Jamie Spencer has long been a master on hold-up horses and he produced a peach of a ride as the William Haggas-trained Victory Day (7/4f) came from last to first to win the £60,000 Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Sprint.
Spencer, riding for the Great Britain & Ireland team produced the three-year-old son of Bated Breath to perfection in the six-furlong contest as they took the lead in the closing stages to record a length win.
“That was a good performance from Victory Day. He is a very good horse
“Victory Day should have won at York last time, but he is a typical William Haggas improver.
“He looks to be a Group horse in a handicap and he did that very well.
“I rode him like the best horse today. We didn’t go that fast and they drifted towards the middle of the rail and given my draw in stall 12, I was able to go down the fence and run on strongly.
“It is nice to get a winner at the Shergar Cup after a tough day for the Great Britain & Ireland team.”
After the final race at today’s Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup, the Rest of the World were crowned the winning team with 86 points. Team Europe and The Girls were joint-second with 63 points and Great Britain & Ireland finished with 28 points.
For the second year in succession, The Girls captain Hayley Turner won the Alistair Haggis Silver Saddle with 40 points.
RESULT 6
4:00pm £60,000 Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Sprint 6f
1 (12) Victory Day (IRE) 3 9 11 William Haggas Clipper Logistics Jamie Spencer GBI 7/4FAV
2 (2) Pass The Vino (IRE) 3 9 10 Paul D’Arcy Rowley Racing Hayley Turner GIRLS 9/2
3 (10) Woven 3 9 7 David Simcock Never Say Die Partnership Yuga Kawada ROW 25/1
4 (1) Kinks 3 9 9 Mick Channon David Hudd, Chris Wright & Ann Black Adrie de Vries EUR 10/1
5 (11) Jack’s Point 3 9 9 William Muir Mr C. L. A. Edginton Gerald Mosse EUR 11/1
6 (8) Barbill (IRE) 3 9 13 Mick Channon Mrs Susan Bunney Mark Zahra ROW 10/1
7 (5) Magical Wish (IRE) 3 9 12 Richard Hannon Middleham Park Racing XXXV Vincent C. Y. Ho ROW 12/1
8 (3) Hero Hero (IRE) 3 9 9 Andrew Balding King Power Racing Co Ltd Danny Tudhope GBI 4/1
9 (4) Junius Brutus (FR) 3 9 13 Ralph Beckett King Power Racing Co Ltd Jamie Kah GIRLS 20/1
10 (7) The Cruising Lord 3 10 0 Michael Attwater Mrs M. S. Teversham Filip Minarik EUR 25/1
Time: 1m 14.44s
Distances: 1, 1, nk, hd, ½, 2, 1¾, nk, 2¼
Tote win: £2.40 PL: £1.30 £1.50 £7.70 Ex: £10.90 CSF: £9.71 Tricast: £147.67 Trifecta: £296.10
DUBAI DUTY FREE SHERGAR CUP – final standings
86 ROW – the previous ROW success was in 2016 and before that in 2012
63 EUR
63 GIRLS
28 GBI
ALISTAIR HAGGIS SILVER SADDLE – final standings
40 Hayley Turner GIRLS – the first time a jockey has won this award in successive years
35 Mark Zahra ROW
32 Filip Minarik EUR
32 Vincent C. Y. Ho ROW
20 Gerald Mosse EUR
20 Jamie Spencer GBI
19 Yuga Kawada ROW
15 Jamie Kah GIRLS
11 Adrie de Vries EUR
8 Nanako Fujita (3) GIRLS
8 Tadhg O’Shea GBI
0 Danny Tudhope GBI