Ascot’s Dubai Shergar Cup is latest meeting to be cancelled

The winning Girls Team (from left to right) Sammy Jo Bell, Emma-Jayne Watson and Hayley Turner pose with the trophy after the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup at Ascot Racecourse, Ascot. PRESS ASSOCIATION Photo. Picture date: Saturday August 8, 2015. See PA story RACING Ascot. Photo credit should read: Julian Herbert/PA Wire. Use subject to restrictions. Editorial use only, no commercial or promotional use. No private sales. Call +44 (0)1158 447447 for further information.

ASCOT has cancelled this year’s Dubai Shergar Cup meeting due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The popular team competition, which was scheduled for August 8, features four squads of international jockeys competing over six races at the Berkshire venue, with a concert after racing.

Famously Yorkshire-based Sammy Jo Bell helped the Girls’ Team record a famous victory in 2015.

However, with travel restrictions currently in place and crowds at sporting events prohibited, Ascot has acted now. Director of racing and public affairs Nick Smith said: “Regrettably, given the complexities of flying jockeys around the world and uncertainty over what Governmental regulations will be in place at the time, the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup won’t take place this year.”

Guy Henderson, chief executive at Ascot, added: “Following discussions with long-term event partners Dubai Duty Free, we decided that this event, even if logistically possible, wouldn’t be the same without crowds and that the best option was to plan ahead to return with the event in 2021.”

Ascot is hoping to stage a normal raceday on August 8 instead, with the track also confirming its meetings until September will be run behind closed doors.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.

If you want to help right now, download our tablet app from the App / Play Stores. Every contribution you make helps to provide this county with the best regional journalism in the country.

Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor