Ian Ogg provides an overview of Saturday's Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup at Ascot, including five entries of interest.
Love it, loathe it or ignore it - the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup is back for its 25th year on Saturday - which does suggest it's been successful whatever your point of view - and will be run for the first time in association with the World Pool at its regular home, Ascot.
If you like it, you'll know by now that it's a team competition and this is how it works:
There are six races, each limited to 10 runners with two or three jockeys from each team. If the fields are full, each jockey has five rides which ensures that there is a spare jockey on each team who can assume mounts in case of need. There are two reserves for each race, which due to the World Pool association will now be eliminated at 17:00 on Friday (previously the cut off was 45 minutes before race time) to provide certainty for punters.
Points are awarded on a 15, 10, 7, 5, 3 basis to the first five horses home.
If there is a non-runner which cannot be replaced by a reserve, 4 points will be awarded both to the team and jockey missing out on the ride.
The team with the highest total after race six lifts the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup, while the jockey amassing the most individual points will take home an additional £3,000 plus the Alistair Haggis Silver Saddle trophy while there is also a Dubai Duty Free Ride Of The Day Award.
In the event of a tie, there will be a countback on the number of winners, followed by second and then third places if required.
The teams have been tinkered with over the quarter of a century of the competition and this year a Hong Kong team will compete in the Shergar Cup for the first time.
Vincent Ho is team captain and will be joined by Jerry Chau and Luke Ferraris - you can read more about them here but here are some bullet points about the riders.
Vincent Ho
- Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup record: Appearances: 1; Wins: 1; Points: 30
- Among the leading riders in Hong Kong who is best known for his association with champion Golden Sixty – the duo combined for 26 wins in total, including 10 G1s.
- First British winner came on X Rated for Mark Johnston at Haydock Park in August 2018.
Jerry Chau
- Debut.
- A graduate of the HKJC Apprentice Jockeys' School, he rode 77 winners in Australia before returning home to complete his apprenticeship.
Luke Ferraris
- Debut.
- Son of South African trainer David Ferraris, whose 18-year tenure in Hong Kong started in 2003/04 and included multiple G1 winner Vengeance Of Rain.
- Luke returned to South Africa in 2017 to attend the country’s jockey academy and was crowned champion apprentice in 2018/19 and 2019/20. Several G1 victories included the 2021 Triple Crown on Malmoos for Shadwell and Mike de Kock.
Lining up against the newcomers will be Great Britain & Ireland, Europe and the Rest of the World.
The vastly experienced, multiple Group 1 winner Christophe Lemaire heads the Europe team and will ride alongside Frida Valle Skar and the returning Marie Velon.
Christophe Lemaire
- Appearances: 2; Wins: 0; Points: 40
- Champion jockey in Japan eight times, becoming the first foreign rider to take the title in 2017.
- Dual Classic winner in Britain, winning the 2008 1,000 Guineas on Natagora and the 2010 2,000 Guineas on Makfi.
Frida Valle Skar
- Debut.
- Gained her first Group-race success on Matilda in the 2025 German 1,000 Guineas at Cologne in 2025.
- Partnered her first winner in 2018 and has since established herself in France’s top 30 jockeys by wins, finishing 2025 with 46.
Marie Velon
- Appearances: 1; Wins: 0; Points: 22
- Became the first female jockey to win a G1 race in France, aboard Iresine in the 2022 Prix Royal-Oak and combined with the same horse to win the 2023 Prix Ganay.
- In 2020, became the first woman to finish in the top 10 of France’s jockey standings, a feat she has repeated in four of the following five years.
Also making another appearance at the Shergar Cup will be Rest of the World captain Jamie Melham, last year's successful Asia captain Surraj Narredu and Japanese legend Yutake Take.
Jamie Melham
- Appearances: 1; Wins: 0; Points: 15
- Trailblazing rider in Australia who became the first woman to complete Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double on All Yours in 2025.
- More than 1,300 career wins in total, including 20 at G1 level.
Surraaj Narredu
- Appearances: 1; Wins: 1; Points: 23
- Aged 25, became the youngest Indian jockey to reach 1,000 career wins – and notched his 2,500th success in January this year.
- Father Satish and uncle Malesh (rode at the 2009 Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup) also partnered over 1,000 winners and are now successful trainers. Teamed up with his brother Rajesh to win the Indian Derby in 2019.
Yutake Take
- Appearances: 8; Wins: 4; Points: 150
- The youngest as well as the oldest jockey to win a JRA G1 – taking the 1988 Kikuka Sho on Super Creek and this year’s Takarazuka Kinen on Meisho Tabaru.
- Has enjoyed top-level success in Europe, winning the 2000 July Cup on Agnes World and 2016 Prix d’Ispahan on A Shin Hikari.
The full line-up of the Great Britain & Ireland team was announced on Friday with Ryan Moore (one appearance, two wins, 50 points) and Dylan Browne McMonagle joining Saffie Osborne (one appearance, two wins, 30 points).
Five to follow
Amazing Journey
The open goal of horses to follow on Saturday and it would be rude not to include Jamie Osborne's progressive charge who will line up in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Sprint.
The Stewards' Cup had been the goal but Amazing Journey didn't make the cut for that contest despite picking up a penalty for his win in the International Handicap at Ascot the previous weekend.
That was over seven but he won over six at Ascot prior to that and is an upwardly mobile three-year-old who has only gone up 5 lb in the handicap. Will he land Saffie Osborne when the draw is made for the rides?
Hoseki
William Haggas has won the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Classic twice in the last five years, including with Tenability last season. His only possible among the 17 entries is Hoseki who has won her last three starts for the double green team.
She showed promise on debut, not beaten far behind Oaks fourth A La Prochaine and her stablemate Gone By, currently rated 93.
Hoseki is still 5 lb lower despite her hat-trick, winning her maiden over 10 furlongs at Redcar, a handicap over the same trip at Redcar before a C&D success earlier this month and she remains firmly on the upgrade.
Bullet Point
Another one for Somerville Lodge and one of two entries for the yard in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Mile which also includes last year's winner Ebt's Guard and Cosi Bello who was on my short-list for last week's Golden Mile for which another entry El Matador was the morning line favourite only to be declared a non-runner.
Anyway, on to Bullet Point who made a big impression last season, improving his mark by a stone before being stepped up to pattern company. That didn't work (two days after a handicap win) and nor did a trip Down Under and he now has a little to prove after two so-so runs in May.
The first was not without promise given it was his first start since Australia but the second - just a fortnight later - was a backwards step.
Given plenty of time since and only 1 lb higher than when dotting up at York, he will be a fascinating runner if the market suggests he's back to somewhere near his best.
Vintage Clarets
Won the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Dash last year under the top-class Hugh Bowman and looks to be returning to form just in time to try and repeat that success.
That was the last time he came home with his head in front so he will be able to line up off an 8 lb lower rating and wouldn't be winning out of turn, as they say, after placed runs at Epsom and Chester and an eye-catching seventh at Goodwood last week in the race won by Twilight Calls (also entered).
There are younger legs against him but Tis Marvellous won this race for a second time as a seven-year-old in 2021, so there is a precedent.
Shrimp Shady
Andrew Balding's Shergar Cup runners are always worth a second look - as are those of the mob-handed Ian Williams - and the former has two possibles in Shrimp Shady and Spirit Mixer for a race he won in 2018 and 2024, the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Stayers.
Shrimp Shady is half the age of his stablemate and still on the upgrade, winning the Chester Plate, and running respectably in the Northumberland Vase, before putting his head in front in a thrilling finish at Newbury. Only 3 lb higher here, Shrimp Shady is relatively unexposed at this trip (five starts at 1m 6f+ and three wins) and would be a fine - although possibly not the most straightforward - ride for anyone to pick up.
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