Frankie Dettori, captain of Team Europe, took the world’s premier international jockeys’ competition at Ascot on Saturday when he was victorious in the 2014 Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup.

 

Europe, whose team included Dutch rider Adrie de Vries, won by one point from The Girls, while Olivier Peslier took the Silver Saddle as leading rider for the first time.

 

Runner-up to the former French champion was Canada’s star jockey Emma-Jayne Wilson who had two wins to Peslier’s one, but the Frenchman overtook her with more points for placings.

 

Consolation was found in the DDF Ride of the Day Award judged by two former Irish Derby winners, Joe Mercer and John Reid, which she claimed for her masterful ride aboard Don’t Call Me in the DDF Shergar Cup Mile. Four races were decided by photo-finishes – two by a nose.

 

DDF Executive Vice Chairman Colm McLoughlin, comments: “We are delighted to be sponsors of the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup.  It is a very special event that brings some of the world’s top jockeys together at one of the world’s sporting venues.”

 

Dubai Duty Free is committed to the event for three more years and has enhanced its support by adding all six races to title sponsorship. A crowd of almost 30,000 more than matched previous year’s attendance.

 

The competition has been won on five of the previous thirteen occasions by the Rest of the World team, while Europe romped home for the second year running. This year the total prize fund for each race was up £10,000 to £40,000.

 

The Rest of the World struck first in the Dash through Craig Williams on Goldream in a fighting finish with Olivier Peslier. In winning that race, Williams, a leading rider in his native Australia, accumulated more points (15) than on his two previous Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup visits.

 

The biggest cheer of the day was raised when – in another photo-finish – British champion Richard Hughes and Highland Acclaim had it on the nod from fellow Great Britain & Ireland rider Jimmy Fortune and Golden Steps.

 

[Pictured above: Dubai Duty Free officials headed by Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman together with George Horan, President,  Salah Tahlak, Senior Vice President-Corporate Communications, Ramesh Cidambi, Senior Vice President-IT & Logistics and Sinead El Sibai, Vice President-Marketing, with Team Europe, winner of the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup 2014, at the awarding ceremony.]