Get to know the five international riders taking part in this year's Shergar Cup

You may be familiar with the British and Irish riders and those on Team Europe, and you will almost certainly have heard of the captain of the Girls team - Hayley Turner. But what about the five international riders? All of them are making their Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup debuts

Girls Team

Jamie Kah

Jamie Kah has been a riding sensation since she burst on to the scene, claiming her first Adelaide Jockeys' Premiership – while still an apprentice – in her first full season after finishing school (2012-13).

The 23-year-old, whose parents represented Australia as speed skaters at the 1994 Winter Olympics, took a five-month break from the sport in 2015 after struggling to come to terms with her good friend Caitlin Forrest losing her life in a fall at Murray Bridge.

Since returning she has set the record for the most wins by a female jockey in Australia – notching 129 in 2016-17, brought up her 500th career success and won the Adelaide Premiership for a third time.

She moved to Melbourne in January and won her first Group 1 aboard Harlem in the Australian Cup at Flemington in March.

Quickfire questions

Favourite course: "Probably Flemington, but I also love Moonee Valley, I like to go forward and it's a good front-runners track."

Best horse ridden/ridden against: "I rode against Winx on her final start. That was special, I just wanted to keep out of her way. I've ridden Sunlight in a race, her stride is just double the length of her opponents."

Career ambition: "I want to win another Group 1, just to prove it wasn't a fluke."

Race most want to win: "The Melbourne Cup is the obvious one, but I'd love to win a Group 1 back home in Adelaide – in front of friends and family – so maybe the Goodwood?"

Sight-seeing desire: "I've been before so I've done most the museums, so I quite want to see the racecourse."

Most looking forward to:"I want to come back one year and do a stint here – ride for a couple of months."

Least looking forward to: "Seeing the bill for yesterday's shopping trip! My banking app isn't working here and I don't want to check."

Mark Zahra says: "She's been dominating Adelaide and she's come over to Melbourne in the last 18 months. She's a very good jockey, sits quietly, has very good hands and gets them to run for her."

Credit: Steven Cargill

Nanako Fujita

The Japan Racing Association's only current female rider turns 22 on Friday and has fought hard to get here. It took her three years to be granted a licence – the first issued to a female rider for 16 years – and in 2017 she broke the record for most wins in a season by a JRA female rider with 14, three more than the previous record.

The 35th win of her career in 2018 made her the winningmost JRA female jockey and she has ridden a total of 92 winners worldwide – including two when she won the Women Jockeys' World Cup at Bro Park (Sweden) in June.

Favourite course: "My favourite course is Tokyo, it is where I had my first experience as a fan. It's fair, it's wide, it's a great course."

Favourite food: "Bread."

Sight-seeing desire: "I am just focused on the horseracing."

Yuga Kawada says: "Nanako is very calm in a race and very hungry to learn – she is always trying to become more skilled."

Rest of the World

Yuga Kawada (captain)

The 33-year-old is from a racing family, his father and uncle are both jockeys-turned-trainers and Kawada has more than lived up to the family name.

Kawada's global profile has been helped by partnering the likes of Gentildonna, Harp Star and Maurice, he has ridden over 1,200 winners in Japan and is one of only eight riders to have won all five Japanese Classics.

Despite his past successes this year is on track to be his best to date. Kawada currently tops the JRA standings on 96 winners, 13 clear of last year's record-breaker Christophe Lemaire. His previous best finish was second in 2013 – when riding 120 winners – but given Lemaire rode 213 winners last year he will need comfortably a career best to hold on.

Favourite course: "It is too difficult to pick one favourite, but I can tell you the worst – Brighton!"

Best horse ridden/ridden against: "The best horse I've ridden was Maurice. I got to ride against Deep Impact and he changed Japanese racing."

Career ambition: "This year I am focusing on the title. Christophe broke the record last year but as Japanese jockey I just want to ride one more winner than him."

Favourite food: "Rice."

Sight-seeing desire: "The tack shop, there's so much good equestrian tack here I want to get some for my children."

Vincent Ho Chak-Yiu

Hong Kong's 2010/11 champion apprentice rode 56 winners last season – which was good enough for a championship finish of fourth in an ultra-competitive jurisdiction that only has two meetings a week.

The 29-year-old has 268 winners in Hong Kong, picked up the best freelance jockey award in 2014-15 and may be familiar to hardcore racing fans as he has been riding in Britain since last month.

He appears as C Y Ho on racecards and, being based with Mark Johnston for a short stay, has visited the winner's enclosure at Haydock last year and Musselburgh and Hamilton – as well as riding a winner at Ayr for Keith Dalgleish – on his current trip.

Favourite course: "If I can include riding out in the morning, then Chantilly. You're in the forest with just the trees, it's beautiful. Maybe I'll have a new answer on Saturday."

Best horse ridden/ridden against: "I've ridden some good horses in Hong Kong, but Beauty Generation just has so much ability, he's like a monster, he's a different class to other horses. He's like Enable here."

Career ambition: "To make myself a better jockey and keep improving."

Favourite sport away from racing: "I love Formula 1 and I've been to a few grand prix. It's a bit like racing, you can learn from their mentality, it's tactical, and sometimes it's not about the drivers it's the cars – which we can relate to."

Favourite food: "Maybe Italian, I love pasta and pizza. French food, seafood."

Sight-seeing desire: "I want to see as many courses as possible, get some more rides and learn what I can from all the different tracks."

Mark Zahra: guided Santa Ana Lane to success in the Group 1 Aquis TJ Smith Stakes at RandwickCredit: Vince Caligiuri (Getty Images)

Mark Zahra

Mark Zahra fell in love with the sport going racing with his grandfather and knew he wanted to be a jockey at 15 – despite never having sat on a horse.

The Perth-born, Melbourne-based 37-year-old did not take long to pick it up and he has established himself as one of the nation's leading riders. He rode his first Group 1 winner in the Doomben Cup in 2006 and a period as Kerrin McEvoy's understudy in Godolphin blue, for three years from 2009, resulted in him regularly partnering the likes of Sepoy.

In 2015-16 he registered his first century and finished fourth in last season's Victoria Metro Premiership and has enjoyed two Group 1 wins recently on Santa Ana Lane. They have helped take his career tally of top-level successes to 13.

Favourite course: "I'm biased but I'd say Flemington. Our tracks are quite tight, it's a big track and they all get an opportunity."

Best horse ridden/ridden against: "Santa Ana Lane of recent times, against I'd say Winx by a half-length from Black Caviar."

Career ambition: "To try and be successful for as long as I enjoy it and see as many countries as possible. I'm a mad traveller, I'm always looking for my next trip."

Favourite sport away from racing: "NFL, I'm a Vikings fan but I like watching the good teams as well."

Favourite food: "Sashimi, I love Japanese food."

Sight-seeing desire: "Having lunch at Zuma, it's my favourite restaurant. That's number one on the list."

Most looking forward to:"Catching up with a few of the jockeys based here, I've got some good friends here now so we'll have a beer after the racing."

Jamie Kah says: "He's very strong, a quick thinker and he's always in a good position so he's always good to follow. The only problem is he's hard to read, so you don't know how well he's travelling."

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