Japanese superstar Yutaka Take and three-time German champion Andreas Suborics return for world's premier international jockeys' competition
Californian ace Aaron Gryder, best known internationally for his victory on Well Armed in the 2009 Dubai World Cup, rising Hong Kong star Matthew Chadwick and reigning Italian champion Cristian Demuro will all make their Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup debuts at Ascot on Saturday, August 11.
The line-up for the Rest of the World team of male jockeys is confirmed today as Yutaka Take (Captain, Japan), Aaron Gryder (USA) and Matthew Chadwick (Hong Kong).
The line-up for the European team of male jockeys will be Frankie Dettori (Captain, Italy), if he is available to ride, with his team-mates Andreas Suborics (Germany) and Cristian Demuro (Italy).
The line-up for the Great Britain & Ireland male team will be announced closer to the event.
The three male teams will go against the first ever all-female team to take part in an international jockeys' competition, made of up of arguably the world's three top female riders, Hayley Turner (Captain, UK), Chantal Sutherland (Canada/USA) and Emma-Jayne Wilson (Canada). This line-up was announced in April.
Yutaka Take, 43, the legendary Japanese superstar who has been crowned champion jockey in his homeland no less than 18 times and who has ridden four Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup winners in his five appearances in the competition to date, will captain the Rest of the World Team.
The highly experienced Aaron Gryder, 42, will fly in from San Francisco to have his first experience of riding in Britain since 1992. He has won titles at Churchill Downs, Arlington Park and Aqueduct and also had a successful stint in Hong Kong, but is best known for his Dubai World Cup win which was achieved by a stunning margin of a 14 lengths, a record for the world's richest horse race.
Matthew Chadwick, who turns 22 next week, promises to be the best ever home-grown jockey in Hong Kong. He will have his first taste of racing in Britain when he spends a few weeks with trainer Charlie Hills in Lambourn later this month, with agent Laura Way booking his rides. He started as an apprentice in Hong Kong well into the 2008/9 season, yet still won the champion apprentice title with 43 winners and rode out his claim in January, 2010, in a Hong Kong record of one year and three weeks.
Frankie Dettori, 41, has not been able to take part in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup since 2008, but with three retained jockeys now riding for Godolphin, the hope is that the three-time UK champion jockey may be free to ride this year.
Andreas Suborics, three times champion jockey in Germany, took part in one previous Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup, back in 2007. Ironically that was the last time August 11 was the date for the Shergar Cup - it is Suborics' birthday which he will once again celebrate at Ascot, this time bringing his family over with him as he turns 41.
Cristian Demuro, Mirco's younger brother, won the Italian championship last year at the age of just 19 after riding 222 winners during the season. He partnered 153 winners in 2010 to finish second in the table and has also ridden winners in Japan, where he has spent two successful stints, and Dubai. The young Italian phenomenon will turn 20 this Sunday.
Nick Smith, Head of Communications for Ascot Racecourse, said: "This promises to be the most exciting Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup in the event's history, with the first all-female team and more international jockeys taking part than ever before, some legends in their own countries and some who are rapidly rising young stars."
Dubai Duty Free Executive Vice Chairman, Colm McLoughlin, commented: "The international aspect is one of the most attractive elements of the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup to us as a global brand.
"We are thrilled to be helping to create an opportunity for racegoers in the UK to see so many of horseracing's top international stars in action at one of the world's most famous sporting venues."
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