Shergar Cup at Ascot

The Shergar Cup with 6 races - all valuable handicaps. run at Ascot this afternoon- is an interesting innovation and with some top jockeys from all over the world seems certain to attract a large crowd today. Richard Hughes, in tremendous form this season, was the individual winner last year and also captained the victorious Irish team, and will be hoping for similar results this time; his team colleagues are Pat Smullen and Fran Berry.

The British team is captained by Hayley Turner, who is backed up by Jim Crowley and Alan Munro, while Europe is represented by Olivier Peslier (captain), Christophe Soumillon and Umberto Rispoli, and the rest of the world by Anton Marcus, Luke Nolan and Yasunari Iwata. All are top jockeys, though the rest of the world riders may be slightly handicapped as they have no experience of the track. One idea which does not seem so good is that all the jockeys will be wearing their team colours (rather than owners´) which may make the races difficult to follow, especially for the course commentator.

All 6 races look very open, and the trainers to follow could be Mark Johnston, who has multiple entries in some races, and Andrew Balding, while previous winners here are Strategic Mount, who won the 1 1/2 mile at 17.30 CET in 2007 and 2008, and Benandonner, who took the mile race at 16.20 way back in 2007. For the record, our very tentative selections are: Prohibit (Robert Cowell/ Soumillon) in the 5 furlongs dash at 15.10, Opera Gal (Balding/ Rispoli) in the 3yo 1 1/2 mile race at 15.45, Vitznau (Richard Hannon/ Peslier) in the mile handicap at 16.20 (holds ex-German Aspectus on latest Goodwood form), top-weight Lady Eclair (Johnston/ Marcus) in the 2 miler at 16.55, Emerging Artist (Johnston/ Hughes) in the 1 1/2 handicap at 17.30 and Bella Swan (Walter Swinburn/ Hughes) in the 6 furlongs race for 3yo´s at 18.05.

Bookmakers make Europe narrow favourites to win from Ireland, while Peslier and Hughes are the two favourits for the individual title.

Betting forecast:
1. Race: Secret Asset - Prohibit - Monsieur Joe
2. Race: Yashrid - Opera Gal - Life And Soul
3. Race: Vitznau - Benandonner - Marajaa
4. Race: Lady Eclair - Bernie The Bolt - Colloquial
5. Race: Emerging Artist - Seeking The Buck - Strategic Mount
6. Race: Gramercy - Gene Autry - Star Rover