Hayley Turner to captain first ladies’ Shergar Cup racing team
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There will be an all-female jockey team for the first time in the Shergar Cup at Ascot this summer (11 August).
Britain’s top female jockey Hayley Turner will be joined by US jockeys Chantal Sutherland and Emma-Jayne Wilson.
They will ride against three male teams – representing Great Britain and Ireland, Europe and the “Rest of the World”.
Hayley has taking part in the Shergar Cup since 2006. She captained the Great Britain team from 2008-2010.
“The Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup has regularly reinvented itself 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,” said Nick Smith of Ascot.
Hayley Turner, who will captain the female team, added: “The three of us rode against each other in the Pimlico Female Jockey Challenge in the USA last year 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.
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“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!”
The format of the event stays the same, with four teams of three jockeys taking part across six races, each with ten 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 jockeywith the highest individual score wins the Silver Saddle trophy.
For more information visit www.ascot.co.uk
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A graduate of Exeter University, Amy joined our news team from Redpin Publishing in 2008 as news writer. She was promoted to deputy news editor in May 2013 and became news editor in April 2015. She left Horse & Hound in March 2016 to take up an editorial position in Dubai.