Osborne savouring Shergar Cup experience

Saffie Osborne says she will absorb everything she can from a world-class weighing room in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup at Ascot on Saturday as she continues to plot her own path to the very top of the game.

The 24-year-old is enjoying her best season yet with a string of big-race successes and is set to captain Great Britain and Ireland team members Ryan Moore and Dylan Browne McMonagle in the annual competition, hoping one day to emulate their achievements.

“Anyone that starts off in this job not wanting to be champion jockey one day shouldn’t be doing it, because it is so tough and gruelling. If you are not aiming to be at the top then I don’t know why you would,” she said.

“I feel really lucky not only to be a part of this Shergar Cup team but surrounded with world-class jockeys every day. I aspire to be like them one day so at this point in your life you just try to absorb everything and be a sponge and learn as much off all of them as possible.”

Osborne is one of four team captains, with Vincent Ho leading a Hong Kong side, Melbourne Cup winner Jamie Melham leading the Rest of the World team and France’s eight-time Japanese champion Christophe Lemaire skippering Europe.

It is the first time since 2006 that Moore has ridden in the Shergar Cup – when he was part of the winning Great Britain and Ireland team and also claimed the top rider title.

Few ride Ascot better than Moore, as 99 Royal Ascot winners attests, but Osborne has certainly enjoyed some of her better moments at the track and possibly her best day in the saddle when landing a treble on King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes day last month.

“I have had a lot of luck there outside of the Royal meeting. Maybe it’s because I’ve been going there since I was in a pram to be honest. Dad (trainer Jamie Osborne) has always been very lucky there and I have watched so much racing at the track.

“Being so stiff it can be misunderstood and everyone can consider it to be a hold-up horse track, but actually sometimes with a lack of pace it can be an easy one to make the running on and win. I think I’ve always understood that.”

Osborne’s King George day treble proved a notable staging point on an upwardly-mobile career path this season and the jockey herself acknowledges 2026 has already been something of a breakout season.

“I felt like the two years before this had been a little bit frustrating,” she said. “In 2024 I rode 90 in the year, but I lacked riding a quality of horse which is starting to come now. Last year was just plagued by injury.

“I got injured twice and was off the track, cutting my season short just when it was starting to get going. It just felt that nothing was clicking into the right place.

“I must admit it is in the back of your mind that you are hoping you hadn’t plateaued and reached my level of where I was going to be. This year has proved that was not the case and it started brilliantly in May when I had 20 winners and it has gone from strength to strength since.”

The Shergar Cup features some of the best in the world with Frida Valle Skar and Marie Velon joining Lemaire for Europe, Jerry Chau and Luke Ferraris teaming up with Ho for Hong Kong and India’s Suraj Narredu and legend Yutake Take alongside Melham.

Riders have been allocated rides by drawing lots for all six handicaps with points are awarded from 15 for winning, through 10, seven, five and three for fifth place, with Osborne’s best chance of a win from her five looking to be 7-4 shot Hoseki for William Haggas in the Dubai Duty Free Shergar Cup Classic.

As team skipper Osborne is looking to emulate Jamie Spencer as the last captain of Great Britain and Ireland to lift the trophy and competition stalwart Hayley Turner as the last female rider to pick up the top jockey award, even if she is understating her talents ahead of raceday.

“To have Ryan for the first time in 20 years and to have Dylan Browne McMonagle riding for us who was champion jockey last year and who is having a incredible season this year is amazing,” she said.

“Excluding me it is probably the strongest GB and Ireland team they have ever had.”