South African Doug Whyte, the record-breaking 10-times Champion Jockey in Hong Kong, will return to the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup for the first time in five years on Saturday 6th August as Captain of the Rest of the World Team.Whyte, 39, is nailed on for an 11th consecutive championship title when the season ends next month and remains the only jockey to ride 1,000 winners in Hong Kong. He will be joined in the world’s premier international jockeys’ competition by Japanese superstar, Yutaka Take.
Take, 42, has been crowned Champion Jockey in Japan on an unprecedented 18 occasions and has ridden an all-time record of well over 3,000 winners in his country, where he is revered as a sporting icon.
The third member of the team is Hugh Bowman, one of the top five jockeys in Australia who was crowned champion in Sydney in 2008-09. The 30-year-old is back in the UK for a short period riding for Mick Channon, with whom he spent a successful stint in 2007.
All three jockeys have excelled in past Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cups, making them a formidable combination for the Rest of the World Team this year.
Since it became an international jockeys’ competition in 2001, Whyte has ridden in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup three times (2002, 2003 and 2006), finishing second in the Silver Saddle table for the top jockey in 2003 when he rode two winners.
Take has taken part four times (2003, 2004, 2007 and 2008), finishing second in the Silver Saddle table in 2008 when he notched up two winners to add to the one he rode in 2007.
Bowman has ridden in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup once before, in 2007, when he made a huge impact, winning the Silver Saddle as the day’s top jockey (he rode a winner, a second, a third and fourth) and captaining the Rest of the World Team to victory with Take alongside him. That is the last time that the Rest of the World Team was victorious.
Colm McLoughlin, Managing Director of title sponsor Dubai Duty Free, said: “We are delighted to see such a strong contingent representing the Rest of the World.
“The competition for places in all the teams further endorses the growing profile of the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup and we look forward to seeing some of the world’s leading riders competing on one of the world’s greatest stages.”
Ascot’s Head of International Racing, Nick Smith, said: “This has to be the strongest and most experienced Rest of the World Team that we have ever assembled for the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup.
“Doug Whyte and Yutaka Take are nothing short of legends in the Far East where they have broken every riding record, while Hugh Bowman is one of Australia’s very best jockeys and rode our tracks so well when he was here in 2007, taking that year’s Shergar Cup by storm.
“Ireland has won the Team competition for the last two years, but I’m sure the Rest of the World will make a bold bid for victory this year. We will be announcing the teams to represent Great Britain, Ireland and Europe in a few weeks’ time. ”
The six races will be followed by a two-hour 80s concert with a line-up including Jason Donovan, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, Jimmy Somerville, Paul Young, Toyah, China Crisis and Altered Images.
It is Ascot’s best attended raceday outside the Royal Meeting with a crowd of around 30,000 expected. Tickets (Premier £40; Grandstand £26) can be booked in advance with a minimum 10% discount (higher discounts available for group bookings) at ascot.co.uk or by calling 0870 727 1234.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:Nick Smith, Head of Public Relations and International Racing, Ascot, 07771 791449
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! was initially created in 1969 and has been watched by millions of children for over 40 years. Shaggy, Fred, Velma, Daphne and Scooby-Doo travel around in their Mystery Machine van, solving any scary mysteries they come across. The producers have created numerous follow-ups and spin-off's of the animated series. It has become so successful that two blockbuster movies were produced enabling children to watch Scooby-Doo and his friends on the big screen! The latest instalment of Scooby-Doo was broadcasted on television in July 2010. We hope to see more of this lovable dog on our screens and you'll get the opportunity very soon to meet Scooby-Doo in person on Sunday 24th July. We look forward to seeing you there!
Toyah Wilcox is an award-winning rock legend whose musical career exploded into the charts in 1981 with ‘It’s a Mystery’, followed by chart topping hits ‘Thunder in the Mountains’ and ‘I Want to be Free’. She has had 13 top 40 singles, recorded 20 albums and travelled the world entertaining her fans.
Yeats, now standing at Coolmore Stud in Ireland, was owned by Mrs John Maagnier and Mrs David Nagle, trained by Aidan O’Brien, and ridden by Kieren Fallon (2006), Michael Kinane (2007) and Johnny Murtagh (2008 and 2009). The statue will be unveiled at Royal Ascot and in his own words Charlie Langton talks in glowing terms of the challenge:
“I had my own very strong mental image of Yeats parading around the ring at Ascot to add to this information and therefore I could establish a pose that married all these elements. He always carried his head in a very distinctive way and later on in his career, as his neck developed, he became instantly recognisable. He is beautifully proportioned. From the side he is deep and powerfully built, especially through the shoulder he is sinuous and yet every line flows with an effortless grace. From the front he is streamlined and slender - even his ears are close together when pricked. It is easy to see why he had so much success when considering this combination of power and aerodynamism.
“Having made a one quarter scale maquette of Yeats I began work on the ten per cent over life-size version in October 2010. The process involves a steel armature, on top of which I added clay - over forty bags were needed (more than one tone). Over sixty measurements taken from Yeats were used along with video footage, my sketches and maquettes, and I also made trips back to Coolmore to refresh my eye. He took over eight hundred hours to sculpt.
Sent off a relatively well fancied 8/1 shot, the daughter of Pivotal was clearly well at home on the rain softened ground and under Gerard Mosse was settled nicely at the rear of the field as Irish raider Claiomh Solais led the runners once the gates opened. The Richard Hannon trained Memory was pulling frantically for her head during the opening exchanges, but the order remained unchanged as the 13 runners swung into the home straight. It was at that point that Kevin Manning kicked the long-time leader a couple of lengths clear as her rivals seemed to be treading water for a couple of strides. However, Mosse had angled his mount to the outside and began to eat up the ground as they hit top gear. As she hit the front inside the final furlong the contest was as good as over and she strode powerfully clear to score by an impressive two and a quarter lengths.
Jimmy Somerville is renowned for his unusually high pitched voice in the group Bronski Beat which had a number of hits in the British charts, including its most famous ‘Small Town Boy’. In 1985, Jimmy left Bronski Beat to form The Communards, which had two successful albums and stayed in the charts with a cover version of the famous soul classic ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’.
Ascot has announced that Adrian Edmondson and the Bad Shepherds will play live on the Saturday of the Beer Festival. The Bad Shepherds will be entertaining racegoers by playing punk songs on folk instruments. The band believes the songs by The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stranglers, The Jam, Sham 69, The Undertones, The Buzzcocks, The Ramones, The Specials, Talking Heads, Squeeze and others bands of a similar genre are better than people remember.
Adrian Edmondson of the Bad Shepherds stated, ‘The Bad Shepherds are all in training for our appearance at Ascot Racecourse - I am good for two furlongs as long as the ground is not too firm. Unfortunately, Troy Donockley is not much good over jumps but Andy Dinan goes quite quickly if you dangle free beer tokens in front of his face…’
John Blake, Head of Sales and Marketing at the Berkshire track, added: ‘The Ascot Beer Festival continues to go from strength to strength. Since its inception, we have gone from selling 6,500 pints in 2007 to a massive 23,000 pints in 2010. The introduction of a live act such as Adrian Edmonson and the Bad Shepherds on the Saturday heralds in a new era for the Ascot Beer Festival and establishes it as one of the must-attend Beer Festivals in the UK’.
Tickets start from just £12 on the Friday and £17 on the Saturday. To book call 0870 727 1234 or visit ascot.co.uk. Gates and bars open at 11am with the first race at 2pm. A voucher system will be in operation for all Beer Festival ales, perries and ciders. A half pint is priced at £1.50 and a pint £3.00. A limited edition commemorative oversized pint glass is available for £4 as well as Ascot Tercentenery Ale brewed by Fuller’s to commemorate Ascot’s 300th year. 
Kid Creole and the Coconuts, formed in 1980 after Dr Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band split up. August Darnell - the bassist from the band - adopted the name Kid Creole and formed his group along with a glamorous trio of female backing vocalists known as the Coconuts. This peculiar name was inspired by Cab Calloway and Hollywood films of the 1930s and 40s. For over 30 years the band have been entertaining thousands of crowds around the world, recording 23 albums which included hits like ‘Lifeboat Party’, ‘Gina Gina’, ‘I’m A Wonderful Thing’ and ‘Me No Pop I’.