S’manga Khumalo to ride in the Shergar Cup
S’manga Khumalo’s legion of fans was bitterly disappointed when he was denied the chance to vie for a second consecutive Vodacom Durban July win. However, there has been some consolation in the form of an invitation to ride at this year’s running of the prestigious Shergar Cup.
Shergar, owned by the His Highness The Aga Khan, was one of the finest Derby winners of the 20th century and without argument the best racehorse of his generation with a Timeform rating of 140. Valued at £10 million, the colt retired to the Aga Khan’s Ballymany Stud in Ireland and was famously kidnapped by masked IRA gunmen on 3 February 1983. A £2-million ransom was demanded and refused and Shergar’s fate remains a mystery.
The Shergar Cup was commissioned by The Aga Khan and depicts the mighty 1981 Derby and King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner.
The cup is awarded to the winner of The Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup, the world’s premier international jockeys’ competition, which takes place on Saturday, 9 August 2014. The competition comprises four teams of three riders each. The teams are Great Britain and Ireland (GBI); Europe (EUR); the Rest of the World (ROW); and The Girls (GIRLS) and the teams will do battle in a six-race showdown. S’manga has been invited to compete as part of the Rest Of The World team.
Allocation of Horses To Teams and Jockeys to Mounts
1. In all races, the horses selected to run will be those with highest official BHA ratings.
2. Once the final fields are known, the 10 runners in each race will be ranked from 1 to 10 by form experts/odds compilers from Ladbrokes, the Official Bookmaker to the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup. A complex formula has been created to ensure that each of the four teams receives a balanced spread of higher and lower ranked/priced horses and, further to that, that each of the three jockeys representing each team also gets a balanced spread of higher and lower ranked/priced horses for his/her five rides.
3. Once the ranking process has been completed, the four team names will go into a ballot. The order in which they are randomly drawn will determine which set of horses is allocated to each team.
4. A second ballot will then take place. The three jockeys representing each team will be drawn at random to determine an order (e.g. The Girls 1, The Girls 2 & The Girls 3) and will then be allocated to their rides according to the set formula.
5. The allocation of rides by this method will be final. Any trainer declaring a horse to run at the 48-hour declaration stage is deemed to have accepted these conditions.
6. All owners of participating horses agree that jockeys will wear the colours of the team which they represent as part of an agreement with the Racehorse Owners Association
All horses entered are eligible to represent one of the four teams, regardless of ownership, and to be ridden by any of the jockeys participating in the competition. The six races will be limited to 10 runners and two reserves.
The Competition
Points are awarded to the first five horses to finish in each of the six Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup races as follows – winner: 15 points; second: 10 points; third: 7 points; fourth: 5 points; fifth: 3 points. If there is a non-runner which cannot be replaced by a reserve, 4 points will be awarded both to the team and jockey missing out on the ride. If a dead-heat occurs in a race, the points for the two places are added together, divided by two and shared between the two jockeys/teams. The team with the most points after the six races have been run will receive the Shergar Cup at the closing ceremony.
If there is a tie for the Team or Silver Saddle competitions, there will be a countback on the number of winners and the team/jockey with the most winners will be adjudged the winner overall; if they are still level, then 2nd places will be counted, then if necessary 3rd places, then if necessary 4th places. If they are still level, there will be joint winners.
Silver Saddle
The jockey amassing the most individual points will take home additional prizemoney, plus the “Silver Saddle” trophy. Previous winners include David Flores in 2001, Richard Hughes in 2002, Kieren Fallon in 2003, Weichong Marwing in 2004, Ryan Moore in 2006, Hugh Bowman in 2007, Gerald Mosse in 2008, Richard Hughes for a second time in 2009, Fran Berry in 2010, Paul Hanagan in 2011and Matthew Chadwick in 2012 and Gerald Mosse in 2013.
South Africa has been well represented at the competition with Douglas Whyte riding in 2002, 2003, 2006 and 2011, Anton Marcus in 2010 and Weichong Marwing, who won the Silver Saddle in 2004.
Khumalo’s agent, Justin Vermaak, commented ‘It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity and S’manga is really looking forward to it.’
