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Shergar Cup jockey competition introduces The Girls team The Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup, Britain's premier jockeys' competition, will take place Saturday at Ascot Racecourse. The unique event features top jockeys in four teams -- Great Britain and Ireland, Europe, the Rest of the World and for the first time this year The Girls -- battling against each other in a thrilling six-race showdown. The six races are limited to 10 runners with either two or three horses racing for each team (this will balance itself out over the course of the afternoon), and points are awarded on a 15, 10, 7, 5, 3 basis to the first five horses home (non-runners score 4 points). Subject to full fields, each jockey has five rides and the team with the highest total after the sixth race lifts the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup. All six races are handicaps and all will be run with identical prize money of £30,000 per race. Owners have a fantastic opportunity on the day as there are no entry fees for the races and prize money is awarded down to last place, with reserves that miss out on a run paid £500 travel money. There is also complimentary hospitality throughout the day. The three male teams will go against the first ever all-female team to take part in an international jockeys' competition. The Girls team is made of up of Hayley Turner (Captain, UK), Chantal Sutherland (Canada/USA) and Emma-Jayne Wilson (Canada). Turner is the most successful female rider ever in Great Britain and bagged two Group 1 successes in 2011 while this season she became only the second female jockey to ride in the Group 1 Derby at Epsom. Her team mates both hail from North America. Sutherland has clocked close to 1,000 successes and landed the Grade 1 Santa Anita Handicap in 2011 and also finished runner-up in the Breeders' Cup Classic. Eclipse Award-winning Wilson, who has also enjoyed almost 1,000 victories in the United States and Canada, became the first-ever female champion jockey at Woodbine and also landed the Grade 1 Queen's Plate, part of Canada's Triple Crown, in 2007. Wilson is participating in the Shergar Cup for the second time, having ridden in the 2006 event. The line-up for the Rest of the World team is Yutaka Take (Captain, Japan), Aaron Gryder (USA) and Matthew Chadwick (Hong Kong). Take is the legendary Japanese superstar who has been crowned champion jockey in his homeland no less than 18 times and who has ridden four Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup winners in his five appearances in the competition to date. The highly experienced Gryder flies in from San Francisco to have his first experience of riding in Britain since 1992. He has won titles at Churchill Downs, Arlington Park and Aqueduct and also had a successful stint in Hong Kong, but is best known for his Group 1 Dubai World Cup win in 2009 which was achieved by a stunning 14-length margin, a record for the world's richest horse race. Chadwick promises to be the best ever home-grown jockey in Hong Kong. He started as an apprentice in Hong Kong well into the 2008/9 season, yet still won the champion apprentice title with 43 winners and rode out his claim in January 2010 in a Hong Kong record of one year and three weeks. Chadwick has already had a taste of riding in Britain this summer and enjoyed his first victory in the UK on the Charlie Hills-trained Red Explorer at Ffos Las on July 24. The line-up for the European team is Frankie Dettori (Captain, Italy), Andreas Suborics (Germany) and Cristian Demuro (Italy). Dettori, 41, has not been able to take part in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup since 2008 due to his commitments with Godolphin but the popular Italian, who will forever be associated with his "Magnificent Seven" at Ascot in 1996, returns in 2012. Suborics, three times champion jockey in Germany, last took part in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup in 2007. Ironically that was the last time August 11 was the date for the Shergar Cup -- it is Suborics' birthday which he will once again celebrate at Ascot, this time bringing his wife over with him as he turns 41. Demuro, 20, Mirco's younger brother, won the Italian championship last year at the age of just 19 after riding 222 winners during the season. He partnered 153 winners in 2010 to finish second in the table and has also ridden winners in Japan, where he has spent two successful stints, and Dubai. Two of the most experienced members of the weighing room in Kieren Fallon (Captain, Ireland) and Johnny Murtagh (Ireland) plus exciting young talent James Doyle (Great Britain) make up the Great Britain and Ireland team. Fallon, who has been crowned champion jockey on six occasions, has enjoyed Group/Grade 1 success around the globe and ridden the winner of the Derby on three occasions while Murtagh boasts a similarly glittering career, also having ridden three Derby winners among an array of big-race victories. Doyle, who grew up not far from Ascot in the Lambourn area, has seen his career really take off in 2012 following his association with the powerful Roger Charlton stable. Doyle enjoyed his biggest career success on Cityscape in the Group 1 Dubai Duty Free in March. At stake for the winning team is the magnificent Shergar Cup, which depicts the mighty 1981 Derby and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner. The jockey amassing the most individual points will take home an additional £3,000 plus the "Silver Saddle" trophy. The stable staff will once again benefit from special prizes worth over £5,000, more than on any other raceday in Britain. There is a £200 prize for the groom in charge of the best turned out horse in every race, while the winning lad or lass in each race will receive £200 plus a free entry (worth over £80) into the Dubai Duty Free Finest Surprise Draw to win a luxury car. In addition, £100 will be given to the lad or lass leading up the second, third, fourth and fifth horses (i.e. the other points scorers) in every race. In addition, stable staff will enjoy free food and drink in the stable staff canteen. The "Girl Power" theme will continue in the post-racing concert, when some of the top female acts from the 1980s will appear live on stage at Ascot. They include Bananarama, who with 30 Top 40 hits remain the Guinness Book of Records' most successful girl band of all time; Carol Decker, who fronted the rock band T'Pau; Katrina Leskanich, former lead singer of Katrina and The Waves; and solo artist Belinda Carlisle. Midge Ure, the former front man of "Ultravox," Howard Jones and Rick Astley are the male stars from the '80s who will be performing. The concert is open to both Premier and Grandstand Admission customers. The Shergar Cup is being run for the 12th time at Ascot. The Shergar Cup first took place at Ascot in 2000 when it was staged as an owners' competition. It became a jockeys' competition in 2001 and has gone from strength to strength ever since, attracting bumper crowds year after year. The one year it did not take place was 2005 when the racecourse was being redeveloped. Bet Horseracing Free Online at TwinSpires.com
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