It was Chennai's fifth win from nine matches as they moved to third place in the points table with 10 points
cricket9 hours ago
And all it took were three women.
The Girls team put in a scintillating performance to outdo three men's teams to land the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup at Ascot for the very first time in 15 renewals of the team riding event on Saturday.
Last year must have hurt. The Girls team had come agonizingly close but missed out by just a point. But not this time, though.
Captain Emma-Jayne Wilson Hayley Turner and apprentice jockey Sammy Jo Bell claimed three of the six races at the Berkshire racetrack to beat out Rest of the World, Great Britain and Ireland and Europe.
The star of the day was Bell. A late replacement for the injured Cathy Gannon, the 24-year-old Bell raced to a double and a fourth place to also win the Alistair Haggis Silver Saddle award for the top jockey on the day. She beat out Australian Kerrin McEvoy and former British champion Jamie Spencer.
The award for the leading rider was named after Haggis, who had come up with the concept of an all-female team. Haggis died last November after a battle with Motor Neurone Disease.
Bell clinched her first winner on board the Mick Appleby-trained Royal Signaller in the Stayers event before completing her double by piloting Shell Bay, trained by Richard Hannon in the Shergar Cup Classic. She finished fourth on board Alfred Hutchinson in the Mile.
Canadian jockey Wilson had won the Shergar Cup Cup Challenge on Missed Call and then finished fourth on Primrose Valley in the Sprint event. Turner clinched the contest with a second place on Squats.
"I'm on top of the world," said Bell, who had to sit out the final race having used up her allocation of mounts.
"I sat curled up in a ball in the weighing room too scared to look. It's back to reality tomorrow, working at Richard Fahey's stable in Yorkshire," she added.
There was an unreal air about proceedings as Britain's new pin-up jockey along with her teammates took their prizes from Colm McLoughlin, Executive Vice Chairman of Dubai Duty Free, their jubilant screams drowning out even those of the cheerleaders. "We nailed it," said team captain, Canadian Wilson emphatically.
Ten riders from seven countries took part in the competition and the quality of the fields was right up to Ascot standard - for three of the contests no horse was rated less than 90 and in the other three the top rated in each race was over 90.
The jockeys included last year's top man, the incomparable Frenchman Olivier Peslier; Germany's champion Adrie de Vries and France's former champion jumps jockey Vincent Cheminaud whose switch to the flat brought him instant fame winning this year's French Derby. He'd also won France's top steeplechase - and Graham Lee who has made the same transition, has a Grand National on his trophy shelf. He is established high in the British flat riders' elite and was joined by two champions, Jamie Spencer and Pat Smullen in the Great Britain and Ireland team.
james@khaleejtimes.com
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