Rosie Napravnik and Lisa Allpress, the best female jockey that New Zealand
has ever produced, will join Britain’s best, Hayley Turner (Captain), in the
Girls Team for the 2013 Shergar Cup at Ascot on August 10.
Meanwhile, Gary Stevens (Captain) will be joined on the Rest of the World
team by Japanese ace Yasunari Iwata, who has won three Japan Cups including the
last two on Buena Vista and Gentildonna, and Brazilian star Joao Moreira, who is
currently re-rewriting the record books in Singapore.
Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman of the sponsoring Dubai Duty Free,
welcomed the news.
“We are delighted to be bringing together a group of top international riders
and creating a unique opportunity for the public to see them in action on the
same stage,” McLoughlin said. “We look forward to revealing the European
contingent who will complete the line-up (Teams Europe and Great Britain and
Ireland) after the Irish Derby at the end of June.”
Napravnik, 25, is currently ranked second in wins and fifth in earnings on
the North American leader board. She finished eighth in the jockeys’ earnings
lists last year, which was the highest place ever by a female jockey. She became
the first female jockey to win the prestigious Kentucky Oaks on Believe You Can
and won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile on Shanghai Bobby.
Last weekend, following her third consecutive meet title at the Fair Grounds
in New Orleans, she finished fifth on Mylute in the Kentucky Derby and won a
pair of Grade 2 events Churchill Downs over the weekend.
Allpress, 37 and a mother of two, was the first female to pass 1,000 winners
in New Zealand. She won the New Zealand premiership last season with 159 winners
after finishing second with 145 winners the year before. She has ridden over 90
group and stakes winners and will take up a three-month contract in Singapore
later in the year.
“It is a fantastic opportunity. I have always wanted to go to England…and
to go there and ride at Ascot, well that is just so wonderful,” Allpress said.
Hayley Turner, 30, a Shergar Cup regular who has ridden four winners in
the competition in the past, will captain the Girls Team.
Stevens, 50, made an unexpected return to the saddle in January of this year
after retiring in 2005. He did not take long to notch up a first graded victory,
taking the San Marcos aboard Slim Shadey on February 10.
Prior to his initial retirement, he became the youngest rider to surpass $100
million in earnings in 1993, was inducted into racing’s Hall of Fame in 1997,
won the Eclipse Award as the nation’s top jockey in 1998 and won three Kentucky
Derbys and eight Breeders’ Cup races. He also won the Dubai World Cup, Japan Cup
and had a very successful spell in the United Kingdom in 1999, including riding
a winner for The Queen at Royal Ascot on Blueprint. He also starred in the 2003
film, “Seabiscuit.”
Iwata, 39, was awarded Japan Racing Association’s most winning-jockey title
in 2011 and 2012, determined by races won and money earned. As well as three
Japan Cups, he also struck gold on his very first ride overseas in 2006 when he
traveled to Australia and won the Melbourne Cup on Delta Blues. He took part in
the 2010 Shergar Cup in which he was beaten a short head in the Shergar Cup
Classic.
“For Japanese jockeys, the Shergar Cup is undoubtedly one of the most
prestigious and aspired to competitions in the world and it is a great privilege
for me to be able to participate as a representative of Japanese racing,” Iwata
said. “I very much look forward to competing with so many world-class jockeys
including my great team mates, Gary and Joao. I can hardly wait for the race
day!”
Moreira, 29, the Brazilian-born champion jockey in Singapore for the last
three years, won last year’s championship by a staggering margin, riding 206
winners against the second place total of 72. He also won the Hong Kong
International Jockeys competition at Happy Valley last December.
“We set the bar really high in 2012 with our first all female team, with
Chantal Sutherland and Emma-Jayne Wilson competing alongside Hayley. So we are
particularly pleased in year two to have arguably the two outstanding riders in
their countries — of any sex — in Rosie and Lisa, joining Hayley this year,”
said Nick Smith, Head of International Racing at Ascot. “The Rest of the World
Team is also as strong as usual with Gary captaining a new face in Joao, who is
simply in a league of his own in Singapore, and Yasunari, who has won the last
two Japan Cups.”
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