.

Yantarni and Joanna Mason seemed to be cruising to victory, but it became personal for Hayley Turner in pursuit of a third Silver Saddle as she galvanised favourite New Image to victory and secured a one-two for the ladies to retain the title in an astonishing finish. With that win, Turner won her third Silver Saddle at the Shergar Cup, her first in five years.