Changes made to Shergar Cup to have even split between male and female jockeys

The make-up of teams at Ascot's Shergar Cup has been changed to achieve an equal representation of male and female jockeys this year.

The Dubai Duty Free-sponsored event on August 10 will feature a Rest of the World team made up entirely of female riders as well as a Ladies team, in a short-term move as Ascot officials aim to settle on a new permanent format for 2025.

With three riders on each of the four teams – Ladies, Rest of the World, Europe and Great Britain & Ireland – it means there will be six female jockeys competing against six of their male counterparts at the Shergar Cup for the first time.

Nick Smith, Ascot's director of racing and public affairs, said: "We want to move towards 50-50 in terms of representation to reflect what is beginning to happen within the jockey ranks.

"The teams are going to remain the same this year in terms of their names, but we're going to populate the Rest of the World team entirely with women, so we have that split.

"In the future, we might restructure the teams to have something like Rest of the World Men, Rest of the World Women, Europe Men and Europe Women, but we're testing the concept of having 50-50 without changing the actual teams yet."

One area causing some concern in the potential new format is restricting the opportunities for British and Irish male jockeys, according to Smith.

"The way we're doing it this year will probably look slightly strange because you've got the Ladies team and then the Rest of the World team are all ladies as well," he said.

"However, we just want to think it through for another year because if we go to the structure I've mentioned, which does make editorial sense, it does mean significantly reducing opportunities for Great Britain, Ireland and Europe men because they'd have to go from six to just three.

"We're not quite ready to make that decision so we've found a balance to bring in six women and six men and maintain the participation of enough British and Irish male jockeys."

The Shergar Cup will take place at Ascot on August 10Credit: Alan Crowhurst/Getty Images

The Ladies team was introduced into the Shergar Cup in 2012 and since then they have been the most successful team with four victories in the points-based competition.

While the teams for this year have yet to be fully finalised, Hayley Turner, the most successful jockey in Shergar Cup history, will again captain the Ladies team and be joined by Saffie Osborne and French jockey Marie Velon.

Australian-based rider Rachel King, who was born in Britain and rode at Royal Ascot last week, will captain the Rest of the World team, with Bauyrzhan Murzabayev and Tadhg O'Shea doing likewise for Europe and Great Britain & Ireland respectively.  

Contemplating how the Shergar Cup, which began in 1999, might look in the future, Smith added: "We have to work through the issue that the Ladies team is so incredibly popular with the on-course audience, so having a Rest of the World Ladies and Europe Ladies is probably better for us than, for example, having 50 per cent of female jockeys split across the whole programme.

"Going to six women and six men is where we want to go and we don't see that being reversed. It's just a question of how we work through making sure we don't exclude too many male jockeys from the domestic teams."

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