Silver Saddle winner Chadwick catapults Team Rest of the
World to Shergar Cup victory
by Brisnet.com
Team Rest of the World captured the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup jockey
competition at Ascot on Saturday with 89 total points. Team member Matthew
Chadwick finished second in the first, second and third legs of the contest
before finally visiting the winner’s circle in the final race, the Shergar Cup
Sprint, on Mince to take the Silver Saddle award for being the leading jockey on
Saturday with 45 points. His victory was also judged the ride of the day.
“Mince traveled beautifully, hit the front and she wasn’t going to lose,”
said Chadwick, who represented Hong Kong on Team Rest of the World. “It was a
big team effort from the other two boys — it’s all about consistency and we
managed to pull it off.
Chadwick, who was the champion apprentice in 2008/9 season in his native Hong
Kong, was thrilled with his time at the Shergar Cup.
“I am delighted to win the Silver Saddle — this is a once in a life time
moment,” he said.
Team Europe finished second with 55 points, just edging the inaugural The
Girls Team by one point. The Great Britain & Ireland Team rounded out the
competition with 46 points.
Yutaka Take, the team captain of Rest of the World, was delighted at the
triumph for his team. He did not have a winner himself on Saturday but still
managed to accrue 24 points and finish in fourth-place for the Silver Saddle.
“I am very happy,” Take said. “With it being the year of the Olympics, we
were aiming for gold. I was pleased with how I got on today — I did not have
any winners myself but my team mates both won. I love coming to Ascot and the
Shergar Cup and, if possible, it would be great to return next year.”
It wasn’t all roses for Take, though, as he received a ban after his second
on Ahzeemah in the Shergar Cup Classic. The stewards found he used his whip
above the permitted level and gave him a four-day ban (August 25-28 inclusive).
The Girls Team’s Chantal Sutherland, who finished second on Galician in the
final race, also received a four-day whip ban earlier in the afternoon. It
won’t, however, affect her ride on Game on Dude in the Grade 1 Pacific Classic
at Del Mar on August 26 as she can defer the ban for that day
“It is a Grade 1 race so I can defer the ban which is good because Game on
Dude is my life,” Sutherland said. “It was so close in the last race. Galician
is a nice filly and Mark Johnston is an awesome trainer. His horses are
beautiful movers, smart and they know how to run. His horses are tight and ready
— I like him. If I ever come back to England, I want to ride for him.
“It was a good day and experience,” she added.
Saturday’s crowd came to 30,062, just shy of the 30,768 who attended in 2011.
“It has been a wonderful afternoon,” said Nick Smith, Ascot’s head of
communications & international racing. “Once again, the Dubai Duty Free Shergar
Cup has proved remarkably popular.
“The attendance is our biggest crowd outside Royal Ascot. It was particularly
good to see the Rest of the World team break the Great Britain and Ireland
stranglehold and remarkably two of their jockeys had never ridden at Ascot
before.”
The competition got underway in the Shergar Cup Mile, with the Great Britain
& Ireland Team captain Kieren Fallon offering up an inspirational ride to score
aboard Boom and Bust.
“I had a bit of a soft lead — Hayley (Turner), who is the horse’s regular
rider, had told me all about him and that he doesn’t stop trying, which is what
happened today,” Fallon said. “To be fair, she was spot on about him. When the
other horse came to me, I did think he was going to go by me but my little lad
wasn’t going to let that happen and just stuck his head out. He’s game.”
Boom and Bust’s win put the Great Britain & Ireland Team in second-place with
18 points behind Team Rest of the World with 19. Fallon earned 15 points for the
win, while James Doyle added another three to that total when finishing fifth
aboard Dubai Dynamo.
However, Chadwick’s second aboard Trade Storm and Aaron Gryder’s fourth with
Mull of Killough gave Team Rest of the World 15 points. Take picked up another
four points for the team when his horse Stevie Thunder failed to go in the
stalls and became a non-runner.
The Girls Team got on the board with seven points when Hayley Turner piloted
Boogie Shoes to a third-place finish. Frankie Dettori, captain of Team Europe,
was left disappointed at the outcome, saying, “It was nil points for us after
Cristian (Demuro) came eighth and I was ninth. We will have to do better.”
It didn’t take long for Team Europe to do better, as Andreas Suborics had his
first ever winner at Ascot when taking the second race of the competition — the
Shergar Cup Stayers — on Address Unknown. The win was made even more poignant
by the fact that Saturday was his 41st birthday.
“This is my first ever winner at Ascot and I am very happy, and it is even
more special because it is my birthday and it is in England, the motherland of
horseracing,” Suborics said. “I had a very good gate number and when I kicked
after the leader he got up to him a furlong from home, but when he got in front
he stopped a little bit — but he is still a very good winner.”
The win leapfrogged Team Europe from last to second-place with a total of 22
points as Dettori ran third aboard Mystery Star to add seven points to Suborics’
15-win total.
Chadwick padded Team Rest of the World’s first-place standing with 32 overall
points by steering Woolfall Treasure to second in the race, and Take helped him
with a fifth-place run aboard Becausewecan. Chadwick also took over the Silver
Saddle race with 20 points.
The Great Britain & Ireland Team was shut out, but the The Girls’ Emma-Jayne
Wilson finished fourth to claim five points and bring her team’s total to 12.
Desert Law won by a short head in the next race, the Shergar Cup Dash, under
Demuro to bring Team Europe within 12 points of competition leader Team Rest of
the World.
“This is my first winner in the UK and at Ascot it is fantastic,” said Demuro,
who gave up several rides in Italy on Saturday to take part in the Shergar Cup.
“I knew nothing about Ascot before I came here other than what I had seen on the
television.”
A flying dismount, a la Dettori, signaled Demuro’s delight in his victory,
though it was somewhat dimmed when he picked up a four-day holiday from the
stewards for excessive use of the whip.
“This is the first time I have done a flying dismount but I am Italian like
Frankie (Dettori),” he grinned.
Chadwick and Take continued racking up points for Team Rest of the World by
finishing second and third aboard Taajub and Ahtough, respectively. Chadwick
remained on top of the Silver Saddle standings with 30 points.
Turner crossed the line in fourth aboard Steps to bring The Girls Team total
to 17, while Fallon’s fifth on Lui Rei boosted the Great Britain & Ireland Team
total to 21.
Sun Central put in a winning display with James Doyle on board in the Shergar
Classic to keep the Great Britain & Ireland Team in the hunt for the Shergar Cup
next out.
“It is fantastic to ride a winner,” Doyle said. “To be asked to (ride in the
Shergar Cup) is a privilege but to ride a winner is unbelievable. I was very
pleased with the way he did it. He is a big baby so it was good.”
After four races, the Great Britain & Ireland Team were lying third with 36
points, 23 points behind leader Team Rest of the World (59). Take picked up
another 10 points for Team Rest of the World and jumped into second in the
Silver Saddle standings with his runner-up finish aboard Ahzeemah. He was seven
points behind Chadwick in that latter rivalry with two races to go.
The Girls were still in fourth with 27 points after Sutherland and Wilson ran
third and fifth aboard Scatter Dice and Ruacana, respectively. Team Europe clung
to second with 42 points after Demuro guided Repeater to a fourth-place finish.
Gryder rode Viking Storm to a half-length victory in the Shergar Cup
Challenge in the penultimate race to give Team Rest of the World an almost
unassailable lead in the Shergar Cup.
“I was hoping to just drop in and save some ground. I know how important that
is here,” Gryder said. “He was able to do that and sit in a nice pocket and we
just got a sweet trip. I had a lot in reserve and was able to get on through at
the end — it was a nice finish for him.”
Gryder, who flew in from California to have his first rides in Britain since
1992, added, “I have had a great time at the Shergar Cup and this only adds to
it.”
Team Rest of the World led the way with 74 points after five races. Team
Europe was in second with 47 points after Demuro scored yet another
fourth-placing, this time aboard Star Commander.
The Great Britain & Ireland Team were nipping at their heels, though, with 46
points following Johnny Murtagh’s second-place finish on Ittirad, and The Girls
Team racked up another 10 points to be in fourth with 37 total following
Turner’s third-place run on John Biscuit and Wilson’s fifth aboard John Louis.
Demuro was just five points behind Chadwick in the Silver Saddle standings
heading into the last race of the competition, the Shergar Cup Sprint, but
Chadwick put both the individual and team competitions out of reach with his
score on Mince.
Sutherland and Turner helped their team take third in the competition over
Team Great Britain and Ireland by filling out the top three in the Shergar Cup
Sprint on Galician and Lady Gorgeous. Suborics and Dettori managed to take the
runner-up spot for Team Europe with their fourth- and fifth-placings aboard
Heeraat and Big Note, respectively.
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