Sutherland, Wilson, Turner on first female team for Shergar Cup

Sutherland, Wilson, Turner on first female

team for Shergar Cup

North American stars Chantal Sutherland and Emma-Jayne Wilson will join

Britain's best female Flat jockey, Hayley Turner, to form the first ever female

team at the Shergar Cup at Ascot on August 11. They will ride against three male

teams, representing Great Britain/Ireland, Europe and the Rest of the World in

the world's premier international jockeys' competition.

Turner has become a regular fixture at the Shergar Cup, taking part every

year since 2006 and captaining the Great Britain team from 2008-2010, while

Wilson is the only other female to have taken part in the competition as part of

the Rest of the World Team in 2006, when the competition had a two-team format.

"The Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup has regularly reinvented itself," Ascot

spokesman Nick Smith said, "and we thought that the time was right to break new

ground by seeing how three of the most successful female riders of all time can

fare against three teams made up of some of world's top male jockeys."

Turner will captain the female team.

"The three of us rode against each other in the Pimlico Female Jockey

Challenge in the USA last year," Turner said, "and I told Ascot straight

afterwards that if there was ever an all girls' team at the Shergar Cup, we'd

definitely be keen to take part.

"I'm thrilled that it's going ahead and having been with Chantal in Dubai

last week, I can tell you that we're both really up for putting one over on the

boys on August 11 and I know Emma-Jayne will be too!" 

Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice-Chairman of Dubai Duty Free, commented: "We

are delighted at the way the teams are shaping up for this year's Dubai Duty

Free Shergar Cup. 

"The event continues to find ways to reach out to new audiences, and I am

sure the opportunity to see some of the world's top female riders in action will

add an entirely new dimension to the international media coverage, further

raising the profile of this unique raceday."

The riders in the male teams will be announced in due course, but one jockey

gets an automatic invitation as a result of winning Dubai Duty Free's big

sponsored race on Dubai World Cup Night. James Doyle scored a stunning success

on Cityscape in the Dubai Duty Free, a Group 1 race over nine furlongs, and will

be invited to make his Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup debut for the Great

Britain/Ireland team. 

The format of the event stays the same, with four teams of three jockeys

taking part across six races, each with 10 runners.  Every jockey has five

rides and points are awarded on a 15-10-7-5-3 basis to the first five jockeys to

finish in each race. The team with the highest total after the sixth race lifts

the Shergar Cup and the jockey with the highest individual score wins the Silver

Saddle trophy.