Racing needs more Shergar Cups, not fewer

Next year there will be 1,496 fixtures in Britain, of which 1,495 will follow a format that is centuries old. Yet if you were to listen to those who think last weekend's Shergar Cup is the most abominable thing since Vanilla Coke you would imagine it is the 0.07 per cent of the fixture list that is comprised of team competition that is an error that must be expunged from the calendar.

I hold no particular torch for the Shergar Cup - it's a fun day, if you want it to be, nothing more and nothing less - but it was fascinating to read and hear the comments of 30,000 racegoers at last weekend's annual event. They seemed to comprise a hitherto unacknowledged sect of the racing tribe, a clan that might even straddle that magical middle ground: there for a fun day out, music and drink included, but invested emotionally and financially in the racing too. "Hey, we like racing, music and a drink," they say, but some other parts of the racing tribe can't hear over the war drums.

The Shergar Cup may not be of enormous interest to punters or purists, and I imagine many bookmakers think it one of the year's most underwhelming weekends, but that it seems to attract a different audience from many of the usual groups we see at racecourses is something which cannot have escaped the attention of those tasked with promoting the sport.