THOSE who held the belief that the large crowds supporting Shergar Cup Day at Ascot each year are more interested in the evening music concert than the racing were made to think again after last Saturday, writes Dave Wright.

The official attendance of 31,696 was more than 2,400 up on 2016 with 84 per cent arriving at the course by 1.15pm.

“That shows a large majority of this great crowd were keen to see the racing,” said Ascot’s director of communications and racing Nick Smith.

“With a capacity of about 12,000 for the concert (featuring Craig David and All Saints), the evidence is the majority of the crowd were here to fully embrace the racing, which is very gratifying. It shows the event and the structure are building well. All in all, it was a tremendous day.”

On the track, there were maximum fields for all six races as four teams of three jockeys battled it out for collective and individual honours.

Smith commented: “We were very pleased with how the races worked out.

“The algorithm that we used for the allocation of the jockeys was particularly pleasing, with three out of the four teams in with a chance of winning the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup coming into the last race. There were also seven jockeys capable of taking the Alistair Haggis Silver Saddle approaching the final contest.”

The team event was won by the Great Britain and Ireland trio of Jamie Spencer, Neil Callan and Fran Berry, thanks to the last named winning the final race aboard Golden Apollo. With Spencer third on Megan Lily, this left the team with 86 points.

Runners-up on 67 were the Rest of the World riders Kerrin McEvoy, Kelta Tosaki and Anthony Delpech.

Three points behind came Team Europe, represented by Dutch jockey Adrie De Vries, Italy’s Umberto Rispoli and German Alexander Pietsch.

The Girls – Emma-Jayne Wilson, Hayley Turner and Hollie Doyle, a late replacement for the unwell Michelle Payne – had a disappointing afternoon, trailing in last after only managing 23 points.

Individual honours went to Berry, whose 37 points earned him the Alistair Haggis Silver Saddle, with Spencer the runner-up with 32.

The Irishman completed a 64-1 double courtesy of the Micky Quinn-trainer Great Hall (12/1) in the 1m 3f Challenge and Tim Easterby’s Golden Apollo (4/1) in the 6f sprint.

“I didn’t realise that we’d won the competition until after I’d crossed the line,” said Berry, who had previously won the award in 2010 and has now won four Shergar Cup races in total.

“It’s great to ride a couple of winners. It’s been a lucky competition for me, I’ve been here three times and it has always gone well for me. It’s a big day, you get a kick out of it. You work hard through the week, but it’s all about getting Saturday winners.”

He added: “Winning the Silver Saddle is a great thing to put on the CV, they might ask me back again now.

“This day is important, you get a big family crowd here, racegoers of the future, and if you can get the youngsters interested at a young age, it is only going to have a knock-on effect for racing in the future.

“I am a big believer in getting people through the door, no matter how – at least you then have a chance of getting them coming back or a proportion of them. There was a great atmosphere today, it was a full house and a great buzz.”

Despite her team finishing last, Canadian Wilson revealed: “I have really enjoyed my trip. This place is fantastic, the competition is fantastic, it would be boring if the same team always won.

“It would be boring if it wasn’t a difficult competition. I would love to come back!”

Doyle, who contributed 10 of her side’s 23 points, was delighted to receive a late call-up after Payne had been taken ill.

But the apprentice wasn’t so happy when receiving a two-day ban from the Ascot Stewards for using her whip above the permitted level when finishing second on Sir Robert Cheval in the opening race.

Payne was hoping to ride Kaspersky, trained by her friend Jane Chapple-Hyam, in the Hungerford Stakes at Newbury this Saturday, but the 31-year- old Aussie decided she was not recovering fast enough to continue with those plans.