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Shergar Cup 2007 |
Shergar
Cup
Four Teams will Contest 2007 Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup
09/05/07
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“Having four teams will make the team competition much more interesting
and competitive,” explained Ascot Head of Public Relations, Nick
Smith.
“It’s far less likely that one team will run away with it; it will be competitive for the minor placings as no team will want to finish last; and there may well be some extra spice with the likely rivalry between the Great Britain and Ireland teams.”
There will be no team managers this year. Instead the teams will be
picked by four form experts recruited from the media. A draw will decide
which expert picks for which team. As in the past, when Jason Weaver
and Michael Roberts undertook this role as team managers, the experts
will pick alternately so that each team gets a fair spread of favourites
and outsiders. The jockeys will be allocated to the horses by ballot
according to a formula so that they each get an evenly balanced book
of rides.
For the first time the six races will carry the same prize money of £35,000 each - the £210,000 total prize money is £10,000 up on last year - while the Shergar Cup Juvenile becomes a nursery handicap rather than an auction race. This should ensure that it is a much more competitive and evenly balanced contest and means that all six Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup races will be handicaps for the first time.
As well as riding for their usual percentages, the jockeys will be competing
for £22,500 in additional prize money - £7,500 to be split
between the winning team, £5,250 for the runners up, £3,750
for the third placed team, £3,000 for the team which finishes last
and £3,000
plus the Silver Saddle trophy for the top individual jockey.
Colm McLoughlin, Managing Director of Dubai Duty Free, commented: "The Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup is now firmly established as Europe's premier team horseracing event and we expect the new format to add an even more competitive element to this unique occasion."
Points scoring in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup will remain the same:
15, 10, 7, 5, 3 for the first five horses to finish - as will the field
size of 10 horses for each of the six races. As before, each jockey
will have five rides and sit out one race. Therefore in each race,
two teams will have all three jockeys riding and the other two teams
will have two each taking part. This will balance out across the six
races (e.g. Race 1: 3 x GB, 3 x IRE, 2 x EUR, 2 x ROW; Race 2: 2 x
GB, 2 x IRE, 3 x EUR, 3 x ROW; Race 3: 3 x GB, 2 x IRE, 3 x EUR, 2
x ROW; Races 4-6: the remaining permutations).
