Shergar Cup: Get to know this year’s star jockeys for Ascot contest

This year’s Shergar Cup at Ascot will see the teams split evenly between male and female jockeys for the first time, with six of each involved in Saturday’s showdown, live on Sky Sports Racing.

Rest of the World

Rachel King (captain)

King, who had a limited career as an amateur jockey in England and at one time was racing secretary for Clive Cox, packed her bags just over 10 years ago to head to Australia. She is now considered one of the leading lights in a Sydney jockeys room that boasts world-class talent, including James McDonald, Nash Rawiller and Tom Berry.

She won the 2016/17 metropolitan apprentice title in Sydney, rode a career-high 113 winners in the 2020/21 season and has now recorded 642 winners, including five Group Ones. Earlier this year King did a short stint in Japan where she marked a significant milestone, becoming the first foreign female rider to win a graded Japan Racing Association Flat race, steering Chuck Nate to victory in the Group Two American Jockey Club Cup.

Rachel will be making her second visit to Ascot this year having gone close when runner-up in the Sandringham Stakes on the 33/1 chance Strutting for John and Thady Gosden at the Royal Meeting after postponing her honeymoon to take the ride.

Nanako Fujita

In 2019 Nanako became the first Japanese woman to compete in a Group One race when finishing fifth on Capano King in the February Stakes, and followed that up by becoming the first home female rider to win a Graded race in Japan when capturing the Group Three Capella Stakes on the same horse.

Nanako, who has recorded 165 career winners, won the third edition of the Women’s Jockey World Cup at Bro Park in Sweden when she took out two of the five races and will be making her second visit to Ascot having secured nine points for the Ladies team in the 2019 Shergar Cup. She will be hoping to partner her first winner at this year’s event.

Rachel Venniker

Venniker claimed the South African apprentice title in 2021/22 with 70 wins and again in 2022/23 with 107 wins. She has recorded more than 250 career winners in double quick time.

Now a fully-fledged rider, Rachel celebrated the end of her apprenticeship when winning a leg of the Saudi International Challenge Stakes at Riyadh earlier this year, which was her first trip away from South Africa. Venniker then became the first woman to ride in South Africa’s biggest race, the Durban July last month, and finished a very respectable 10th in the recently-completed (August 2023 to July 2024) South African jockeys’ title race with 73 winners.

Ladies

Hayley Turner (captain)

Hayley, who recorded her 1,000th UK winner last month, is one of the most famous female jockeys to have ever donned a set of silks. Since her first ride 24 years ago, she has been breaking records, paving the way to ensure female riders have rightfully been accepted as the equal of their male counterparts.

In 2005 she was joint champion apprentice. Three years later she became the first female jockey to ride 100 winners in a calendar year in Britain and then in 2011 she became the first female rider to win a domestic Group One outright. In 2016 she was appointed an OBE for her services to horse racing. In 2019 she became just the second female jockey to ride a winner at Royal Ascot.

Given her incredible career, it should come as no surprise that Hayley is the all-time leading rider at the Shergar Cup with nine wins from 16 appearances and a double winner of the Alistair Haggis Silver Saddle (2018 and 2019) as the leading rider. Hayley has been a part of four winning Ladies teams and was the captain when the Ladies were successful last year.

Although she does not have the number of rides she once did, Hayley has recorded 21 winners (at time of writing) in Britain alone this year, and her love affair at Ascot includes all of the above accomplishments in this event, and four winners at the Royal meeting, the latest of which was Docklands in last year’s Britannia Stakes.

Joanna Mason

Granddaughter of legendary trainer Mick Easterby and born into a racing family, Joanna was bound to be a jockey, maybe even before she knew so herself. The girl from Malton in North Yorkshire was sitting on horses before she could walk, so it is no surprise she went into pony club (Middleton), before riding point-to-points (48 wins) and as an amateur on the Flat (46 wins), including an astonishing four wins in the space of five years on Tapis Libre in the Ladies Day Handicap (amateur ladies Derby) at Epsom.

Although Covid-19 was an awful time for the industry, it did provide a change in direction for Joanna who, despite a highly successful amateur career, decided to go professional due to amateurs not being allowed to ride at the time. There has been no looking back. Joanna has now ridden 216 winners, finished third in the 2023 Saudi Cup International Jockeys Challenge, and with 49 winners at time of writing (£19.98 profit to a £1 stake), 2024 has been her best year to date.

Joanna will be making her second appearance at the Shergar Cup after being called in as a late replacement for Hollie Doyle in 2022, and she certainly delivered on debut, riding her first Ascot winner when successful on Amanzoe for trainer William Haggas, and hitting the frame with two of her other rides.

Marie Velon

Marie, who is a product of the French Racing School and rode her first winner in 2017, will be making her Shergar Cup debut and having her first ride at Ascot. However, as a winner of 495 races at just 25 years of age, Marie brings plenty of experience to the table.

France have been slow out of the blocks compared to Great Britain and Ireland in embracing lady riders, but that has been changing recently, thanks largely to the exploits of jockeys of the calibre of Marie, who continues to set records and, in the process, break down barriers.

In 2020 Marie became the first woman to finish inside the top 10 of France’s jockey standings, a feat she has matched every year since. She became just the third female rider and the first French woman to ride a Group One winner in France when successful in the 2022 Prix Royal Oak aboard Iresine, who she would later combine with to take out the Group One Prix Ganay, before going on to finish a respectful ninth in the Japan Cup behind the local champion Equinox.

Marie had her best year in the saddle in 2023 when riding 99 winners, breaking a record she had already set, this time for most winners ridden by a female jockey. She is on target to break that record again this year having already notched up 62 successes.

Great Britain and Ireland

Tadgh O’Shea (captain)

Tadgh, who will be making his third Shergar Cup appearance, was Ireland’s champion apprentice in 2001 and 2002 when with Michael Halford, and has recorded 1,115 career wins (at time of writing), including six Group Ones. However, it is in the UAE where the man from Dromahane, County Cork, has excelled during his yearly winter visits, with over 800 wins and 12 champion rider titles, making him the most successful jockey of all time in the UAE.

In 2008 Tadgh was appointed second rider for His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, with the owner and rider combining to win the Jersey Stakes at the Royal meeting in 2009 with Ouqba for trainer Barry Hills. In 2018 Tadgh linked up with the Satish Seemar stable, where Bhupat Seemar was the assistant trainer, and after a stint as retained rider for Nicholas Bouchard the following season, in 2021 Tadgh was appointed the retained rider for Bhupat, who had taken over his uncle’s licence.

The duo have proven to be a formidable combination and this year lit up Dubai World Cup night when landing a Group One double, the Golden Shaheen with Tuz, and then then jewel in the crown, the Dubai World Cup with Laurel River, a win that proved to be one of the most popular seen in the UAE, thanks largely to the man that calls Dubai his second home.

Seamie Heffernan

Seamie, who rode his first winner as a 16-year-old in 1988 and shared the Irish champion apprentice title in 1994 when with Jim Bolger, teamed up with Aidan O’Brien at Ballydoyle in 1996, where he stayed for nearly three decades. During that time Seamie won many of the big races around the world. There are too many to list them all, but some of highlights are 11 Irish Classics, two British Classics, including the 2019 Derby on Anthony Van Dyck, a Coral-Eclipse, two International Stakes and the Irish Champion Stakes. Though he has been quoted as saying one of his most satisfying wins was his tactical masterpiece on global juggernaut Highland Reel in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Turf.

Much to the surprise of many, Seamie parted ways with Ballydoyle before the start of the current season to go freelance, although both parties stressed there had been no falling out and they hoped to combine at some point in the future.

Seamie, who has ridden over 1,000 winners including 36 at the very top level, will be making his second Shergar Cup appearance having last rode at the event back in 2009 when he amassed 23 points for Team Ireland without riding a winner. However, the experienced veteran knows plenty about the tactical Ascot layout having ridden five winners at the course.

Billy Loughnane

Billy Loughnane, or ‘Billy the Kid’ as he is affectionately known, was not even born when his two team-mates were winning titles, but he has achieved plenty of success in his short career, with many predicting the son of Worcestershire-based Irish trainer Mark Loughnane is headed to the very top.

The boom youngster was crowned Britain’s champion apprentice last year. Billy became the youngest jockey to ride in a British Classic since the legendary Lester Piggott in 1951, when finishing unplaced in last year’s 1000 Guineas on Sweet Harmony.

Loughnane has quickly complied 230 career wins and is currently in fifth place in this year’s Great Britain Flat championship with 51 winners, sitting behind only Oisin Murphy and Rossa Ryan for most winners (91) ridden overall during the current campaign. He will be making his Shergar Cup debut but will be buoyed by recent success at the Royal meeting where he excelled, recording his first two winners at the meeting, Rashabar (80-1) in the Coventry and Soprano (14-1) in the Sandringham Stakes.

Europe

Bauyrzhan Murzabayev (captain)

Bauyrzhan, who has ridden 776 career winners (at time of writing), is an outstanding young horseman with a fascinating background. Born in Kazakhstan, he rode in long-distance races from the age of just seven, before riding conventional races at Almaty racecourse from the age of 14. He then moved to the Czech Republic where he was a thrice champion jockey, 2013-2015. From there, he relocated to Germany, and was crowned champion jockey on four occasions, 2019-2022, winning his first Group One aboard Sammarco in the 2022 German Derby for leading trainer Peter Schiergen.

Schiergen, a highly successful rider in his younger days, was quoted as stating Bauyrzhan is currently one of the best jockeys in the world. It was not long after this that the young man, who has a habit of winning titles wherever he goes, was appointed stable jockey to legendary French trainer Andre Fabre, who he rode 35 winners for. However, Murzabayev has subsequently relocated back to Germany where he is firmly established and continues to ride winners for several trainers including Schiergen.

This will be Bauyrzhan’s first time riding at the Shergar Cup, but he has shown in the past he can adjust to new surroundings quickly. On a short-term visit to Japan in 2022, he was nothing short of sensational, winning 21 races from 85 rides, including a shock Grade One victory on 90-1 shot Dura Erede in the Hopeful Stakes.

Jose-Luis Borrego

Jose-Luis, who is known as the ‘Spanish Steve Cauthen’ or ‘El Nino’ (the kid) due to his youthful looks and similar riding style, might be making his Shergar Cup debut, but he has long been regarded as one of Spain’s leading big-race riders and hails from a family steeped in Spanish racing, with his twin brother, an uncle and three cousins all accomplished jockeys.

Borrego had his first ride as an amateur at just 14 and went on to be Spain’s champion apprentice in 1995 as an 18-year-old. He has ridden 435 winners (400 in Spain and 35 in France) and among his 17 local Group Ones are a multiple of Classics, including the Derby, the 2000 Guineas on two occasions and the St Leger.

One of the more incredible stories of world racing occurred in Madrid 10 years ago when Jose-Luis’ mount tripped up innocuously 50 metres from the line and proceeded to roll over him twice. His heart stopped beating for seven minutes despite the emergency crew pumping away with most fearing the worst. However, he was revived and made a full recovery, and in his 34th year of riding will realise a long-held ambition to ride at Ascot, a venue he considers to be the pinnacle of worldwide racing.

Alberto Sanna

Alberto is another rider making his Shergar Cup debut, but as a multiple Classic winner at home in Italy, where he was also champion apprentice, champion jockey in both Bahrain and Qatar and having had a two-year stint in one of the toughest jockey rooms in world racing, Hong Kong, Alberto is a highly-experienced rider with wealth of international experience.

His career highlights include the German 2000 Guineas on two occasions, the Italian 2000 Guineas, the Group Three Sa Sa Ladies Purse in Hong Kong, and a thrice winner of Qatar’s most prestigious thoroughbred race, H H The Amir Trophy, most recently last year aboard the former Aidan O’Brien-trained Royal Ascot winner Russian Emperor.

Sanna has made just the one visit to Great Britain, 20 years ago when seventh on Zandeed for trainer Linda Perratt (ironically, two spots behind a rival ridden by Ladies team captain Hayley Turner) in a Racing School apprentice handicap at Doncaster. He has made no secret of the fact he wants to travel the globe as a big-race jockey, and there would no better springboard to achieve that ambition than to ride a winner at arguably the most famous racecourse of them all.

Watch all the action from the Shergar Cup live on Sky Sports Racing