Dubai: Hayley Turner showed why she is regarded as one of the best female jockeys in the world, by booting home a pair of winners at the 2019 Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup to win the prestigious Silver Saddle title as leading rider for the second successive year.
However, Turner’s Girls Team were denied of a repeat victory — following last year’s heroics — when Rest of the World landed the tea title for the seventh time since the event’s inception in 1999.
Rest of the World included Australian Mark Zahra Vincent Ho, from Hong Kong and Japan’s Yuga Kawada.
A competition between four teams featuring three riders each, the Shergar Cup more than lived up to its expectations with the winners being decided in the sixth and final race of the afternoon at Ascot racecourse, it’s traditional home since 2000.
Rest of the World amassed 93 points to edge out Europe.
Turner was the star of the day completing a Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup double with wins aboard Eddystone Rock in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Stayers and Sapa Inca in the Classic.
Making her 13th appearance in the annual team competition Turner said: “I just love it. It’s such a fun day and obviously it’s nice when you’re riding winners as well.”
Zahra delighted in his first Shergar Cup and Ascot victory. “It’s a great feeling. I’ve wanted to do it for a long time,” he said Zahra.
Seven-time UAE champion jockey’s Great Britain & Ireland team, which also featured Danny Tudhope, who is the current leader of the British Flat Jockey’s Championship and multiple Group One winning jockey Jamie Spencer finished the day with one win.
The Girls Team also includded Jamie Kah, who recently set a new record for the most wins by a female rider in an Australian season, and Women Jockeys’ World Cup winner, Nanako Fujita.
Rest of the World team were captained by Japanese jockey Yuga Kawada, one of only eight riders in Japanese racing history to win all five Classic races in Japan and Vincent Ho Chak-Yiu, a champion apprentice in Hong Kong and Zahra.
Four-time champion jockey in Germany Filip Minarik led the European team where he was is joined by globe-trotting French jockey Gerald Mosse and twelve-time Dutch Champion Jockey Adrie de Vries.
