Stars everywhere you look as top jockeys from near and far headline Shergar Cup

There really is a sense of star power about the expanded 16-rider line-up for this year’s Shergar Cup.

Arguably the biggest compliment that can be paid to Ascot’s efforts to attract top-class jockeys from all four corners of the racing globe is that the loss of one of Britain’s brightest talents in Hollie Doyle has barely made a dent.

Former British racing supremo Peter Savill has been in the news recently over his efforts to pump life into the debate around race programming and field sizes. But stearguably one of the longest-surviving legacies of his time at the helm of the sport is what he described in the late 1980s as “Racing’s Ryder Cup”, a concept he enthusiastically backed from the outset.