ASCOT hosts one of the unique events of the Flat season this weekend in the Shergar Cup.
Four teams – Ladies, Great Britain & Ireland, Europe and Rest of the World – will each compete for points across six races at the Berkshire track.
Each team comprises three jockeys and this year riders from nine different countries will compete.
Last year, the Ladies’ team (pink silks), captained by Hayley Turner, emerged triumphant and once again Turner will be leading the Ladies in their bid for back-to-back titles.
Marie Vélon, the first French woman to win a French Group One, will join her alongside top northern-based jockey Joanna Mason.
Team Great Britain & Ireland (green silks) will be led by eight-time UAE Champion Jockey Tadhg O’Shea, along with 36-time Group One-winning rider Seamie Heffernan and 18-year-old Billy Loughnane, who is set to make his Shergar Cup debut.
They will face stiff competition from Team Europe (blue silks), captained by Kazakh rider Bauyrzhan Murzabayev, while Australian-based Rachel King will lead the Rest of the World team in yellow.
Points are awarded depending on finishing position, with horses that finish in the first five places scoring for their team.
A maximum of 10 horses will line up for each of the six races and that means many that are entered at this stage won’t get a run.
The Ian Williams-trained SILENT FILM is assured of a start in the day’s finale, the Shergar Cup Mile (4.30pm), and has past history in this event after finishing fourth in this race last year.
This six-year-old runs off a pound lower mark than 12 months ago and his most recent two starts prove he is in good form.
He wasn’t beaten far behind the talented Cicero’s Gift at Sandown last month, where Perrotto and Magic Memories both finished just ahead of him, and those horses are likely to be much shorter prices in the market here.
He then contested the fiercely competitive Golden Mile handicap at Glorious Goodwood last week, where he had no luck in running, with his rider forced to sit and suffer behind a wall of horses until manoeuvred to the outside and finishing well in the closing stages.
He would have got considerably closer with a clearer run, and if having more luck in running this time, he should have good claims.
A lot can depend on the jockey each horse is handed, as riders that have experience around Ascot hold an advantage.
We’ll have to see who takes the ride but regardless of pilot, at 20/1, he looks well worth chancing.
Before that there’s the Shergar Cup Challenge (2.45pm) over a mile-and-a-half, which features some less exposed types.
One of those is INSANITY who looks far from a madcap bet at around the 10/1 mark.
Alan King’s horses are running well at the moment with the yard having a winner and place from just four runners at Goodwood last week.
Insanity has only had eight career starts to date and, interestingly, the three of those that have come over this mile-and-a-half trip have resulted in two wins and a close second.
That single miss came over this course and distance last time on the back of returning from a 95-day break.
He stayed on strongly to lead inside the final furlong that day and was only run down in the dying strides by a well-treated handicap debutant.
It’s likely he needed that run and could be sharper now, and with that course form behind him he makes appeal at an each-way price.
POINTERS SATURDAY
Insanity e/w 2.45pm Ascot
Silent Film e/w 4.30pm Ascot