Emma -Jayne Wilson
Emma-Jayne Wilson earned a swathe of new fans and stole the show at the Shergar Cup, winning two of the six races and losing a third in a photograph that seemed too close to call. The Canadian jockey perfectly caught the mood of this unusual raceday, hamming it up in her interviews between races, telling the crowd she wanted to hear them “yelling and screaming at the top of their lungs” as she went out for the last.
She was pipped for the Silver Saddle, given to the day’s leading rider, by Olivier Peslier, who won only one race but kept getting placed and so finished with 42 points to her 40. But this was Wilson’s breakthrough performance on British soil, considering she had twice taken part in past Shergar Cups and earned a combined total of 15 points.
“So close!” she said, wiping champagne from her eyes after Hayley Turner tipped an entire bottle of it over her head. “But that’s what horse racing’s all about, a good fight to the finish, keeps the crowd cheering and I hope everyone had as much fun as I did.” She was rueful about dropping her whip in a close finish in which Peslier beat her by inches, though she felt her horse had kept responding in any case.
It was, she said, “a feather in my cap” to finally get a winner at Ascot. Still, this card of £40,000 handicaps would definitely count as more of a day out for someone whose mounts have earned $57m over her career. The serious stuff comes on Sunday, when she is back at Woodbine for nine rides, having hopefully caught an 8pm flight to Toronto.
Feisty miss Wilson
Anything better than sixth on her final ride, an outsider, would have put her in front of Peslier and she was asked, as she entered the paddock if, in the circumstances, she would ride a conservative race and try to nick fifth. “I’m a competitor, I ride for the win every time,” she replied. “If it means that I cost myself the top spot, then it wasn’t meant to be but I’m here to win, I’m here to ride hard.”
One TV presenter, pushing his luck, had the audacity to tell her that, in action, she looked “like a man” and that he regarded this as a compliment.
“I’m not a female jockey, I’m just a jockey who happens to be female,” she said. “If you guys have been watching the races, you see inside the final two furlongs, I’m just as strong as any of those boys out there. Frankly, bring it on.”
In Canada, she reports, there is a valet who winds her up with a line adapted from the movie Cast Away, telling her: “Don’t worry Wilson, I’ll do the rowing, you just hang on.” She has adopted it as a kind of catchphrase and, though she does not make this claim herself, apparently she has supporters who cheer “keep on rowing” at her during races.
Despite the efforts of Turner, the winner of two British Group Ones, female jockeys are some way from achieving equality of opportunity here but Wilson says the situation is better in North America. “What’s been really important is, especially at Woodbine, there’s been some significant successful females who have paved the way and not just paved it, it’s like a highway nowadays. People don’t look at it as ‘girl jockeys’, it’s really not even a conversation.”
S’manga at Ascot
Wilson almost carried her Girls team to victory but they were pipped by the Europe team, which meant Frankie Dettori won something, despite finishing last in half of the races. “Three points, four lame horses! What a captain!” he said as he mounted the podium. He has had better days here.
South Africa’s S’manga Khumalo had 5 rides on the card, finishing 4th on Bondesire, 6th on Big Thunder, a neck 2nd on Tenor, 10th on Trip To Paris and 6th on No Leaf Clover.
Peslier topped the standings after five races and became the second Frenchman to win the Silver Saddle following on from dual winner Gerald Mosse, successful in 2008 and 2013.
Final team and individual standings were:-
Team
Europe: 69
Girls: 68
GB & Ireland: 52
Rest of the World: 51
Silver Saddle
Peslier: 42
Wilson: 40
Williams: 25
De Vries: 24
Queally: 22
Hofer: 18
Richard Hughes: 15
Fortune: 15
Khumalo: 15
Fukunaga: 11
Turner: 10
Dettori: 3
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